I only have myself to blame for this one. I pulled too far into a parking spot and scraped the underside of my fron bumper. My card is red. The scrapes are white. I'm looking for suggestions on what the best way to repair this is. It's not in a highly noticable place so the repair doesn't need to be perfect.

Thanks!

 

how deep and long are the scratches? are there alot? if there are a few and some what deep then it might be possible to use touch up paint and then compound and polish it back. i'm guessing you scraped it on one of those concrete parking blocks. so the paint probably came off. if its something not so abrasive and the scratches are light then maybe you can use a medium cut compound followed by finer coupound to get the scratches out. you will still have to polish to get the shine back after compounding.

 

You were pretty close -- I drove the bumper over a concrete curb in a parking lot. The scratchs are numerous and are a couple of inches long and cover the middle 2/3 of the mostly-underside of the bumber. They don't appear to be real deep but they are fairly rough (I'm so disappointed in myself that I can't yet bring myself to take too long of a look).

So you think a couple of levels of rubbing compound will smooth things out? What about repainting after things are smooth? Any suggestions on where to get some spray paint that will produce a decent match?

Given the location, the key thing for me is to get things smoothed out and get the color restored (getting rid of the exposed white). I'm hoping that once I do that it won't even be noticible.

Thanks caball88!

 

I'd say live with it unless it is really bad. You will probably get more anyway. The first nick always hurts the worst. I was ticked because I had several nicks /scratches in my red TL right from the factory but for the most part they are in places only I will ever see them. One was in the bumper and scratches in the plastic are a real pain to get out because they use a flexibizer in the paint to keep it from cracking and scratch remover compounds don't work as well as on sheetmetal.

 

if you decide to spray paint it to it will take alot of compounding to get it smooth and level. you can match the paint using the color code for your car. another alternative is to get the chin spoiler for the A-spec kit. it will attach underneath the front bumper and cover some of the scratches up. if i were in your position i would go this route as in matching the paint might not be 100%(and seems easier). if you go to a good body shop they can probably fix it but i'm not sure the cost of that. if the scratches are not down to the primer or bumper plastic a body shop can fix it pretty easily.