diy, replacing body parts on your car

Let's say for example you recently had a small accident with your car.  Maybe you were backing out of a parking spot and you didn't see that someone else just happed to be doing the same thing.  You're bumpers have now met each other unexpectidly and now have some damage on them along with the broken tail light. If you're like a lot of people you don't want to have to make a claim with your insurance company and take the chance of increasing your insurance rates.  Maybe you have a $500 to $1000 deductible.  Most of the time, depending on the make or model of your car you can fix it yourself without getting the insurance company or body shop involved for the same or less than the cost of your deductible.  

Another advantage to buying used parts is that sometimes you can find the bumper or any part for that matter in the same color as your car.  If you have a 2003 Audi A4 for example the rest of the paint on the car is probably somewhat fadded from years of exposure to the weather so it makes sense to see if you can find a used part so that it matches the rest of the paint on your car.  This way you don't have to pay for a new part and new paint that may not even match the rest of your car that well. Just last week we had two customers that did this process exactly.  One purchased both the doors on the drivers side of the car for a 2005 Volkswagen Jetta in the same color as his car for $225.  These doors came complete with all the hardware so its a simple bolt on replacement then they are done with the repair.  If you bought the door shells new and had them painted it would have cost over $2000- to do this repair.

This can apply to just about any part on your car, including doors, fenders, hoods, bumpers, mirrors and more.  Most auto recyclers have multiple colors available for each part and have the ability to check colors for you.