Hey Guys,

Last weekend was a sad sad day for me. I'm such a dumbass. I scratched my rear bumper from the metal garage door handle. I totally noticed that I was cutting it kind of close too, but I figured I could get away with it. So I pressed the button to close the garage, and within seconds I heard this heart-aching screech, and in that panic I pressed the garage door button again and as it was coming up I heard an even more disheartening sound. On the way up, the door handle ripped into my bumper and kind of wrinkled it up. The long scratch is a good 5 inches and the other one is like 4 inches. I just bought touch-up paint from www.paintscratch.com along with some sandpaper, spot putty, and the flexible bumper repair kit. I didn't want to get it repainted professionally because I'm strapped for cash. So please, if you have any suggestions I'd totally appreciate it. I'm not even sure how I'm going to go about "touching it up." The scratches are pretty deep and the wrinkled portion is just nasty. I was thinking of just cutting that wrinkled part off and filling it in somehow and then just using the touch-up paint to cover it up. I'm not sure though.

 

damn that sucks

 

you'd have to use some body filler then sand and paint. I don't know how you could just do one small line though. Try taping the area around the scrape off, then putting the filler in and sanding. Hopefully the tape will withstand the sanding and you wont damage any more of your bumper.

As for the spray painting, you need to be a good couple inches away and sweep from side to side. Don't be too close because youll get blobs and running paint. Stand back maybe 4-6 inches and light even sprays over the area.

You're not going for professional body shop work, just get it so it's not an eyesore. When you have the money, then worry about getting it fixed right.

P.S. I don't take responsibily if you mess up your bumper even worse, this is just my opnion and I'm just trying to help.

Hooman

 

Hooman, I appreciate your suggestion. I didn't buy the spray touch-up paint, just the 2oz. bottle paint. Yeah, I've only had the car for about a month and a half, and this just really hurts. What kind of filler would I need? Is that the spot putty stuff I bought? And I figured when I get the money, I'll just buy a body kit.

 

That hurts man, and can happen so easily.
Have the body shop look at it. They're much more experienced with this than you and me. It's worth a good fix.
G/L

C.

 

I dont think you should try to touch it up. If it was me, I would repaint the bumper. Touching it up may leave a noticable difference.

-Mike

 

ahh i wouldnt even waste my money buying that crap for it, wont be the same

an accident is an accident, and it happens and will continue to happen and you gotta pay the price!
live with it for a little while so you can save up some cash

fix it professionally

 

how much do you think it would cost professionally? estimated cost?

 

Eeek! Sorry to see that. Hopefully you can get it fixed, and it will be like it never took place. I knew how you were feeling this past weekend, in a rush I backed out of a parking spot into a brick wall. The left side of my rear bumper was all smashed in (like someone kicked it in), and was scratched up beyond repair. Luckily I was able to find a forum member to hook me up with a replacement rear bumper (THANKS ducatiguy).

I used to have the same worry about clearing the garage door handle, until my gf bought me this little gadget:

http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog.jsp?&SKU=36895

I now always park in the same exact spot without worries. Good luck.

 

look around, call some people up and schedule an estimate tomorrow, it cant hurt.
you live in SoCaL, probably a lot of shops around there

 

Ouch.
I did the same thing a couple weeks ago to my G I was backing out of my driveway, and backed right into my other car. I ended up denting and scratching the left rear quarter panel right where the wheel well bulges out. I also scratched up the rear fender a bit. Estimate to fix it is 900 dollars. I'm taking it to Autometric, the best place for bodywork in the Detroit area, from what I hear. More expensive, but I want the best quality job I can get.

 

touch up paint for something that big will make it look 10 times worse.. if it was a very small area u can get away with it.. but touch up paint has an obvious discoloring to it when compared to the rest of the car..

 

Good lord $900!!! I feel worse now. The touch-up paint from paintscratch.com is supposedly way better than from the dealer. It comes with the primer, base, and clearcoat, so I'm hoping it'll match relatively well.

 

my guess is about 400-500 for profesional repaint. Good luck.

 

No worries man! I'm just happy I was able to help ya out! Stay away from brick walls, because I have NO MORE rear bumpers left - LOL...

As for what you can do about this post, that's a tough "boo-boo", not easy to fix without respraying the whole bumper. Filler, sanding and spot painting / buffing won't cut it in this case. I also second the "get it fixed by a pro" suggestion, but expect to shell out anywhere from $250-$400 for whole job. It's not cheap, but that's the only way you'll have it back to new again condition.