Rear Bumper Skin Repaint On Brand New Es330

[kimberly]

Hello fellow Lexus owners,

We just bought a brand new Lexus ES330 after Christmas, it only has 50 miles on it. My husband found out an area around the middle of the rear bumper skin with three little hard paint chips off. The color of the car is Sonora Gold Pearl.

We took the car to the service, the manager told us to repaint the bumper by Cadillac service department, which is approved by Lexus. I would like to get your advice on how to pursue this.

1. Will the repaint turn out to be good match over years? Will it do some damage on the car after the bumper is reinstalled after the repaint?

2. Shall we ask a new car as the car only has 50 miles on it, hardly driven. We do find another car on the show room floor, which has similar damage on the rear bumper, we guess it might be a delivery flaw.

Thanks for your advice.

Kimberly

[steviej]

a good body shop can blend and match the paint perfectly. If that is the shop they tell you to go to, then check it out. Also, ask them to pick up the tab is you bring it to a bodyshop of you choice.

Keep in mind, the entire bumper will come off and be repainted, it will blend easier that way. They are not going to just sand and paint the chipped area. If they are good, you won't notice a thing.

steviej

[camlex]

Hello,

Why you are buying something NEW with lots of money and repair?

Why dealer can't find perfect car?

It's your call...

Hope this helps.

Edited January 11, 2006 by camlex

[kimberly]

Hello,

Why you are buying something NEW with lots of money and repair?

Why dealer can't find perfect car?

It's your call...

Hope this helps.

Thank you all for responding my question. We will check out at Cadillac service to see how good they do on repainting work, then make a decision on what to do. Lexus will be paying the repaint work.

As they are very small little chips, we might let it go if repaint is not a good idea. Our only concern is if the new paint will fade the same way as the factory paint. Any experience is welcome to help us make decisions.

Thanks again for your time.

[Geo]

I just went through something like this. A young lady bumped into my car at a stop. A slow bump. I checked it out and found a small mark on the bumper. So small you have to see it in the right light to notice. I took it in to get a estimate and ideas. The manager said that they could "fix" the bumper. They would fill it, sand it, and paint it. Afer he left I pulled a tech aside and asked him. He told me that the bumper would never come out perfect. I left it alone. George

[SW03ES]

Thats a tough call. I had mine backed into not long after I got it, and I elected to leave it alone. I touched it up and it was 95% invisible. Sad thing, but it is a bumper and at some point more perminent damage will come to it. Regardless of how much it upset me, I couldnt make myself break the factory paint finish on a brand new car for something so small.

Can you post some pics of it? I might be inclined to let a professional touch it up and see how it looks before I have it repainted. The gold is going to be VERY hard to touch up though.

I was really afraid of the repaint too, but recently I had the bumper damaged so bad it HAD to be repainted and I was surprised by how good it looked. I had to take it back a couple times to get the peel just right and to tighten some clips, but its perfect now and the Black garnet is very hard to match.

Now, I wouldn't let the Caddy dealer do it. Usually dealership bodyshops are not as high quality as independents because they have a steady stream of business coming off the dealer and don't need the quality of their work to earn their business. I'd find a really good, clean, independent shop and get references, tour their shop, ask to see their work and inspect it CAREFULLY. Then make the dealership pay them.

You want to find a shop with computerized paint tinting.

[kimberly]

Thats a tough call. I had mine backed into not long after I got it, and I elected to leave it alone. I touched it up and it was 95% invisible. Sad thing, but it is a bumper and at some point more perminent damage will come to it. Regardless of how much it upset me, I couldnt make myself break the factory paint finish on a brand new car for something so small.

Can you post some pics of it? I might be inclined to let a professional touch it up and see how it looks before I have it repainted. The gold is going to be VERY hard to touch up though.

I was really afraid of the repaint too, but recently I had the bumper damaged so bad it HAD to be repainted and I was surprised by how good it looked. I had to take it back a couple times to get the peel just right and to tighten some clips, but its perfect now and the Black garnet is very hard to match.

Now, I wouldn't let the Caddy dealer do it. Usually dealership bodyshops are not as high quality as independents because they have a steady stream of business coming off the dealer and don't need the quality of their work to earn their business. I'd find a really good, clean, independent shop and get references, tour their shop, ask to see their work and inspect it CAREFULLY. Then make the dealership pay them.

You want to find a shop with computerized paint tinting.

[kimberly]

Thank you all for sharing your experience with me. Very likely we will leave it alone, after all, it is a bumper. But it just felt not good. We will still go to the body shops to do some research and learn more about the repainting work. Next time when we buy a new car, we will check everything before driving out of the dealer lot. This is our third new car, we never checked the exterior thinking a brand new car from factory should be PERFECT. Experience gained this time when we buy the most luxurious car at Lexus.

Another question is, if we do not touch up as it is hard to do, will it erode over time? The service maanger said it will not as it is made from plastic material. If we wax the area, will it protect it from further damage?

Thanks,

Kimberly

:)

[SW03ES]

No it won't erode over time, the bumper cover is a urethane and it doesn't rust. Waxing the whole car is important, but I doubt waxing this one area will make any difference either way.

[ArmyofOne]

No it won't erode over time, the bumper cover is a urethane and it doesn't rust. Waxing the whole car is important, but I doubt waxing this one area will make any difference either way.

if the scrattch is a gouge then it wont matter. if its just a surface marr, some of it, if not all of it could probably be buffed out...

EDIT: Nvm, you said it was a chip.

if Lexus is paying for it i would have it done. just me tho.

Edited January 14, 2006 by ArmyofOne

[SW03ES]

if Lexus is paying for it i would have it done. just me tho.

I didn't have mine redone even though Lexus was paying for it. Now that it has been done though it would have been okay to let them do it.

One thing though, find your own shop to do the work.

[kimberly]

if Lexus is paying for it i would have it done. just me tho.

I didn't have mine redone even though Lexus was paying for it. Now that it has been done though it would have been okay to let them do it.

One thing though, find your own shop to do the work.

[kimberly]

No it won't erode over time, the bumper cover is a urethane and it doesn't rust. Waxing the whole car is important, but I doubt waxing this one area will make any difference either way.

Hello all,

Finally we had time to go to the Kuni Cadillac collision center to get the repaint quote. The technician told us the painting process:

1. Open the trunk to loosen the bolts and clips and get the bumper off.

2. Sand and primer the damaged area, use computerized paint mixing machine to get the paint based on the car color code formula. Tint the paint to match the color on the car as close as possible.

3. spray the paint only on the damaged area, then clear coat the entire bumper, then heat up the bumper for about 200 degree for about half an hour to let it dry.

4. Polish the area where dirt might get on it.

5. Reinstall the bumper, some clips may be damaged due to unasembling the bumper, they will put Lexus factory clips on.

I talked to a technician working on Lexus cars for 18 years, he told that the bumper color is always a little different from the body color as bumper is made from plastic while the body from metal, they adhere the paint little differently. He said that the repaint is going to be softer than the factory one as Factory use 300 degree baking process. He did say it should be as durable as the factory one.

If they only paint the damage area (it might be like an apple size maximum as the scratch area is smaller than a phone key size), they also have life time warrenty on the work if the patch ever showed up differently from other area of the bumper, they will redo it for free.

They quote this job for $400. Lexus of Portland will pay it. We may check other shops to see the difference. Kuni owns Lexus of Portland. They have %40 work for Lexus cars, the other part is for BMW, Cadallic, and SAAB. I think that they should be pretty good.

Thanks,

Kimberly

[SKperformance]

The Cadillac shop is probably owned by the same guy/group. That is why they are sending you to them as it will be cheaper for them to fit the bill.

An OEM finished bumper is something i would never want to lose , i would only repaint it if there is some kind of major damage. The heat to adhere the paint at the factory can make the bumper almost never need to get painted again just buffed.

Any paint after wards will crack under any pressure and look awful compared to just marks on an OEM one.

If they are small use touch up as your bumper will always get bumped into no matter what.

Take it from someone who has painted toooo many cars at too many shops. OEM cannot be equaled in strength unless you pay 2000 to paint it.

[SW03ES]

I also personally don't care for the idea of color coating only the damaged area, that never looks right on a metallic paint. I'd find a shop that will totally repaint the entire bumper or just leave it.

[kimberly]

Hi all,

I would like to thank everybody who helped us on this issue.

We toured two shops and found out the exact ways they do things. I do learn that it is not supposed to repaint the bumper on top of the previous paint as it will be too thick to crack. To do our job right, the technician said it should strip the old paint out, then repaint, but the estimate person only said to sand the little area, primer, than paint the small area, blind out to the entire bumper, then clear-coat the whole bumper. We felt not comfortable what they will do. We decided to leave it alone. Lexus will remit the repair amount to us.

We saw a RX330 rear door and bumper paint all falling off after the collision, found out how thin that paint is. The tech. told us the paint can not exceed the max mils, otherwise will easily crack.

We will enjoy our car now.

Kimberly

[yes250]

I can't understand why they even call this a bumper if it can't take a bump without being removed, resanded, reprimed, repainted, and reinstalled? What the @$#%&!!??

I miss the good ol' chrome BUMPER days.

[SW03ES]

Unfortunately thats the drawback of painted bumpers. The alternative would be a flat plastic bumper, and I don't think any of us want those.