Got rear ended tonight while I was stopped and it was enough force to push me into the next car so both ends got dinged though the front isnt too bad, mostly cosmetic.

Ive never done body work but I have been doing a lot of DIY stuff to my Fit and having pretty good success (SRI, grill mesh, ICE) so Im thinking of taking the insurance money and buying new bumper parts and fitting them up myself. Looking at the attachment points it looks pretty doable.

Obviously without seeing the exact damage its tough to say but anyone with this sort of bumper experience care to comment on the relative ease (or lack there of) in such a DIY bumper replacement from impact damage?

Would I have to get the new body panels sprayed color matched?

 

Pictures would help a lot. Maybe pull the bumper cover off to see what you have to work with. It should only be a few screws and a bunch of snap clips.

Body shops are pretty good at matching up colors.

04715-TK6-A91ZZ - Rear bumper cover
could be ordered from such a places as:
Cart Contents Honda Parts at HondaPartsDeals.com: Honda Accessory, Honda Car Parts, Honda Auto Parts, Honda Accord Parts

Search google for honda parts and you can find a few other places to order from as well.

So that's $150 + shipping for the rear bumper cover.

It might be better to just have a professional do this for you all at once. They will fix the mounts and prime and paint a new bumper cover for somewhere around $700 probably. It's hard to say what your situation is without pictures though.

 

In most legal jurisdictions, if you are hit from behind it is automatically the fault of the driver who hit you and their insurance will pay everything. Just wondering why you would want to do this yourself since that will not be paid by insurance.

 

Deductible?

 

Less than 2 months into ownership, I got rear ended. And yes, it was the other persons fault. Their insurance paid for everything. You don't have to pay a deductible if the OTHER persons insurance is paying.

The damage was very, very minimal but since the vehicle was basically brand new, and I wasn't paying, I seeked out the best bodyshop I could find. In my case to repaint/refinish the slightly marked bumper cover the whole thing was just under $1000 plus I got a rental car...

I think it could of been handled cheaper...but I just wanted it back in as close to new condition as possible...and the other person was paying.

So yeah...if you were rear ended, I'd talk to your insurance company...you shouldn't be paying anything...

 

replaced it twice already. (sigh... 09 w 26K miles)

1st time when they got it off it needed the metal bumper bar replaced (that was around $150 I think). Total not including rental car was around $800. This was a Honda body shop.

2nd time my son backed it into a brick mail box (sheesh the neighbors all have US mail shrines in their front yards). This time I took it to an independent body shop and paid about $600 out of pocket. They did a better job matching the color than Honda.

They charged full retail for the cover (about $210 I think). The rest was paint and labor. I don't think it took more than half an hour labor to remove/replace the bumper cover. You may not save all that much doing the R&R and only paying for paint work, plus there may be hidden damage. As long as their insurance is paying it makes sense to take it to a good shop.

edit: the first time the Honda dealer "repaired" the bumper cover. The 2nd time the same dealer gave me an estimate to repair it again. Just the repair work was 4 hours@$55/hr. When I asked them why they were charging more for a repaired cover than a new one they quickly changed it. I went with the independent shop mostly because that annoyed me (and the independent was still less using new Honda parts)

Neither time did it show up on carfax (makes you wonder about carfax). Neither the police, insurance, or body shop reported it.

 

You no longer have to wonder about CarFax. Google "Carfax Complaints" "carfax scams" "carfax fraud"
JIm 0311

 

Scratch the DIY idea, the whole rear is pushed in and the hatch is bent. $5500 estimate from the body shop. I think Ill let the pros deal with this one!