The person that I purchased my 8 from did not take the best care of this car. Because of this my front bumper is in pretty rough shape. A new one from mazda is $550. There is a local guy that says he will repair it for $350. I have been searching on here and have 2 questions. Does the air dam come seperate from the bumper? and Woud it be better to wait to find another bumper on here or have this guy repair it for $350. As anyone else would, I am trying to save money.

Thanks,
Raves

Yes the airdam separates from the bumper.

Post pics of what you want fixed and it will be easier for us to provide useful advice.

If your body guy has a good reputation and says he can fix it, you'll save $200. If he's sloppy, you'll wish you spent the extra $200 for the new one.
So the big question is: how good is he?

There may be a third option.

Check out onlinemazdaparts.com, they are a dealership and they sell the US OEM bumper for $399.61.

That way you get a brand new bumper for the price it'd cost you to have it repaired.

You might get lucky and find one at your local auto junk yard for cheap that is not damage at all, and all you need is to paint it to match the color of your car, you could save hundreds.

might be able to pick up a replica mazdaspeed for ~300, or less if used. then spend another ~300-500 and have it fit nice. I wouldnt pay ~$600 for an oem front.

I checked the local junk yards first and no luck with that sadly. Well this guy does have a fairly good reputation but I just was thinking it might be easier to buy a new one if the price were right. Problem is that the front airdam is also messed up and having to buy both the bumper and the airdam would probably cost more than just fixing it with the numbers you all have given me. I will post pics here shortly.

You are correct in that assumption. Replacing both parts would cost about 1000.00 counting shipping.

Replacing both will definitely cost $1k+ if you go through a bodyshop and they purchase new. That will include paint.

:crazy

for that price just buy a mazdaspeed original for ~1300

or get a replica mazdaspeed and after shipping and prep and paint it will be ~800-1000(just make sure you get urethane, frp will crack in NO TIME, by the time the urethane bumper starts sagging it will be so fucked up it will need to be replaced anyway. keeping the urethane parts parked indoors(garage) also helps keep the urethane from losing its shape)

I also Trying to find a Galaxy grey oem Front bumper...hmu if any interested in selling