pre-paintmatched front bumper?

[manualmotive]

Since my BRZ front bumper has been fucked up for months, I've been trying to find a used BRZ or FRS bumper in 37J but with no luck. Instead of having to buy an unpainted one and have it paintmatched to the rest of the car for $$$, I found this eBay seller with a pretty good record selling pre-paintmatched ones:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Painted-...FXSLFX&vxp=mtr

This is what the order form looks like for reference:
http://www.emailmeform.com/builder/f...y76O99hEcfb1K0

Has anyone here used this?

I realize it's not going to be a perfect match but I'm not sure if it would be perfect if I had it professionally blended anyways given the material of the bumper vs. the body. And this is more or less temporary as I'm planning on eventually either professionally paintmatching the rest of my unpainted parts (front fenders, trunk) or just wrapping the whole car.

This prepainted bumper is only $100 more than the unpainted ones ($360 vs $250) so I think it could be worth it as opposed to just trying to paint it myself with 37J rattlecan paint, considering the cost of paint and time.

Anyways, has anyone heard of this seller or have any experience with any prepainted parts, 37J/satin white pearl/whiteout especially? I tried searching around here but didnt come up with much. If not I'll just update this thread with my experience if I end up trying them out.


edit: just came across this thread where the same service is over 2x as much ($750!!!). not really any helpful info though:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101890

[ajcarson11]

I can tell you that white is one of the hardest colors to paint-match. If you had a black car, I would say go for it. A good paint job on a front-bumper will run you $250-300 for paint job alone (i've had mine repainted). Will it be better than a rattle-can job? Definitely. Will it be worse than a proper paint-matched paint job? Yes.

I would go for it personally. Take it out of package very slowly. If the paint match isn't close, send it back to seller. Then you're only out cost of shipping.

[Pointmutation]

If you're gonna wrap or pro paint eventually, why bother with the pre-painted? If my fenders and trunk were also unpainted, I'd just buy it unpainted. I mean, it would match the unpainted fenders right next to it. Lol. But at $100, not much to loose if you did paint it but the match weren't exact. I've seen local paint jobs for several hundreds that aren't even color matched well.

[manualmotive]

Originally Posted by ajcarson11

I can tell you that white is one of the hardest colors to paint-match. If you had a black car, I would say go for it. A good paint job on a front-bumper will run you $250-300 for paint job alone (i've had mine repainted). Will it be better than a rattle-can job? Definitely. Will it be worse than a proper paint-matched paint job? Yes.

I would go for it personally. Take it out of package very slowly. If the paint match isn't close, send it back to seller. Then you're only out cost of shipping.

Yeah the notorious white pearl is why I'm iffy about it. I think if I still can't find any decent used ones in a few weeks then I'll just try this. Thanks for the pricing though, this seems like a pretty decent deal now.

Originally Posted by Pointmutation

If you're gonna wrap or pro paint eventually, why bother with the pre-painted? If my fenders and trunk were also unpainted, I'd just buy it unpainted. I mean, it would match the unpainted fenders right next to it. Lol. But at $100, not much to loose if you did paint it but the match weren't exact. I've seen local paint jobs for several hundreds that aren't even color matched well.

Oh I'm seriously considering it. But I just bought used todoroki fenders that are in the crystal black color and I don't really mind the look of black front fenders on a white car for at least the time being, but I'm not sure about unpainted front bumper + painted black fenders... and I wouldn't have the trunk for a few months so i'm not sure if i'm gonna find a white one or just get a carbon one or what but I'm just trying to plan ahead.


Found another seller offering the same thing but specifically says that 3 stage white pearl paint costs $85 more. Lol.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-fits-201...3D331866507905

[spitfire481]

these are not oem bumpers. just wanted to point that out. my guess is that they will be very bright white on the flop angle when you look at it against the fender/hood. you really need the car to be able to tint the mid coat and get the yellow effect right. I have done more 37j parts that i can count at this point. they are all slightly different as well. I have 4 custom formulas that i made for 37j because some cars are really yellow, some are way whiter.

[ajcarson11]

If this isn't an OEM bumper then I would not purchase it.

Do it right -- You can get it all done for $500, paint-matched, if you try.

I did a paint job on a bumper myself, and while it turned out great to everyone else's eye, I could see slight imperfections and eventually ended up buying a new bumper and getting it painted.

[manualmotive]

Originally Posted by spitfire481

these are not oem bumpers. just wanted to point that out. my guess is that they will be very bright white on the flop angle when you look at it against the fender/hood. you really need the car to be able to tint the mid coat and get the yellow effect right. I have done more 37j parts that i can count at this point. they are all slightly different as well. I have 4 custom formulas that i made for 37j because some cars are really yellow, some are way whiter.

I figured its not OEM but don't really mind. Thanks for the input, that's fucking insane that you have to have 4 formulas... I don't know why they couldn't just make these cars in a basic white, looks way better imo anyways. Mine looks pretty tan in daylight and pretty white in fluorescent. Now that I think about it I'd probably just wrap the whole car pure white before I paint matched everything to that pearl shit. And I'm not even a huge fan of wraps.

It should also probably be said that this car was vandalized and I needed a whole new hood and driver door which was paintmatched professionally and looks pretty damn good to me (although having no car for a month sucked ass). But needing a second paintmatch for the same color I don't even love makes me want to just ditch the whole color while I have a good excuse to.

That's why I just wanted a quick cheap bumper that at least looked like it was supposed to be the same color as the rest of the car; something I could run for a few months and have it look decent. But now I'm thinking I might just run my current bumper with all its battle scars until I wrap the whole car, in which case I'd buy a new unpainted OEM BRZ bumper prior.

Thanks for the input everyone, unfortunately I change my mind on car shit every few hours lol. I'll update this thread with comparison pics if I end up saying fuck it and getting it anyways.

[TofuJoe]

@manualmotive - what did you end up doing?

I need a new front bumper. A lady backed into me while I was stopped. Then she denied it was her fault. So I have to pay my deductible, and insurance only coughed up $150 ($650 minus $500 deductible).

Trying to figure out the most economical way to get a decent looking front bumper, but local shops are quoting around $1000.

[stevesnj]

If you are handy just buy the bumper cover from Toyota, i think it's under $250, take it to the bodyshop and you swap it out yourself. Ask the dealer for a copy of the service manual section on removing and installing the bumper cover and just follow the steps.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by TofuJoe

@manualmotive - what did you end up doing?

I need a new front bumper. A lady backed into me while I was stopped. Then she denied it was her fault. So I have to pay my deductible, and insurance only coughed up $150 ($650 minus $500 deductible).

Trying to figure out the most economical way to get a decent looking front bumper, but local shops are quoting around $1000.

https://www.google.ca/#q=auto+wreckers+san+francisco