DIY respray

[Weston Matt]

Evening,

After getting quoted £600 to get my front bumper resprayed, I thought about giving it a go myself

I like to have a go a most things and while this is something I’ve not done before, I know it’s all in the prep and the spraying is easy :rofl:

My question is to those that know, if my bumper turns out ok I would probably do the rest of the car as I have a big enough work shop to do the panels. Now, if I do them separately would I have an issue with them not matching? As I would be removing all panels from the car and spraying individually as I won’t be able to do the car all in one go.

Car is Titanium Silver

Ta
Matt

 

[inkey$]

No idea, but kudos for giving it a go.

 

[Nanu]

I know I tried to spray an old aluminium watering can and made a right mess. The watering can still works but looks awful.

Respect for you trying though

 

[Zulu4]

No idea too. Good luck.
I have great respect for those that can spray panels properly.
Everytime I've tried it, it's looked pants.

 

[john-e89]

Spraying a car is as you say all in the prep. How much prep needed is the key and you really need to know what that is to get a good result. Also you need a good environment as dust is your enemy, if you don’t know how much dust is around and the effect it has on a car ready to be sprayed then don’t even attempt it Matt. Apologies if I’m telling grandma how to suck eggs. You also need to be aware of paint contamination, it’s sorted with paint blocker but you need to know everything. Have you used a gun before, got a good compressor, ventilation, know about mixing paint, know how to prep before and then polish after painting..? Lots to research, it’s not as easy as first imagined. Would I paint a car even having some experience before…? Not a chance, simply because I’ve had a little experience, with good spraying the more you learn the more you realise you don’t know.

Again not telling granny egg sucking. If you go for it best of luck .

 

[Thrustyjust]

Guy at the end of the road prepped and painted his scooby STI a couple of years ago at home. Wasn't the best job and boy does this show now. Really looks poor. He spent weeks prepping ,sanding and a lot of effort. Paint is expensive and so is bodywork. Personally, you have one of the worst colours to repaint being silver , to do in sections. With metallic fleck changes and different temperatures you could be disappointed , car could look lack lustre and out of pocket for materials in a very short period of time.
I always enjoy people 'having a go' at things, but bodywork is a very time consuming and difficult job. A mate of mine rebuilt a classic Mustang and a GT6 Triump and now on an MGB V8, in recent times and is 'very' fussy. He does paint and does an amazing job at it. Very envious. But he is a time served painter and the worst person to go to the classic car show in Birmingham as he points at anything not right and you have to carry loads of paint materials back to the car, that he has pre-ordered.

 

[Zedebee]

If you respray your bumper (particularly in silver) without any prior experience, it will look bad, period. You’ll then have to get it properly resprayed and you will have spent more money than getting it properly resprayed in the first place. You should shop around, £600 sounds about twice what you should pay. I have read other members saying that BMW ‘shops are actually quite reasonable.

By all means have a go, but get hold of a spare panel to practise on, or even a spare bumper. Who knows, if it works out you can bolt it straight onto your car; if it doesn’t, you can pretend it never happened. I had exactly the same idea and bought myself a second hand bumper with the intention of respraying it, but then I realised the folly in my ambition and chickened out. Fortunately (unfortunately for him), a fellow member pranged his car, so I was able to find the bumper a good home.

Good luck, whatever you do.

 

[abar121]

If you fancy learning and will enjoy it, give it a go on the bumper.

Getting good results with the right prep, spray gun and compressor is quite a journey, but it can be fun as long has you have plenty of time and patience. Getting a decent colour match will also be quite a challenge.

Get some test panels and practice everything. Don't move on to the bumper until you are happy with the process / technique, from the start of prep, to achieving a decent lacquer finish.

If you have a friendly paint shop that can help with advise and trouble shooting, that will also help. Better still a mate with some experience.

Have fun.

 

[1536Z4]

In my experience and yes I have tried it you will probably end up spending a lot of time and money trying to do it and then end up paying someone else to put it right . You may be lucky and get away with it on the bumper but trying to get everything to match is a BIG job . You can practice on test panels as has been said but again that is more money and time you are spending . Might not be want you want to hear but is my advice Good luck which ever way you go

 

[tiglon]

Good luck, I admire your ambition!

If you want to do it, then go for it... however, even the spraying bit will not be as easy as you think. I've spent the last month or two spraying the side indicators and roll hoop covers and I learned the following:

1) spraying stuff is not as easy as it sounds.
2) you need to have strong self control to avoid "just spraying a little bit more" to fill in an area of thinner coverage before waiting for the next coat. Before you know it, you have a small amount of paint running and you've c0cked up the whole thing - back to square one. This is particularly the case with the clear lacquer as it seems to run more easily than the paint, and by this point you've already wasted a lot of time and money if you get it wrong.
3) As mentioned by others, dust is a huge problem. Even in the house/garage. I can live with slight imperfections on the bits of trim, but on an actual panel? No way.
4) Paint gets very expensive and you need more than you think you will.
5) you need to be very focussed with the spraying to ensure consistent angle and distance - just leaning across or around to do a little bit can cause big problems.

I had to buy a new set of roll hoop covers because my first attempt was not good enough and I gave up trying to rectify it after about 3 hours of sanding. You really wouldn't want to have to do that with panels.

I'm glad I attempted the little bits I did, but it would have been cheaper to get a professional to do it. There's zero chance I would attempt a body panel after that experience. Like I said at the start, go for it if you want to, but be aware that no matter how much effort and diligence you put into it, it might not go as well as you hope.

 

[Zed Baron]

I'd be shopping around for other quotes, £600 sounds excessive just to get a bumper painted

 

[Silverstar]

I did this once! When I was trading cars, I had an old Toyota Corolla with a mangled bumper. It had a small crack which I repaired using fibre glass repair kit and then had to respray the entire bumper in burgundy metallic which I did in my garage with a spray can. The job turned out ok but nowhere near what a bodyshop what have done but it was fine for the car which wasn't exactly worth a lot and served the purpose for tidying it up for resale.

More recently about 8 years ago my mrs scrapped the rear wheel arch / wing of her Ford Focus on a pillar in the underground parking. Again I repaired this myself, as they say prep is the most important thing I run of patience in doing that so the end result looked ok, most people could not notice the repair except for me but at least the colour match and blending was spot on though, not bad considering the car was white.

In your case as others have pointed out, Silver is a bitch to get right so I would not paint all the panels separately, all the flakes have to fall the right way for all the panels to look right. £600 is way too expensive for a bumper respray, if you look around you should be able to get it done for around £250. Saying that I don't think it will cost you that much in paint to have a go yourself and if the car isn't in A1 concours condition I wouldn't be put off from having a go myself at worse if it goes all wrong you will have to get it done by a pro and you will only be a few quid out of pocket. But at least you will know if you can do it or not.

Look on YouTube for instructional videos on spray painting including tips on how to minimise dust, e.g. by wetting the floor before you paint (so dust can't fly back up) etc.

 

[Chippie]

Firstly let me say I admire anyone who is willing to have a go at things, you never learn anything from not trying, I know I’ve had a go at most things and quite often f##ked it up, my boys are always telling me I spend more time and money doing it myself than paying someone to do it, but the sense of achievement when you get it right is a great feeling. You could try keeping the cost down by removing the bumper, trims, etc and doing all the prep work yourself, but any slight imperfections, stone chips, sanding marks will show if not done well, for some reason new paint seems to highlight the smallest of marks, even letting a paint shop do the spraying is no guarantee of getting a paint match, I’ve had quite a few goes over the years and even after several attempts at a single panel I’ve still had to do a lot of flatting and polishing to get a reasonable finish, watching a professional on YouTube or tv they make it look easy but believe me it’s not, if you have the time and are willing to accept that you could make a “pigs ear” of it then have a go, you can always pay to have it done again.
£600 does sound expensive though

 

[parabolica]

I'd be shopping around for other quotes, £600 sounds excessive just to get a bumper painted

Depends where in the country OP is; I couldn’t get quotes under £800 when I was in London.

Good luck op; I assume you have a proper paint sprayer/setup? I rattle-canned the corner of my bumper (also silver) as I couldn’t get reasonable quotes and was alright, but you could tell if you looked at it for any amount of time. I used an official BMW paint can too; but 17 years old = the paint on the car is different to when it was painted.

Ended up getting a decent quote for bumper, wing and sill when I moved back to Scotland and they did an awesome job.

 

[Silverstar]

Depends where in the country OP is; I couldn’t get quotes under £800 when I was in London.

You were obviously looking in the wrong places. I am from London and not too long ago my mate who is also in London had his bumper resprayed for £250.

 

[parabolica]

Depends where in the country OP is; I couldn’t get quotes under £800 when I was in London.

You were obviously looking in the wrong places. I am from London and not too long ago my mate who is also in London had his bumper resprayed for £250.

Would love to know where; spent 3 months getting dozens of quotes from across the city; most were 4 figures, only a few were high-hundreds. This was for a bumper and front wing blend.

Anyways got a decent price as soon as I moved back north.

 

[Silverstar]

Depends where in the country OP is; I couldn’t get quotes under £800 when I was in London.

You were obviously looking in the wrong places. I am from London and not too long ago my mate who is also in London had his bumper resprayed for £250.

Would love to know where; spent 3 months getting dozens of quotes from across the city; most were 4 figures, only a few were high-hundreds. This was for a bumper and front wing blend.

Anyways got a decent price as soon as I moved back north.

You must be getting quoted from main dealers. My mate had it done 4 years ago in Perivale by an independent car bodyshop. Up until 2008 I was in the car trade and had to use the services of paint shops on a regular basis and used a couple of shops across NW London and I never paid more than £200 for a bumper respray.

 

[Weston Matt]

My quote was from a local shop that Bmw use. They have done work for me before through BMW.

I may have sourced a bumper so going to look next week.

Thanks for the replies and help. I may still have a go if a get the replacement bumper as I will have a spare to play with

 

[parabolica]

You were obviously looking in the wrong places. I am from London and not too long ago my mate who is also in London had his bumper resprayed for £250.

Would love to know where; spent 3 months getting dozens of quotes from across the city; most were 4 figures, only a few were high-hundreds. This was for a bumper and front wing blend.

Anyways got a decent price as soon as I moved back north.

You must be getting quoted from main dealers. My mate had it done 4 years ago in Perivale by an independent car bodyshop. Up until 2008 I was in the car trade and had to use the services of paint shops on a regular basis and used a couple of shops across NW London and I never paid more than £200 for a bumper respray.

No they were all quotes from proper body shops, no dealers. There be were a couple of ropey looking outfits I went and saw but they were doing things like painting the cars outside in a dirty yard with other cars parked around about them, so didn’t get quotes there. Most places had proper paint booths and equipment. The cost of the materials wasn’t the issue, it was the cost of labor that accounted for 80% of the cost.

Anyway that’s just my experience; ended up replacing the bumper with an undamaged salvage one and got the wing and sill painted for £500 at the start of spring.

 

[Ewazix]

I did a wing on an old shed a few years ago, admittedly in white but with rattle cans and believe it or not it was really good! But I spent an age on prep' before and during coats and it was a very easy colour to match and blend. I tried something similar in silver with a half-decent gun and it just would not play ball and looked ridiculous! As 'Dirty' Harry Callaghan said "A man's got to know his limitations" and mine is anything metallic, personally I would shop around and save yourself the heartache.