Hi ,

There's a dent in my car's rear bumper ... need to get it fixed .... personally.

Has some one had a good experience at some reasonably priced Auto Body Shop and can recommend please ?

I think I will need a new bumper , paint job and installation ...

Does it make more economic sense to buy the bumper (if yes from where ) and let the body shop do the paint and installation job ?

What kind of repair cost should we be looking at here ?

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Fido.

If your car has the standard manufacturer color, it is better to buy the bumper of same color and fit i your self - usually 6-8 screws only. You can look at most Auto wreckers online with year/model/color information - they charge $50.00 for each visit and you need to remove the part from old vehicle yourself. Bags/trolleys are not allowed and you can bring back as many items as you can carry in your 2 hands.

Most car bumpers are made of molded fiber plastic body and not repairable. Even when you give to body shop they will charge minimum $350~500 to do the same job - but they have more contacts to find the part. Good luck.

Hiren

Thank You so much Hiren ,

I did not know about this auto wreckers thing .

So if one goes to this auto wrecker , is it like a scrap yard and can some one help us in finding the bumper .

My feeling is - even though I would get it installed .... gives me jitters to do it myself , the part would already be painted and of good quality .. Hence it could be done cheaper and better .. rather than buying a spare and getting it painted ..... Thanks for this tip

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Fido.

At the scrap yard, no one will help you - you have to check the availability of your own model and color before entering. Even after finding one, you need to take whatever is available, as is or risk the $50.00 to return empty handed. It is better to prepare a list of 10-12 items you may need in future and see how many you can collect.

If you don't want the hassle, there are few online dealers who will sell you matching part, all painted and ready to fit. Of course the availability is higher in US compared to Canada, but shipping to Canada is the pain. You can get it shipped to a local address in US and install it yourself.

With low C$, not sure how much you can save by shopping on US sites and then travelling to nearest border to do the swap.

Nothing is easy

Hiren

I've purchased a front bumper for the Altima from Amazon. They ship to you with primer on (no paint). You can then take it to a body shop and have it installed and painted. Or, if you have the patience, you can install the bumper, but have it painted by a body shop. It would save you the markup on the parts.

As Hiren stated, if you have access to a US postal address, your options are more (but you'd have to get it installed in the US to avoid carrying a casket size glaringly obvious box back into Canada).

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Dimple2001

Thanks Dimple ( & Hiren) ,

a. Though I have plans to go to Niagra Aug end , I don't know if I would be able to go across the border for this.

If however some one knows the name of a body shop / mechanic across the border with in 30 minutes , I might speak with them and get it shipped across ...


b. Coming back to getting it done here - Once we have the primed / pre painted bumper , would it need a body shop to fix it or any mechanic should be able to do it ?

c. Any good tried body shops in the GTA ?

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Fido.

Try Happy car care centre in Etobicoke.

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Revenge can be bitter sweet, but if u sit back and watch, KARMA can be pure entertainment.