I do live near a Napa supplier that can mix custom paints for me and could just drive the car there for them to check out the color in person. I'm afraid I pretty much need to re-do the front bumper unless my touchup game is really on point that day. She sideswiped the concrete pole so there's lots of scratches wrapping around the corner of the bumper in addition to some damage where the frame behind the bumper punched through and ripped it... not to mention other scratches on her car from previous pole encounters (she can parallel park like a boss but can't do a 90-degree job.). I lack a nice spray setup for finishing so this will be a basic rattlecan job with primer, color, and a clear coat unless the paint guys suggest otherwise- I will take their advice on it, they're the pros not me. My game plan for now is to pop out the dent, patch and repair the rips in the plastic with bondo followed by smoothing and sanding it all to prep for paint. I have done this before with my dad on my old '89 Toyota. I could do a fiberglass, carbon fiber, or kevlar patch (got lots of scraps) on the backside of the bumper but dunno if that is necessary here. Now that I think about it I will probably have to do the whole thing or at least 1/3, so that's at least a can of primer, color, and topcoat right there.
That's the plan, pop the sucker off and do it up in my neighbor's garage. That way we can also tarp off an area for it and everything. Real professionals.
There's something to be said for doing it in a heated space... it'll really help the painting. Also, depending on how much you want to give a shit, it's pretty simple to spend $100 and make a DIY paint booth out of some 1x1 strapping or abs pipe, some vapour barrier tape, some plastic sheets, and a fan with an air filter taped to it. Now you have a positive pressure paint "booth" with a dust filter on it. Do it under hologen lights or in a heated space, and you've got something that will produce some surprisingly good results. Something similar to this:
We can definitely handle throwing that setup together, I know we have the supplies already. Temperature will indeed be a factor as there's still snow on the ground, thanks for noting that too. Neighbor has a sweet LED setup in the garage but propane heaters too. Think a space heater could do dual-duty as the fan to pull air in and warm it up?
A space heater won't be anywhere near enough CFM to provide positive pressure to the booth, it's just barely enough to get the air circulating... you need something that will inflate the booth like a bouncy castle. You could do it indoors, if you wanted, so that the air is heated before it's pulled into the fan... more recirculating indoor air than anything... I wouldn't put a heater inside the booth because it'd be too easy to spot melt the plastic. Again, a simple old box fan would do well for this, just like that pic. One thing I still love about the old halogen work lights... they throw some good heat.
I figured that much with the fan power but we got that covered. I do have a halogen light and know he has some too.
Have you tried looking for a color matching bumper at the recycling yard? The Wife's daughter needed one for her Saturn, found a matching color and got it for ~$100 IIRC
I made a similar setup at my shop once as a "clean room" for building engines/transmissions/etc. There are plowed fields all around my shop, so dust is a constant problem. It was 8'X8'X8', and I made it out of wood scraps and some clear plastic sheeting I had laying around. Because all the pieces were scraps and didn't match, it looked like hell, like something a carpenter on acid would make, but it was remarkably sturdy; I could climb on top of it. I hung up some lights and put a portable air-cleaner in there, and when it was winter time, I put a heater in it. In the summer time, though, it was HOT AS FUCK. It was really useful, but my dad took it down when I went to rehab in 2010. I really need to build another one.
I found a salvage yard in the Twin Cities that does have a 2004 Honda in good shape I could pull the front bumper from... damage is from rear-ending and the color is silver. Price online says $52+ for bumpers. Link. Dust is a bitch and I've learned this from finishing gunstocks. Fortunately I already have most of what I need for the prep work on hand because of that, and my neighbor is all on board for putting up a little finishing booth in his garage now too. Pull and paint, or repair and paint? At this point I'm thinking that bumper in the yard looks pretty good. I'd probably have to paint the entire bumper anyways and it will be warm this weekend. But a little bit of Bondo and carbon snot (what I call clumps of loose fibers saturated with epoxy) and I could fix up the existing bumper too and have ramps to put the car on- no ramps at the salvage yard.
If you're painting anyway, might as well do both. Keep the other as a spare for the next time she hits something.
Sad but true. At least I can take the old bumper to the paint shop so they can mix that exact color and use it to test how well it matches the rest of the car. Now I'm wondering if there would be any difference in resell value between repairing and painting or getting a clean one from the scrap yard and painting. While I'm thinking about it, would there be anything wrong with just buying a primed replacement like this? Looks like I can get one for under $70 shipped. Wouldn't have to bother with getting it from the yard then and it would be clean for sure.
A bumper is a bumper, doesn't matter. But what I will suggest is that when you take your bumper off, change both the marker and the turn signal bulbs. Technically you are supposed to be able to change them from under hood, but it is pretty much impossible. Only way to realistically do it is to remove the headlamp assembly which requires you to remove the bumper.
$70? That's a no-brainer. Hell, for that, you could also have it professionally painted at a shop properly... go to some piece-of-shit cheap ass place (Maaco?) and they'll probably do a single-piece like that for peanuts... no prep work or wrenching for them makes it stupidly simple.
IF it fits. Aftermarket parts don't exactly follow the quality control of OEM. Then again, it's not a show car, so that probably is the best route.
Yeah, I know that in racing when we bought new parts (like a splitter or spoiler), it'd take a shit-load of time and effort to get them to fit properly before paint (which is why I started making my own parts), but I'm thinking that something as mainstream as this isn't going to have a problem. Still a concern, but I think there's a better chance that it'll fit just fine (unless something got bent on the car at some point).
This. Aftermarket parts can fit like shit.* But, I doubt it's going to be anything your relative cares about. Gaps might be a little off around the lights and where it meets the fender. *I manage a body shop so I'm very familiar with the fit and finish of A/M parts.