Replacement bumper question

Our 2006 Forester was involved in a sort of freak accident--a guy was hauling a sofa on the highway and it blew off and guess where it landed--right in front of our car. In any case, the body shop replaced and re-painted the bumper cover. However, a few weeks later when it was inspected by the insurance rep he said he saw dye-back and had them repaint it. Now the manager of the body shop says the bumper he got from Subaru is defective. He says it was coated with some kind of waxy substance and the paint wouldn't adhere as well as it should. He ordered a new bumper cover from Subaru and he said this one doesn't have the waxy coating, so it should be okay. Does this sound fishy? Why would Subaru put some kind of coating on its unpainted bumper covers? Has anyone heard about this? I am just wondering if there is a known problem with Subaru replacement bumpers or if this is just some nonsense on the part of the body shop.

-yngver

Reply to
yngver
Loading thread data ...

I dunno, someone MAY be trying to save face by shifting some blame onto Subaru. You may never find the real answer to this. I'd forget it if it didn't affect my pocket book. The only other way to get more info might be from an insider like Jamie (Subiegal) who happens to work at an online dealership - email her thru

formatting link
and see if she knows how bumper covers are shipped. Some parts DO have a protective grease on them - usually just the metal parts though I think.

Carl

Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

Thanks for the info. The body shop sent the bumper cover back to Subaru and included the paint chips that had come off. Since Subaru has a warranty on their parts, they gave the body shop another bumper cover. You're right, I'll probably never know the real story and no, it doesn't affect my pocketbook but it's just more time and inconvenience due to the car being at the shop. The body shop took me outside to look at some brand new Subaru Foresters (the Subaru dealer across the street parks some of their excess stock there) and pointed out that even on the brand new cars, the paint on the bumper covers looks duller than on the body. They say maybe there is a problem with the 2006 bumpers, but they said there is no bulletin from Subaru about them.

I looked at a blue, red and light grey new 06 Foresters sitting there, and I did see that the bumper color is duller compared to the hood. I just assumed that's the way they are supposed to be. With my own Forester, at this point I can't even remember what the bumper looked like before the body shop got hold of it.

-yngver

Reply to
yngver

At best, the plastic bumper cover is a b____ to paint. Even after using the special primer (necessary to get paint to stick at all), the paint will crack and peel if the plastic is flexed. I've decided that the bumper cover looks just fine in natural black ;-)

ByeBye! S.

Steve Jernigan KG0MB Laboratory Manager Microelectronics Research University of Colorado (719) 262-3101

Reply to
S

I might feel that way too after a while, but it shouldn't be too much to ask to have a decent paint job when the car is only a few months old. Since I can see so much variation even in brand new Foresters sitting on the lot, obviously Subaru has trouble painting those plastic bumper covers too. Personally, I would rather not have painted bumper covers anyway, but Subaru didn't give me a choice.

-yngver

Reply to
yngver

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.