I'm in need of a new rear bumper. I came across a couple of sites that sell OEM bumpers pre-painted for around $650 (RealOEM is one, Sewell is another). Does anyone have any experience with buying pre-painted parts? I've got an 05' R53.

 

Usually when purchasing pre-painted parts, you have a flawless factory finish. This is an advantage over a primed part for a few reasons: color matching is not an issue when purchasing a pre-painted factory part and the quality of the paint will match your factory finish. You also eliminate the need to take your primed bumper to a paint shop which can take days/weeks and can cost just as much as purchasing it pre-painted. Whenever I have come across a pre-painted factory part, it has been perfect right out of the box.

If you have any more questions, please feel free to contact me directly. Also, please note that not all 1st gen pre-painted parts are still available so please contact me for availability!

 

The potential down-side is that the new parts may not quite completely match the old faded paint on your car. It turns out to not be that easy to keep your factory finish absolutely perfectly original in color over a decade or two, and you may notice fading much earlier if you don't take care of the finish.

A local body shop can match the new paint perfectly to the existing paint, if they want to take the time and effort to do so. But after those have been on the car for a number of years, they will often fade slightly differently from the original.

So you pays your money and you takes your chances...

 

This is what I'm afraid of.

 

I had my boot handle prepainted by the dealer and it did not match.
Even though they had my vin/build date there are different shades of the same color. Can you believe that. They were able to match it but only after seeing my cooper up close and personal.
fwiw

 

That happened to my husband, too, with his Tundra. He needed a new mirror cap and the shop he took it to had three versions of the same color! They tried each with his truck to make sure they had the one that was the closest match, and you can't even tell now.