I recently purchased an authentic Karuma Z, authentic Chargespeed bumpers as well as replica Impul sideskirts from ConceptZ Peformance out of Arizona. It took about 2 months to special order the Chargespeed bumper and receive it. Then, I had to go to 3 different legitimate body shops in Central Texas that would even be willing to work with aftermarket parts. The current body shop is anticipating approximately 18-20 hours just to "prep" the pieces (sand, fill, straighten/smooth the surface and primer) to make them ready for fitment. This is before actual fitment and/or painting. The Chargespeed fiberglass rear bumper is the best of the 4 pieces. Looking at this authentic Karuma Z vs. a couple of aftermarket ABS bumpers they happened to have in their body shop was a night and day difference in mold quality though... I was wondering for those that have purchased similar bumpers, how many hours of prep time was required to get those bumpers workable prior to painting? Would you consider 18-20 hours abnormal?
Out the door, my estimate including custom bumper brackets and paint, I am looking at approximately $2500 (not including the cost of the bumpers/sideskirts.)

 

just the prep and paint is gonna be 2500!? whoa

 

prep and paint should be around 250-300 per piece (sideskirts count as one piece). 1200 max.

 

That is way too much for that kind of work.

 

18-20 hours prep work before paint, that's crazy. I wouldn't pay no more than about 300 a piece to paint.

 

Here in the Midwest it's 300 to prep 100 for paint with reinstall.

 

I don't think people understand how much work goes into making some of these aftermarket fiberglass parts actually fit and look good on your car. $300 a piece sounds about right for PAINT, but you really need to factor in the body labor needed also to fit these parts.

Common problems are body lines not lining up, where the bumper meets the fenders for example. You said your estimate includes "custom bumper brackets" so that tells me the shop has to do some fabrication (or at least thinks they need to).

I quit painting custom cars 10 years ago because too many kids wanted a 4 piece kit painted for $400 and then would complain when it didn't fit.

Without seeing the condition of the parts you have, I can't say if that estimate is high or not, but if it was my parts, I'd get a few other estimates.

 

So that 18-20 hours is just to prep the bumpers prior to initial fitment. Their price was also off by only a couple of hundred from the first body shop's ball park estimate who declined the job because they would simply lose money working on aftermarket parts so I am not really shocked on the price I guess. Also, I have had the worst time even finding a decent body shop to even do the work. (This is the third one I have gone to.) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that not more work will need to done after the initial fitment. To the previous post, I agree, I am a stickler for the bumpers to fit correctly and have seen many a Karuma Z with pinch problems around the front lights or the side markers not sitting perfectly flush on the sides so I don't mind paying for them to look OEM, I am just shocked that others have spent so much less to accomplish the same thing unless they simply settled for off-fitment,

 

Here in TX., that's about the right price from a legitimate body shop. Now, if fitment were to be an issue, good luck with that. I'd seriously pay a grand at best. It probably would have been a better option to find a body shop and inquire about the paint job cost before ordering the bumper.