So as i was driving home today from work...there was a truck 2 cars in front of me...some metal pieces fell out from the back of the truck and well it struck my car and my front bumper got a scratched a little. Here is a pic...what can i do to fix this other than bringing it to the body shop?





I mean the damage is not that huge but I just hate to see a scratch like that on a beautiful car.

 

Don't see a pic.

 

Pictures no worky...

I feel your pain. The other day a car in front of me ran over an 18 wheeler tire and launched it at my car. I was able to brake enough so it wouldn't hit my winshield but ran over it (cars where on each side so I couldn't swirve). Put some cracks in the paint on my front bumper

 

How about now?

 

First thing to do is follow the truck and get a plate #!

Here in MA, if the debris is flying in the air and lands on your car, it's 100% covered.
If the debris is in the road, flies up and hits your car, you're responsible for costs and insurance premiums unless you can prove where the debris came from.

A friend at work is going through this exact same thing. Scrap metal came off a truck and hit the front of her 3-series. She didn't get the truck's info and she's now screwed, having to pay for this out of pocket herself.

 

Well i didn't think it was that bad until i got home..it was too late then : /

 

You can't repair that yourself, especially since you have IP paint. You'll need a professional to color match and repaint those areas.

 

I smell a comp claim!

 

For the time being.

 

get a nice decal and cover it

 

You know I've got two scratches like that on my rear bumper and mine's IP as well. If I get the whole rear bumper painted again do you think the color would look out of place to the rest of the car?

 

Ya im prety sure it would. The best they can do is fade it with from other parts of the car to make it unnoticable (which is what ive seen many shops do)

 

humm how do they exactly fade it with other parts of the car?

 

I had a rip in my bumper thanks to an uninsured eighteen year old backing into me and I was able to repair it by gluing a backing into the bumper and then carefully cutting away the rough edges. Then it is just a matter of patience... fill using a flexible filler (I used a metal filled putty I had laying around the house), sand, fill, sand, fill, etc. To finish I just used a touch up bottle from the dealer, let it try, compounded it out and then polished it with a two part polishing system I got at Advance auto.

If you are right on top of it you can see it, but otherwise it is pretty good.

I also considered having the whole bumper painted, but on my Ody van after 5-6 years you can clearly see where the paint doesn't match... you could not see it when it was painted. The original color and the respray on the bumper faded or aged differently.

Good luck
Sunil

 

From what they've told me, lets say they painted your fender, then they would (if needed) begin to darken or lighten their mix and fade the fender from where it closes up to another body component like the door, hood, bumper towards the center of the fender. Doing so allows the viewer to asume the light shades are due to lighting. ( its sort of like applying gradient in photoshop).