So I was rear ended over the weekend. More of a love tap, but the result is 2 screw indentations as shown in the pics below, and the edges of the bumper right below the outer edges of the rear taillights i can "push in" a little bit.

I'm thinking if I can just remount the bumper, and somehow patch up these 2 spots I can have it all fixed up. Anyone have any ideas as to how I can patch this on my own?

http://fantasticsuperclub.org/stuff/IMG_1472.JPG
http://fantasticsuperclub.org/stuff/IMG_1474.JPG

Btw the car is usually very clean, it just rained today .

 

Looks like you may be able to touchup with just some paint and some light sanding. It's very hard to see how deep those indentations are so it looks like a scratch mostly. You might want to check out http://www.paintscratch.com - they have lots of stuff and some decent howtos as well.

 

biggest pic evar

 

You'll never get it to look like it wasn't hit if its not done properly. Get the guilty party to pay for the repair and have a body shop do the job correctly.

 

^^^^what he said...but if you had access to a body shop and some experience its not hard.

 

I agree gdong will always know where the two blemishes are even repaired. But this could be the lessor of evils- getting a new repainted bumper might not be the best solution two years down the road if the paint flakes or fades. I think I would try to touch it up and see how it looks- doesn't prevent getting some $ from the other party though.

My rear bumper suffered a blemish from our rollup door weeks after I bought me car new. This happened when my kids kicked the bump stop on the garage floor that caused the back of the car to stick out more and get hit. I was very pissed and have since place ducktape around the bumpstop so I know if it has moved. Fortunately the door only scratched a dime size piece of the bumper near the trunk opening corner instead of the more common 6 inch scrape vertically down the bumper that is so common.

It took a little time with a few iterations (WDP has 3 color coats), but most people would never notice the issue- I see it though, but it's ok now. Since that repair, there has been one other minor blemish but again only I will notice it.

I guess what I'm saying is the blemish isn't that bad even now and certainly much less with 1 hour's work with some touchup paint- I bet dealers fix this stuff with touchup all the time and most used-TL buyers don't noticed at all or well after their purchase.

If you do get some money, you might find more enjoyment buying a mod instead than having the worlds finest bumper- especially if the car has curb-rashed wheels or other defects that are more noticeable.

 

^^first off..if you get your bumper painted at a real collision center or dealership (NOT MAACO) your bumper will not fade or flake in 2 years.

aslo..touch up paint will not fill in dents..it will just look like shit. and no..dealerships don't use it all the time. touch up paint is used to paint the smallest of nicks and scratches..

 

^ I might be missing something in the pictures, but aren't those scratches less than 1/4" long? That's perfectly within the capabilities of touch-up paint. If the OP doesn't feel comfortable doing the work, any good detail shop could do that easily.

Also how deep do you really think those holes are? They don't look deeper than 1mm at most. A good filler or a number of coats of touchup and some light sanding will deal with that easily if you're OK with a 98% decent job. If you demand a 100% complete job then by all means get the bumper painted. We all make that decision ourselves. If it was me, I would try the touchup route because there's nothing to lose but 1 hour or so of time and the cost of a bottle of paint.

You could take your car to a great bodyshop and still suffer from problems with the paint. I would never take a TL to Maaco and never assumed that anyone would do that. I'm just suggesting a quick alternative to having the car in the shop for a day (minimum) and most likely 2-3 days. The OP will also not be able to wash it for a couple of weeks, not to mention potential future issues down the road.

Remember guys, we have a TL and not a Lamborghini. Don't get me wrong, I love my car a lot and take great car of it-park in good spots, garage it, maintenance, etc. My car is exposed to a cold cruel world that doesn't appreciate it as I do. Most of our cars will be over a year old so some of the honeymoon time might be wearing off as well.

I got the impression from the OP that maybe he didn't want to go the expensive route and touchup is a reasonable solution that will fool 80% of car buyers and certainly any dealer on a trade-in.

A car A with 35K miles and a couple nicks in bumper like shown in this thread will be more desirable than car B with perfect back bumper but 40K miles -assuming all other characteristics are equal. Make sense? In fact, I probably wouldn't want car B if it had been repainted to have that perfect bumper anyway because of potential problems.

Perhaps the OP knows who did the love tap and simply doesn't want an insurance claim for about $500, ding the other driver's record, and ultimately all our rates in some form or another. It would be nice to hear and update from the OP.