[Hands-On Review] Buying a Painted to Match Bumper on Amazon
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If you found this article then you were likely researching options for buying a new bumper. You probably also ran across companies such as MBI Auto and Paint-n-Ship on Amazon and Ebay that sell new, color matched pre painted bumpers (painted to match) for many makes and models of cars and are wondering if these bumpers are legit.
I did the exact same thing.
Searching for an answer online didn’t turn up much before I took the plunge so I’m hoping this article helps!
Background
The front bumper on my Acura RSX was in rough shape. I had been backed into, so the plastic needed repair, and the paint was failing. I got quotes from body shops and they all wanted $400+ to repair the bumper and paint it.
So I started searching online for the cost of a new bumper and planned to repaint it myself. That’s when I ran across a pre-painted bumper from MBI Auto on Amazon for $289 shipped. At that price it wasn’t worth my time to buy a bumper and paint it.
I was skeptical of the price (sounded too good to be true) but I decided to take the risk after reading some positive reviews on other bumpers on Amazon.
Knowing that modern automotive paint doesn’t fade much I was pretty confident that a good color match could be attained if I gave them accurate information. I took pictures of the paint code sticker in my door jamb (you can use this site to find out where your paint code sticker is https://www.automotivetouchup.com/paint-code.htm), which also included the paint type letter, and my vin number and put in my order with MBI Auto on Amazon.
The Good
It only took about two and a half weeks for me to have my painted bumper delivered to my house. I was impressed at the size of the package and how well packed it was.
Once the cardboard was removed you could see a ton of bubble wrap.
I removed the bubble wrap and was pretty excited at how much I got. I sell things on eBay so this was like getting a discount!
The bumper was covered in a soft plastic and taped. I removed that reveal that the bumper was covered in a fine powder. It appeared to be to help protect it from scratches. It didn’t feel like typical shop overspray and it washed off with just water.
I washed the bumper and was very happy with what I had received. The paint was even, appeared to be the right color, was very smooth and glossy, and had no serious defects that I could find. I’ve had parts painted by a professional collision repair shop before that didn’t come out this nice.
The bumper was aftermarket, of course, but it was spot on as far as the way it was built compared to the factory bumper. I quickly removed my factory bumper and installed this one.
As you can see the fit and flake and color match was spot on. Usually with metallic re-paints the flop of the flake will be will be off or the size of the flake and it will look a different shade or color. That was not the case with this bumper. The texture was even a good match, having no orange peal.
Ignore the scraped up bottom lip. That part is actually removable and was transferred from the old bumper because the new one didn’t come with it. It will get replaced soon.
I was 100% satisfied with what I had purchased for what I had paid for it. I’m not confident a body shop could have done any better of a job.
The Bad
The only disappointment I had was that they painted over the center grille section and fog light holes that are normally left raw black plastic on the OEM bumper. Once I thought about it, though, I grew to like the look and the OEM bumper did fade in these areas prematurely anyway.
Longevity / Reliability
I’ve only had the bumper for two months. I can’t really speak to how long the paint will last. Given how well it’s laid out and how well it matches the factory paint, I’m pretty confident it will last a long time if taken care of. A good wax, sealant, or coating and not tailgating people will go a long way to preserving the finish of this bumper.
I’ve had a lot of cars with repainted parts and the paint never seems to last as long as the original paint so I have no delusions of this bumper’s paint lasting forever. I’m going to keep an eye on it though and do what I can to take care of it.
If I do have any problems I will report back here and update the post. Be sure to subscribe to my email list on the right to receive post updates.
Update:
It has been a year now since I installed this bumper and it still looks great. No rock chips have developed (helps that I don’t follow close and mostly drive in the city now) and there is no sign on clear coat failure. The color has remained true as well.
In the effort of full disclosure, I did apply Collinite 845 Insulator Wax to the bumper about 60 days after install so the clear coat had some help defending itself from the elements.
I’m still super happy with this bumper. In fact I’m considering contacting MBI to see if they can do a rear bumper for the RSX as well. There are a few imperfections in its’ current rear bumper that I’d like to get rid of to bring this car back to near new condition. I think it’s looking pretty good for a 192k mile Honda!
Reader’s Review
One of our readers, Terry, also had great luck with an MBI bumper on his SUPER CLEAN low mileage ’06 Mercury Grand Marquis.
Here you can see the before pictures with the old bumper:
It’s hard to tell in the pictures but the old bumper was damaged on the bottom from a previous owner pulling too far over a curb and hanging the bumper up on it.
Here you can see the new MBI bumper installed displaying a great match to the factory paint returning Terry’s pride and joy back to like new condition!
Great job on keeping that Mercury Grand Marquis super clean, by the way! That Dark Toreador Metallic is a great color!
Wrap Up
Would I buy this bumper again? Heck yes. Do I think I got a good deal? Absolutely. Would I buy a pre painted to match bumper from MBI Auto off of Amazon for any of my other vehicles? Without a doubt.
I have no idea how they manage to deliver such a good product and make any money at the prices they charge but I’m happy they can. For the pickup truck folks (Silverado, F-Series, Ram) this would be an affordable option for getting body color bumpers as well. For the same price as a having a shop paint your chrome bumper to match you could buy a painted to match MBI Auto bumper and sell your chrome bumper and come out way ahead.
Check out MBI Auto’s Painted to Match bumpers on Amazon and see if they carry one for your vehicle!
Nice review of the MBI front bumper for your Acura RSX. Judging by your pictures, your bumper looks amazingly close to OEM as you can get.
I also ordered and installed a front bumper for my black 2015 Toyota corolla s. I was impressed by the paint quality and how well it fit. The only minor thing that I noticed is that the original bumper is a little bigger but its not that noticeable. I’ve had it for a few months now and so far its been holding up in great shape, hopefully it continues to stay that way.
Thank you! Good point on the size difference. My mbi bumper was a little snug around the sides where it snapped into the fenders and was retained in the fender wells. Once I massaged it into place and snugged down the fasteners it fit true to form and wasn’t noticeable. Glad yours worked out too! So far the paint is holding up. No rock chips yet. Fingers crossed.
Awesome review. I am looking into a bumper from them for my 2012 Honda Civic. This made up my mind! Quick question though, Is it fairly easy to put on, does it just snap in?? Trying to avoid a shop at all cost but not much experience with body work. Thanks!!
Most Honda bumpers are pretty straight forward to remove. I would suggest looking up a video on youtube of someone removing that specific year bumper to get a good visual. A quick look and it appears the bumper is secured with a screw in each fender well, a couple screws across the top, and then a series of pop clips across the top middle and bottom of the bumper. The bumper is also snapped in around the headlights and will pop out once the retaining fasteners are removed. It’s very similar to how the RSX bumper was retained and it was very easy to remove.
You’ll spend a while removing it but once you figure it out the new one will go back on very easy.
I do have one caution. The little plastic pop up clips that Honda uses are prone to breaking if they are old and brittle and you try to pop the middle up from one side. I recommend using two small flat head screw drivers to pop the clips up from each side to avoid breaking them.
If you really want to be safe you can purchase these clips ahead of time off of eBay or Amazon for super cheap. If you wait and have to buy them from a local auto parts store or the dealer they are much more expensive, around a couple bucks a piece. I pulled up the body catalog and it appears the bumper uses two different size plastic clips: 91505-S9A-003 and 91506-S9A-003. I do not know how many of each it uses though.
Hopefully that helps!
I received a fender for my 2008 Altima Coupe (Code Red) a week or so ago and it was well packaged and looked excellent at first glance. Unfortunately, after installation and in the sun, there is an obvious color mismatch. My shop had painted the door and front bumper cover and were able to blend the colors beautifully but the front fender is off enough to be noticible. Called MBI this morning and they asked for a paint sample from the damaged fender which I just sent. Replacement unit in a couple of weeks at no additional cost.
If I had to do it again I would have removed the gas filler door and sent it to MBI for paint matching. Red is wa challenge.
This is excellent information. I didn’t know that sending in a paint sample was even an option with MBI. That’s great!
The unfortunate reality of automotive paint is that color fastness is highly dependent on how the car is cared for, stored, where it’s parked, etc… While the clearcoat is supposed to protect the pigment from UV degradation it’s not perfect and red seems to be one of the worse offenders of fading out. Because of this the older the car gets the worse the odds are of matching with new paint mixed solely from the paint code and vin.
The condition of the clearcoat itself can play a part as well. If the clearcoat is oxidized, swirled, or otherwise embedded with contaminants it can throw off the perceived color as well. A good decon and compound polishing of the surrounding paint may help.
Some manufacturers even switch suppliers and formulations of their paint within the same model run which causes slight variations in color.
Things like these are why many shops choose to blend the new paint into adjacent panels. It helps provide a seamless transition in color if they were unable mix up and spray out a perfect match. This is especially the case when it comes to metallics because it’s extremely hard to get the flop of the flake in the new paint to match the old. This of course costs a lot more than a single panel paint or buying a painted panel from a place like MBI.
In any case, I’m glad MBI is trying to help you out. I’d be really curious to hear how the second fender works out after sending in the paint chip!
The first time I washed the super-low-mileage ’06 Mercury Grand Marquis I bought this past January, I discovered a previous owner must’ve hit a high parking curb with the bottom-right edge of the front bumper. The impact ripped off a mount for the fog light on that side, severely damaged the other mount…and the owner jury-rigged it. The way the bumper was designed, there was no way to reliably fix it. A local body shop that does great work wanted $900 to paint and install a new bumper.
I found MBI pre-painted Grand Marquis bumpers on eBay and immediately assumed that for $364 I’d get a cheaply-molded copy of a bumper with a couple of coats of pebbly paint. I did some research and came across your review. After reading this and other online web comments, I ordered a bumper.
Ford Motor Company cars are known for having smooth, deep factory paintjobs. I knew I might be taking a chance with color-matching as I see a few problems some are having in that regard (especially with my car’s burgundy paint). I was very happy to see that the paint on this new MBI bumper not only matches the color perfectly but is as smooth as the rest of the car. My headlights, turn signals/cornering lamps and fog lights all had lenses that had become yellowed after 12 years, so I splurged and bought all new to install while replacing the bumper.
Thanks so much your spot-on review and the reviews of others here. Not only did I save nearly $550 doing the job myself…but the front end now looks like brand new, matching the rest of the car!
Glad I could help! I’m thankful companies like MBI Auto exist to help us DIY’ers out with discounted pre-painted auto body parts. Any chance you have some before and after pictures you could share? I’d love to see the transformation!
Hello, Terry. Thank you for this terrific review, and for the photos. Your post and information, along with a few you-tube videos from other sources, are empowering. My husband and I are about to order a pre-painted bumper from MBI for our 2011 Prius to replace the severe cosmetic damage caused by gentlle but definite damage from side swiping a wide part of the bumper while trying to access a tight parking spot. The quote for the replacement-repair from the body shop is $891.50. I spoke with someone at MBI and they have our bumper, and it will cost us $264. We expect to buy replacement plugs and clips in advance online as you suggested, and a few other supplies tools to assist us. We expect the total cash layout will be less than $300, and the time layout will be our own. We love using our brains and hands together, and to take care of our own stuff. We have done lots projects on houses from tiling to laying wood floors, brick patios, etc. In my former 1996 Honda, in 2004 we removed the entire front dashboard to access the radio/cd player . The cd player was never installed, but we were able to use the cd player feature to hook up an electronic part with a headphone jack so I could connect my iPod, and use the cd option to control the iPod music selections, volume, etc. We felt pretty sure we could tackle this bumper replacement project, but your review confirmed it. I’m 99% sure we are going to do this.
If you could please tell us about how many hours, from start to finish, it took for you to replace the bumper on your Acura once you received the part, that would be most appreciated.
Thank you. And yes, if we do it, we will send you pictures and share details of our experience.
Heidi & Jon
It only took me 30 minutes to swap mine but I’ve had that bumper off before when refinishing the headlights so I already knew the steps and how to attack the fasteners.
After reviewing this video: https://youtu.be/8DRv9-kc6AI I would guess it would take about a half hour to an hour for someone unfamiliar with the bumper to remove it and about half the time to put the new one on since you’re just reversing the steps.
I’m confident you can handle this swap and I look forward to hearing your results!
Anyone tried this place for a bimmer?
Thanks for the great review! I’m going to order that bumper for my 2010 Escape!! It’s white so won’t have a problem matching. Thanks again!
Also, a question. Did anyone order the one that comes folded? Much less money. Thank you!
I don’t have experience purchasing the folded version but I’d be leery to do so. I read the listing and it appears they use a cheaper clear and most likely less of it, to allow for the flexibility to fold. They even openly admit there will be minor imperfections. I personally wouldn’t accept that. I’d pick the premium bumper that they don’t fold and use a quality high solids clear on.
For most people your car is going to be the second most expensive possession you purchase next to your home and the place you spend the second most amount of your time. It’s worth fixing it up right. As they say, the sting of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of a good deal is gone.
Thanks Terry. I will order the unfolded one.
Needed a new rear bumper cover for my 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland in black. Shopped around on the internet and read reviews and decided on MBI. Received it as described by Terry in his posted pics. Very pleased. Followed the directions before installation and . Looks like original. Showed the before & after pics to my fellow bikers and they were impressed. It arrived a week earlier than expected.
Glad to hear the results are still consistent with my experience! Hope you’re enjoying your newly improved Jeep!
Stephen, I also have a Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland (white), and I’m not seeing any Jeep products through MBI… any advice, or a link you might be able to provide? Thank you to Terry as well.
I am in the market for a new 2018 honda civic rear bumper. MBI advertises that there bumpers come folded for shipping purposes. Wouldn’t this make a crease to will damage the new bumper and the paint surface?
They used to sell both folded and non folded. Hopefully that is still the case though you may need to search both Amazon and eBay for their listings. Here is a reply I sent to another individual on the folded bumpers:
“I don’t have experience purchasing the folded version but I’d be leery to do so. I read the listing and it appears they use a cheaper clear and most likely less of it, to allow for the flexibility to fold. They even openly admit there will be minor imperfections. I personally wouldn’t accept that. I’d pick the premium bumper that they don’t fold and use a quality high solids clear on.”
Best I can tell MBI only sells folded bumpers on amazon but on Ebay sells Economy (folded) and Premium (unfolded with considerable price increase) selection. For my bumper Economy would be $329, Premium $529. Good news with there Premium they state that If your vehicle has a Tri-stage or 3 stage paint, they will not charge extra
Thanks for your review, helped me to decide to order a rear bumper cover from MBI Auto through Amazon. Arrived in great condition and was a very good match in color to the original bumper cover on my Toyota Camry.
Sweet! Love hearing that people are still having good luck with these and saving big bucks! Hope you’re having a happy 4th!
Any experience with the MBI painted FOLDED bumper? I’m not digging that it comes folded at all