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Ok I went by my friends shop today to get an estimate on some work on the front of the car. From what I can tell he does good work, he's always posting pics on his Facebook of cars they're finishing up and they're usually BMWs, Mercedes Benzs, Porsches, also saw a 350Z being done, and he does some crotch rockets too. The upper half of the bumper is fine, aside from rock chips and scratches from 130xxx miles of use. However, the lower half isn't so pretty. 
So what I wanted to do was get a Stillen GTZ lip, figuring you just cut off the old lower half, line up the lip, and fasten it to the upper half of the bumper that's left and voila...sweet ass bumper. But taking it to him, and him looking at pics of it online, he says it looks like it slips on over the lower half, and he'd had to actually repair the lower lip anyways. He recommended I get an aftermarket reproduction (or fancy fascia) and have that done instead of getting a good condition used bumper because the materials the original is made out of makes them harder to work with or something like that. Also, he said it's hard to get a 100% perfect match on a front bumper paint job, even if the paint is matched perfectly because the different materials (metal/figerglass/urethane) soak up paint differently and you're never going to get a perfect look. It wouldn't be miles apart, but different. However, if he blended it in some with the fenders I'd never know he had even painted it. I guess I can see what he's talking about there because I can even tell a difference on my stock paint between the look of it on the metal fender, vs right where it connects to the bumper by the headlights, and even more so down by the tire area. Anyways, I asked him what it'd cost to spray a bumper, whether I brought him a used OEM one, or an aftermarket reproduction, or even one like the Stillen fascia, 99 JDM, etc and he said to prep it and spray it 3 stage pearl, it'd be $150. To fit it onto/install it would be another $75. I also asked if he could repair my hood, because of this:
 It looks like someone closed the hood on a wrench or something, because straight across from it on the fender is this:
 That last one is just for showing the other damage on the fender. Anyways, he said he could smooth out that damage on the hood and respray it for $250. And fixing that dent in the fender by the hood, and the dent on the fender lip along with sanding down the couple spots where there were chips where a previous owner just globbed on white paint, would be $150. So if I had it all done at once (which I probably wont), it'd be $550. As far as the paint brand he uses, he says he uses a brand from Holland (unless requested to use DuPont or PPG or something) called Deburrs or something like that. I've never heard of it but he says because of the high end European cars he does most of the time, he has to have a paint that matches very easy to factory paints on the high end cars, and he says it covers very very well. Also, the chemicals the paint is made with has a better, more vibrant shine than most run of the mill paints. I don't think he's full of shit, because I did call up my other friend who does paint/body on the side and he pretty much confirmed everything this guy said, except that if you use sealer on the urethane or fiberglass, it'd keep it from soaking in and slightly altering the final finish like my friend at the shop mentioned. He also backed up that the urethane of the OEM bumper makes it harder to get a reliable panel bond if he were to fix that damage in the first pic. If it were fiberglass or ABS it'd be a lot easier, but being urethane it's just not as reliable a hold. He also said his prices sounded pretty fair as well.
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Dear paint and body guys...read this (kinda long) - 
