Good news, bad news

[BMR]

First the bad news. I got into a pileup a few weeks ago. I stopped in time but the guy behind me didn't. Judging by how hard I got hit, I thought for sure the ol' Camry was a goner!... I was certain it would be totaled. The first thing I saw when I got out was the other guy. That's a late '90's Pontiac Bonneville; not a light car; messed up good!...


Ugh.... It's gone for sure. Or so I thought. Here's my bumper... What the?!?!... COOL!


Here's how close I got pushed to the car ahead of me:


Now for the good news. The insurance company of the guy that hit me wrote me a check for just under $1,000. It didn't get totaled, so I didn't have to deal with the hassle of buying it back, or finding out how Colorado deals with salvage titles. I've heard it can be impossible to insure a car with one.

So it's been down in Denver for the last week at a shop that is replacing the rear bumper and the front bumper (which got the air dam cracked on a high curb ages ago). They're also going to fill/sand all the miscellaneous dents/dings/chips, and then primer, paint (same color), & clearcoat the whole she-bang for $1200. So the ol' girl's getting new paint for $200, out of pocket. Should be done in a couple more days. I'll follow up with some pics when I get her back. I meant to take some before shots, but forgot. The old paint's clearcoat had gone chalky years ago. It looked like total crap.

Questions: I'm gonna get a clear bra installed. How long should I wait because of the new paint? And what do they cost, roughly?

[fullofzen]

Wow -- crazy story. Can't believe that your Camry's back-end did that kind of damage with virtually no damage to show for itself.

[BMR]

Yeah, just a couple of small cracks in the bumper skin. The Pontiac was on the brakes hard, so its nose was down and mostly went underneath my bumper. My gas tank's got a thumb-sized dent in the lower right corner. And the exhaust tips are bent down a bit. I'll probably just straighten them out when I get it back.