One of my kids side-swiped a school bus (fortunately with no kids onboard) a few months back. The bus had only very minor scuffing while, for our Clarity, 99% of the damage (deep scratches and gouges) was on the front bumper's left panel (that also frames the daytime running light). There were some very minor clearcoat scratches and a fair amount of yellow paint transfer on the fender and mirror (which folded in as designed, and without damage), but those buffed out, are barely visible now, and didn't cause any dents. I finally got around to ordering the replacement panel for the bumper ($230 including tax/shipping, arrived in 3 days) from HondaPartsNow.com. This was about $100 less than the price from my local dealer. Swapping panels wasn't too bad. The entire bumper/grill assembly is attached by only 6 screws and about 30 plastic button clips (only one of which I broke and couldn't reuse). The tech-sheet for the bumper removal was helpful, but not entirely accurate with regard to the number and location of the clips. All things considered, I'm happy with both the cost and the final result. And, hopefully, my child now has learned why you glance over your shoulder before changing lanes!
I touched the side of the garage door opening with our Clarity. I'm not skilled enough to repair it myself and will be visiting my local body shop. Did the part you ordered need painting? Speaking of yellow paint rubbed off other vehicles, there was a funny piece in Car and Driver many years ago that explained how to navigate New York traffic easily. The advice was to rent a car and rub the rent-a-car against a yellow taxicab to get some paint transferred. The author wrote the taxi driver will complain but that's all. Then, when people see you're driving a car that has done battle with an NYC cab, no one will mess with you. Unfortunately, doing battle with a schoolbus doesn't imbue the same kind of anti-bullying cred.
The part comes painted and perfectly matched the car's (and original panel's) color. For plastic panels like this, the part number varies depending on which color you are ordering. So no addition work was needed beyond the installation of the replacement panel. Love your story about the NYC cab cred! Maybe I should have left a few streaks on the fender.
