Respray or replace
 

Not E53 related, but hoping to get some advice from those who have gone down this road already. Fortunately I don’t have much experience with body damage and work. Thanks in advance.

Was in the M3 the other day, a car or two behind a truck, and some smaller chunk of metal came off the truck and somehow managed to make it back to my G80 and put a couple dings in the front bumper cover. They aren’t too large, but definitely cracked the cover. Despite seeing the thing emerge from under the car in front of me in slow motion, I didn’t have enough room to avoid it. Happily I have an oil cooler guard on the car, because I heard it hit hard under the front of the car where the cooler is, after somehow dinging the front fascia twice.

I figure the standard thing to do is to find a good body shop and get the dings filled and a respray of the damaged areas. Alternatively, the entire front cover is available (primed) from BMW and not overly expensive, so I could buy it and have the entire thing sprayed, install it and be done. It may be slightly more money to go this second route, but perhaps not. I really just care about getting the best, most seemless repair possible.

Thanks all.

If the body shop doesn't need to remove the bumper cover to spray it, its likely much less expensive. Unless you are going to take the cover to them, have it sprayed and make the swap yourself.

That was my plan, if TIS is super clear on how to do it. I’d hate to make the problem worse.