Attaching bumpers

[WhyMe]

Hi people. I hope you can help me...

On Saturday there was an "incident" and now my Cinquecento's bumper although still attached to the car, is snapped in half. If I buy a new one off ebay, are they easy to fit yourself or will I have to get the garage man to do it? Also the only bumpers I have seen are plain and will need spraying. How many cans would I need to do this? I have zero car expertise so I'm hoping it's going to be like buying a flat pack thing out of Argos where you can assemble it yourself. If welders have to be involved then all shall be lost.

And not relevant to fiats as such, but the other car involved in the "incident" had some minor marks on their bumper. I said I'd pay rather than go through insurance, but roughly how much would it cost for them to repair their marks? They were more scuffs than anything - no dents. I only ask because I don't want them thinking they can rip me off. The other driver seemed very nice but I'm very cynical. :yuck:

Thanks everyone.

 

[smokeyjoe03]

I have a mk2b active sport so my bumper is completely different but if is anything like it then its a 5 minute job to get it on and off, just a few bolts and wheel arch liner screws.

As for how many cans you will need, the answer is none. You can't spray a whole bumper with cans, its near impossible to get any kind of decent finish. You can DIY with a proper spray gun but by the time you have purchased all of the materials needed you might aswell give is a bodyshop to sort out.

Spraying a bumper on average costs around £100 to £150 depending where you go, maybe even less if you self prep it. Your other option is to buy a second hand one from a breakers or eBay that is already the same colour as your car.

As for the other party's car, its up to them really what they charge you as you have agreed to pay for it but I would expect it to be no more than £150 if it is just scuffed in a few places.

 

[drpepperr]

not sure of the age of your car, but the biggest problem is probably going to be with rusted bolts, i recently changed my rear bumper on my punto, and whilst it may be a 10 minute job to someone who knows what they're doing, first of all my attempt failed due to the bolts under the car being rusted away completely, so after heavily WD40ing everything else, getting some replacements and a couple of hours of working things out as i went later, the new bumper was finally on.

If you've never had any experience before like me it's not as easy as most people make out, but not as hard as you probably think it will be.