[avelvin]

Hi, got the front of my F11 swiped on Friday by a car reversing out of a car space. It was unattended at the time but thankfully there were witnesses who stopped the driver.

My problem is that she has scraped paint off the front bumper corner, next to the left grille and also the front edge above the fog light and whilst its not too bad and there is no physical damage, my dealer says it has to be removed, fully repainted and blended into the bonnet and wings. I hate any sort of paint work being done as it is never the same again. Now I feel what they are saying seems excessive for the scratches and I cannot see why they have to paint into the wings and bonnet, does anyone else think so ??

Does anyone have any better idea or experience of this kind of repair. The car is in Titan Silver. Can they not order a new bumper skin from BMW already painted in my colour ??

I wanted to post a picture with this thread but I cannot seem to see how you do it on an iPad

Obviously the lady in question will pay for the damage, or indeed her insurance company will, but I am actually more concerned about how the repair will be done as I have not had very good previous experiences with even BMW paint shops, I'm a bit if a perfectionist and I know they will never make it the same as the factory !!!!!

[snj1013]

Without pics, its tough to say. Typically for such minor repairs, the bumper is removed, the area repaired, base coat applied and blended in, then the entire bumper re-cleared.

[The X Men]

I just had a front bumper replaced, the BMW replacement bumper is not painted from the factory.

[mrashton]

Really sorry this happened to you. I dread parking my car in shoping centre car parks!

Chipex.co.uk provides a kit to repair minor scratches and these are colour matched. The company is very helpful and it may or may not work depending on the extent of the damage.

[Keyinhand]

The Dealer will do exactly that -I managed to misjudge a turn going into a Paris CDG parking garage and ended up with "cat whiskers" around the same area, since somebody thought installing a 5 car wide ticket booth requiring a 90 degree turn at the end of a spiral access ramp was a good idea - for a Mini Cooper...sure...for anything bigger...deploy road guards as you carefully navigate getting in.

That said, my local dealer here in Belgium quoted a 2,000 Euro price - remove bumper, repair, re-paint the whole thing.

Went to an independent BMW shop - much cheaper - you cannot tell the difference. Why remove parts if you don't have too?

[jedpause]

I had a ding when mine was a day old... took it to insurers approved fixer... they removed everything, repainted etc.

One word of advice, don't rush them to fix it.... Mine was done on a Friday and I needed car for weekend... part of the work was rushed because I noticed overspray on the brake light cluster (slight and not visible when boot closed)... I suspect they rushed the completion of the job... but as for the colour, looks 100% as per factory colour, these guys are good