Just providing some info here that others might benefit from.

In August, I gave my son his first car - a 2013 Maxima with 100k miles (lucky guy). Before I gave it to him, I did some major suspension work. After a very short six days, an incident occurred between the right front of the Maxima and the side of a residential garage. Let's just call it driver inexperience and a bad judgement of distance (and no back-up camera).

I got a couple of quotes and prices varied from $1500-$2200. The last shop I went to for a quote, based on recommendations that he was one of the best around, recommended that I maybe try and fix it myself (he and I talked cars for a while and I described the suspension work I did). He mentioned, after looking at it, that most of it looked like parts replacement and that he felt I could probably do that... That's when he mentioned companies who will sell you a pre-painted bumper cover. I had previously looked at bumper covers that come painted, but hated the idea of buying one that came 'folded'. That did not make sense to me. Enter 'Paint-A-Part', a local vendor who does that work and offers to have locals pick up the part, so there is no 'folding'.
I went through their website, ordered the bumper and used the paint code to specify the correct color. In addition to the bumper cover from Paint-A-Part, I salvaged all of the parts that were intact off of the old bumper, like the front grill (saved money on that one), and then ordered most of the other needed parts from the dealership with their discounts offered online only. Some parts were amazingly cheap...but not that rubber strip that seals around where the front of the metal hood closes on the bumper.
Anyway, when i was notified that the part was ready, I drover over to 'Paint-A-Part' and picked up the wrapped (but not folded) bumper.
After several hours and a complete lack of experience, I managed to replace both new headlight fixtures and get the car back together.
Note, I also bought the cheapest LED bulb replacements I could find on Amazon and they are amazing. I initially ordered the HID replacement that fits with the Halogen housing, from Retrofit, but parts of my order got backordered, so I cancelled and went with those LEDs

See before and after pictures.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/bJKHLR94ZUkAHejd8

As for my experience with Paint-A-Part. The service was simple/easy and the product met my needs. Was it perfect? No, but it was relatively inexpensive. The color does not match perfectly, but that's probably because the previous owner had that car sitting in the baking sun in South Texas for 7-8 years. Is the painted bumper holding up? Mostly. There is some paint areas that look like it is starting to peel up in the corner of some of the bottom areas, where the fins or recessed parts are. I am contemplating whether or not to head over to see if they could easily address, but considering there could be another 'new-driver incident' with the car, I'm less worried about keeping it perfect.

 

I appreciate that post. I’m on my second front cover at 80K miles on my 2013 and will likely want another before I’m through with my car. I’m curious regarding your experience pulling and reinstalling that front cover. Did you watch some how-to videos on youtube or have you done that kind of work in the past? And, do you mind sharing the approximate cost of the components that you used?

 

If you looked at the pictures (Google Photos link to my album), my son took car of the disassembly using the side of the garage.
That included ripping off a headlight housing (passenger side).
I had no body experience at all, but I watched every video I could find to see how things went back together.
I replaced both headlights for $155 each, ordered a new support piece from the dealership ($37), since the original one was bent, and a couple of other components.
The bumper from paint a part was $425 (after tax).