Nehhh Mike don't worry about the absorber if it's slightly smashed in the corner. As long as you have an absorber in decent shape that's all good.

Well about the blending. Your color is more like silver. Those colors are HARD to blend or match bro! It's really hard to match 100% with colors like white, gold, or silver. Don't know how good of a job they will do, but it depends. You might not even need a blend. Most of the time our shop doesn't blend if it's just a front bumper job.

And yes when I painted my car, at first I didn't paint the rear bumper with my quarter and even with a good match, rear bumper still stands out like a sore thumb, so I had to blend my rear bumper and trunk lid. Front not as bad as you said, but still needs to be matched closely. I say it's pretty much impossible with silver to match it 100% so you can't tell it's been repainted apart from the rest of the car, so $100 might be worth it for the fenders being blended.
I think you can let them paint the bumper only, and if you don't like it, make them blend the fenders for $100 more. That's what I would do.

 

*whew* That's certainly a relief, one less cost to worry about

I placed the order for the bumper cover. The piece itself is rather affordable... oddly enough cheaper than a sport lip, but man the shipping is nearly half the cost. Too bad none of the local dealers can sell it to me for any less than MSRP. Oh well. I hope to get it in, painted and on the car in the next 2-3 weeks.

In the meantime, i just pushed the dents back out... looks better than in the original photos, but of course the crease isn't going away. I was thinking of slapping on a couple of band-aids on there. Although this whole incident has given me a huge headache, there's no rule against having a little fun with it, right?

Thanks for the info on the blending, too. I didn't realize a blend could still be done even after the bumper by itself is painted. I thought they had to be done at the same time. Good info!

 

Mike, instead of the band aids, you should just get some blue painter's tape, make a circle around the crease, and then put "WTF!" above it. I've seen some people around Houston do that, and it made me laugh.

 

LOL! Maybe i'll do that. The cover is done for anyway. Maybe i'll rotate the band aid with that idea of yours.

Then maybe for the last few days before the swap i'll put a message out for the culprit

 

Mike, Have you approached the lady driver that you think hit your car. You can always tell her that you checked security footage from the camera across the road that 'clearly shows that you hit me'. Then act all nice and tell her that you don't want to get her in any serious trouble with the police for a hit and run so you would be happy if she would just pay for the repair. It may or may not work but it is worth a shot!

 

haha that's a good idea right there! To scare her off like that might actually work.
Mike do you know that lady, is she a co-worker or what? If you don't know her you can actually try that ^^^^

 

Man, if you knew with high probability who hit your car and they refused to come clean, I am sure Karma would pay them back with some mysterious dings/keys/flat tires that come out of no where.

 

This sucks Mike... sorry.

The world is full of d-bags. My wife had to leave her MDX in a parking garage at the airport for a few days while she was traveling for work.
She came back to find a huge dent in the rear passenger door.

Most people don't care about cars like we do and are therefore less than careful with their stuff... and ours as well.
We're a rare breed and it sucks having to share a world with careless idiots. Every time I fix a ding in her car, she comes home with a new one. I may just leave this one. LOL

 

I have no absolute proof, so although the idea sounds like it might work, i'd rather not act on conjecture. The lady works for the service industry, i think, as she wears a similar uniform to the people who come into our building for daily maintenance.

At the least, i feel better somewhat knowing who did it. In a way, it provides closure. Perhaps Karma will just do its job, however way it wishes to.

Part of me wants to get an old car for DD duties now, then perhaps brush guards all around it. By then, people won't even dare being near it.

 

Get one of these...

 

Well Mike it's better to blend at the same time, but yeah it's always possible to blend fenders later if needed. I'm sure that shop will have some paint left over for a blend if it will be needed. If not the painter can always mix more.

Ohhh btw. When I was buying a sport bumper here, our Infiniti dealership said they had to special order it. So I order the bumper, and when it came in I just picked it up. No shipping fees =) they just never charge a customer for shipping.
My Sport bumper cost was like $306 total as I remember.

 

So true Shurik355. I have seen countless vehicles in those colours and the factory paint is even slightly off. The the plastic bumpers and the metal body often do not seem to match. Our silver minivan is like that and my friends previous ivory pearl Maxima was 'two-toned' as well (but wasn't supposed to be).

 

sorry bro, but it looks like it would just be a bumper swap, all supports seem fine

 

If people are anything like me, the car will probably get even more attention from individuals wanting to pop 'em.

You got lucky. IIRC, 3 of the 4 dealerships here are owned by pretty much the same company, and they charge full retail ($400+) The one dealership that had it for $338 is about 50 miles away. I'm not even sure if i can fit the bumper inside the car to bring it to the paint shop.

I bought it from InfinitipartsUSA. Cheapest i've found online, although the freight charges came out to $130.

Had to do it, didn't have much of a choice.

 

yeah Mike infinitipartsusa was my 1st choice as well. I almost bought one from them untill they told me about the shipping charge lol... So I just called my dealer here, and worked it out with them.
But hey, wouldn't it still be cheaper to buy from your dealer for $400? I thought infinitipartsusa sells them for $290 i think, but + $130 shipping makes it over $400. Well I guess at the dealer with tax it could be actually more huh?