On Mon, 27 Mar 2017 14:47:20 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Monday, March 27, 2017 at 5:05:12 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Mon, 27 Mar 2017 16:21:19 -0400, Ralph Mowery
wrote:

In article ,
says...

My daughter lives about 2.5 hours from me and drives a Honda Civic. The front bumper
cover is really low and she hooked it on a curb when backing out, pulling the driver's side off
from where it clips under the headlight. A friend used a zip tie to hold it up so it wouldn't drag.

She took it to a body shop and they wanted over $600 to replace the bumber cover. They
said it was "cracked". She told them that she wasn't going to use insurance, but it didn't
change the price. I told her to wait until she was home so I could take a look at it. I know
that I can get a bumper cover on-line and install it myself for a lot cheaper, even if I to get
it painted (basic black).

So she comes home this weekend and I found the "crack" that they were referring to.
There is a single screw that holds the cover to the underside of the fender. The round "hole"
in the bumper cover was now a "U" instead of a full circle meaning that the screw would
be more of a pressure fit hold since it wouldn't be encircled by a complete hole. That's it.
There was no other damage other than a bunch of missing push fasteners that held
the splash guard to the bumper cover under the radiator.

I fixed the screw hole issue by drilling 1 hidden hole and using a (black) zip tie to secure
the bumper cover just as an extra precaution in case the screw loosened up. I used a
half dozen (black) zip ties in place of the push fasteners to reattach the splash guard.

A half hour of labor and pennies worth of parts that can't even be seen instead of $600+
to have the bumper cover replaced. What a rip-off!

So you did not really repair it, you Afro-American rigged it.

How much would you have paid a repair shop to do the same thing ?
Maybe $ 100 or so .




Zip Ties ARE a "hack". The proper fasteners were likelya bout $20 and
would have taken no more time to install.

You'd have REALLY bitched if you paid a body shop $100 and they did
what you did.

Zip ties are a hack that will hold until she comes back home next month. At that pont I will
have the proper fasteners.

After driving 350 miles back from working on my Dad's house for 3 days, I had less than an
hour to diagnose and repair the vehicle before she left for her 2.5 hour drive back home.
There was no way I was running out to auto store to buy a half dozen push fasteners.

You can call my repair anything you like. I call it the perfect solution for the time being and
still call the $600 quote from the body shop a ripoff.
As long as you intend to fix it right, the
band-Aid" is acceptable - and yes, MANY times body shops are a
rip-off. To the point they often charge insurance (or customer) for
replacement parts they do not install.or install parts that are not
needed, just to make the job easier.