I was recently driving on a road with construction and the truck next to me kicked up a rock and took off a little chunk of my front left bumper. Chipped the paint and took a little chunk out of the plastic. I have a paint pen arriving in the mail anyday now, but even with the paint, I think the indentation will still be there. Any ideas on how to fill the indentation and then paint over it? Oh yea by the way, how does the paint pen work, i heard one side is a clearcoat? Thanks in advance.

 

I hit a hunk of wood the other day hard while travelling 130km/hr in very high winds. Luckily it only connected with the lower part of my bumper but it looks like someone slashed the lower part of the bumper...2 one inch long cuts. I touched it up with the pen, but the indentations are still there. This is hardly noticable and I know that a body shop would probably put some bondo in the cuts and paint a small section of the bumper, but I think I will leave it be for now. The pen has a clear coating on one side and paint on the other and it did fill the mark nicely.
It is, after all a bumper and regardless of how safely you park, sure enough somebody will mark it eventually.

 

Speaking of "chipped"" paint, can anyone provide some advice on how to repair scratches? I'm really really upset about this... my car must have rolled back after I got out of it, and when I closed my garage door, it scratched the h3ll out of my rear bumper!

I hope my only option is NOT replacing the rear bumper!

 

well unless you are good with bondo... you are going to need a new bumper cover. I think the exterior portion of the bumper (the painted part, in your case blue) is a separate part, so it's not like you need a whole new bumper.

 

and then have it painted....

 

holy crap.. that sucks. i think the gashes mean a new bumper. IMO.

 

I would be tempted to get an estimate on replacing the bumper skin. Body work to repair would cost just as much and the durability would not be there. Let us know what it costs to replace that skin. I am sure many will run into a similar problem eventually.
good luck

 

so other than bondo is there anything else i can use to fill the indentation?

 

nope... not without it looking stupid.

 

I was hoping I wouldn't have to replace the bumper. If I get a new painted bumper, there'll be a possibility that the color won't match the rest of the car... and they'll want to "blend" the trunk and rear quarter panels...

Would it be remotely possible to shave/cut off the rough edges of the gouges, and create a smooth "V" into which touch-up paint could be applied/built-up? I know that touch-up paint might not be a close match either, but as long as the surface is smooth, you might not be able to tell unless you're looking for it.

 

I was looking at http://www.paintscratch.com, and they sell something called spot putty. You might be able to use that to fill in the chip, and then go over it with touchup paint/pen. Don't know if this would work or not, or how good it would look. As for the bumper, that looks big to do with touchup paint, but it might at least make it less noticeable than doing nothing.

Has anybody ordered touchup paint from www.paintscratch.com? Are their products anywhere near as good as their web site makes it sound?

 

i don't think you need a new bumper, but there isn't an easy way of fixing it either without repainting.

the body shop will use a urethane (the same material the bumper cover is made of) to fill the gash and then they'll sand it smooth again (same idea as using body filler/bondo, except bondo dries hard...urethane stays flexible). after they sand, prime, sand, prime, etc. they'll repaint and blend.

anyway it won't be cheap...and unless they do it right, which means they completely strip the original paint on the bumper back down to the urethane, your new paint won't be as durable even if they use enough flex additive in the paint. most shops will use your existing paint layer as a layer of primer which means it's less flexible than urethane and more brittle...so it'll be more prone to chipping off if someone bumps you...you'll get a 'spider webbing'/cracking effect in the clear instead of a gash concentrated just to the spot that is damaged like you have now.

 

I agree. Doesn't look to need a new bumper cover, but it will take a seasoned pro to fix right...

 

I know they do make patching adhesive kits for flexible bumper covers.

But ... I went through this, well sort of, TWICE, with my Volvo. When the car was brand NEW, an old woman in an old Mercedes decided to make a left turn right in front of me. And I *almost* avoided her. So the bumper cover was repainted. I never liked the quality of the repaint, even though they used sufficient flexing agent to allow it not to crack. Forward 6 years and 120,000 miles. Recently when I hit a loose chunk of semi-trailer tire, repairing and refinishing the bumper was again proposed by my insurer but I decided to just go the extra $$$ for the factory pre-painted replacement cover. The Volvo is plain-jane vanilla white which is by far the easiest paint color to work with and match. The shop that did the work was fairly decent, actually the Volvo dealer, but as I said I was never happy with the repaint. And metallic colors (like on the TSX) can be a real challenge to match exactly. I have no idea of the cost of a replacement pre-painted bumper cover for the TSX, (Under $500, pre-painted, for the Volvo) but if the damage were noticable from 3 feet away I'm anal enough about my cars that I'd be inclined to just go ahead and replace it if the cost were less than astronomical.

 

I don't think Acura sells prepainted bumpers, do they?

 

The TSX body kits and spoilers are sold color-matched. Why wouldn't the bumper covers be?

 

I called a body shop to see what they guessed it might cost, and he told me that it'll be ~$500 or so to repair the damage or ~$1000+ to replace it with a new one, which would have to be painted. Unfortunately, factory body parts don't come pre-painted.

Friggin' garage door!

 

don't fret about color matching, they can get the color code from your door or dealer... most likely they have their own sources for the color code. anyway, my point being that any good body shop will match the color exactly (ok... it can never be exact but close enough that you are not going to notice).

because the damage was limited to just the bumper they are not going to blend other parts of your car that are undamaged. you can tell them that as well. that way the only thing that get's painted is your bumper.

FYI... if you decide to go new... you only need a bumper cover. I can't imagine a bumper cover costing $500. So the 1000 seems too high unless there is more work in removing/replacing cover then bondo/sanding job.

 

Find someone works in bodyshop who is willing to do jobs like that after hours.

Last time I saw a guy who repair and repaint scratches in Acura dealer and got his number. He tole me job like that would cost me about $150cdn=$110US.