Mom drove my brother to school today, I stayed in bed (no exam). As she was backing the car back into its spot (underground parking), she scraped it along a little concrete barrier sticking out. Only the rear bumper is damaged. Pics below








I need mudguards. Badly.





That stuff on my nail is white paint from the concrete barrier. It can be scratched off but it's a pain to do.

Now the annoying part: Repair. Should I just buy a brand new bumper, or is it possible for it to be sanded down and repainted? If possible, I'd like to buy the bumper and paint myself and just pay for prep and labour.

Options?

 

Make your mom take care of it since she caused it. That's what I would do.

 

Sand it down and then try repsraying yourself see if you can get it to match closely. If that fails then go to a body shop.

 

Have you ever painted a bumper before? Do you have access to an HVLP paint gun? Where are you planning to get the paint, flex agent?
Rattle can painting will look like crap. Unless you're experience with paint blending it will look worse than if you just cleaned off the white paint.

Take it to a body shop, they can sand it down and blend it and make it look like new. I would think they'd charge you $200 for prep and paint.

 

You're not paying for this, right? Your mom is?

 

Don't attempt it yourself. Ask your mom to pay for everything to be done by a pro.

 

Pro is the way to go if you want it to be like before this incident. BUT if you can live with some of the damage, get some compound/polish and polish out the area and most of the paint transfer will come out. As far as the deep gouges, you can do touchup paint on them for the mean time. Will it look pristine, no, but cheaper and easier on your family, yes.

 

its a total loss.

Nah take it to a pro. unless you have experience fixing this stuff I wouldnt touch it

 

It'll buff right out with a little elbow grease.

 

must...resist...woman...driver...jokes......

 

^ Imagine how much harder it is for me, haha.

Guys, I meant I'd BUY the paint. I'm not gonna attempt to repair this myself, I'm still in high school for crying out loud. Or will I have no choice but to let the shop mix it?

Washing her tomorrow, see if that'll get the white paint off. Also gonna get some quotes this weekend.

 

Just take it to a body shop and have them take care of it.

 

If you are lucky, you may find someone to patch it for $200... I had a friend whose brother did this for me. Came out perfect. But most body shops will want to paint the whole bumper and charge $800+.

 

A good body shop will not need to paint the whole bumper. I had a similar scrape in my old car and they just repainted that corner of the bumper. It was something like $300.

 

Washed the car today, and most of the white paint can be scraped off with your nail. Yes, I know it's not good for the paint, but most of it's pretty much gone anyways. I'm gonna try getting all the white paint off, and see how noticeable it is. If it isn't noticeable, I won't even bother repairing it.

 

Take it from someone who ran into their garage...repeatedly....Mr. Clean Magic Eraser...

 

$300, spray the bumper, you're good to go. What's the problem?

 

The problem is, is that he's in high school, probably doesn't have 300 bucks to waste this on, and his mom probably doesn't want to dish out the 300 bucks.

 

Buff it out, touch it up, the paint is dark enough that you won't see the blems..

 

Plus, a little dab of that exact color in the area where there's a gouge and it will be hardly noticeable. So some work on your part plus $20-30 for the compound and paint.

 

Yep, that's the way I'm going. A teensy eyesore, but that's $300+ I don't have to spend.