First, I own a 2003.5 Sedan. Rewind to last year, I had just moved, and got into an accident a couple months after moving. Now because I hadn't received all of my mail because of the move, I let my insurance lapse (lesson 1). My fault, but still annoying. Guy hit me on the side, but because the way the lanes work out on that road police report deemed me at fault, fought it to no avail. Body shop says $7k to fix, which I didn't have.



"Friend" of mine at work who fixes cars out of his own garage says he can do it for $3k, which I have available. 4 months later, a lot of "I'm waiting on this part... blah blah blah" and I get the car back with the bumper sitting in the backseat. Take it to another garage and they attach the bumper after telling me it didn't fit at all. Hurray, but I have car back at least.

So here's my question, what's the cheapest way to fix this? Local highly-rated body-shop told me it'd be about $1100 to get a new bumper ordered, painted, installed. There's gotta be a cheaper way right? Because this is how my car looks now:

 

The reason the bumber doesn't fit is because you are trying to fit a 05 AWD bumper to an 03/04 front end. It's screwy but not all sedan fronts ends are swappable unless you swap all of it. ie.. bumper, hood, fenders and lights.

 

Ya I knew the bumper was definitely the wrong one, but what are my options here other than lighting money on fire at the body shop?

 

^ Thats not an AWD bumper there is no center hole for the transfercase.

 

Sell that bumper and get the right one, or get an aftermarket unit.

 

get a kurookie bumper

 

This

 

I don't think it's sellable, since the shop had to cut away part of the bumper near the headlights to make it fit =/

 

I see that now. Holy hackjob, Batman! Sorry you went through all that just because your friend didn't know G's very well.

 

Well, poker's been good to me lately so I don't mind spending some cash to get it back to looking awesome, but $1100 seemed like a LOT to me just for a bumper paint/install

 

get an aftermarket bumper or try to find a used bumper (hopefully you find one thats the same color) and install it yourself

 

go aftermarket now.

 

your local craigslist to find an oem bumper or.....http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/03-04...Q5fAccessories

 

You can get another bumper painted and installed for less then $1100.

 

...get me an 03-04 nismo and you can have mine for free