jetfixr07

A couple months ago, I wasn't paying attention while parking and unknowingly parked the front of the car directly over a sign post that was sticking up out of the ground. Well, as you can imagine, when I later went to leave, the post caught the underside of the bumper cover and RIIIIIPPPP! Almost cleanly removed the front of my S4. Yes, I cried a little. Not wanting to file an insurance claim, I bit the bullet and bought a new bumper cover from Audi, thinking it would be relatively inexpensive to install it myself then have a body shop paint it. I was grossly incorrect; of the three estimates I got just to paint it, the CHEAPEST was over $800 (!!!) so I figured there was no better time to learn a new skill. I bought a DeVilbiss "Starting Line" 2-gun kit on Amazon for about $140, then grabbed all the painting materials from a local shop. This weekend I nervously set about DIY'ing this somewhat daunting task, but I can't believe how nice it turned out! Pics:
















In the end, I probably only saved a couple hundred bucks, but this was something I always wanted to try my hand at. I perform all my own maintenance/mods anyway, so it just made sense. Cheers!

DrGP

Good job. I totally understand your motive and solution. I've done a lot of localized repairs with body putty, and a rattle can, always wanted to learn how to use a real spray gun. Do you have a Maaco paint shop in your area? I would expect them to be relatively cheap.They offer low cost repainting specials from time to time. BTW, is your car Brilliant or Phantom Black?

jetfixr07

Luckily, it's just the single stage base/clearcoat, non-metallic Brilliant Black. That actually made a pretty big influence on my decision to tackle it myself. I bought quality materials, (PPG Deltron 2000 with the DCU2021 Clear) to set myself up as best I could for success. Had it been Phantom, I probably would have (begrudgingly) left it to the pros. And yeah, I'm sure there's a Maaco around here but I've seen as many bad Maaco jobs as I have good ones. At least now I've got the tools and enough experience now not to be afraid of doing it myself!