Curbed the Front Bumper
 

Hello everyone,

I bought a used 2001 Base with 19,000 miles on it back in November. It's a great car, but I am accustomed to driving a Truck/SUV. I pulled just a tad too far forward into a parking space, hitting a cement curb and it scraped up the bottom of my front bumper. You can see from the pictures that you can't see it when looking directly at the car, only when looking at the right angle, or when when you're under the car.

I searched around and have noticed that this has happened to other people, so how did you go about fixing this? I have a local body shop I trust, but how much did it cost you? I am planning on taking it in for an estimate but just want to know what to expect.

Quick background of the car: Single owner, he only drove it when it was sunny and above 70 degrees. Not a single scratch on the car when I bought it. It sat on a lift and was polished weekly. He had to sell it due to health reasons, and here I am with it now.

Thanks!

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I'm having my rear bumper cover done next week because some guy cut a corner too close and dinged it. The estimate to take the cover off, paint the refurbished replacement cover and reinstall it is $1000. The replacement cover itself costs an additional $500. So the total job is $1500.

I'll bet the shop will quote you something in the $750 - $1500 range. It depends on whether its less expensive to get a refurbished bumper and paint it or to repair the scratches in the existing one and paint it. The shop may save some time by partially painting the bumper cover, but you might notice the difference more between old and new areas a couple of years down the road.

My front has similar scratches from the concrete stop bars you find in parking lots and steep driveway entrances. The scratches can't be seen unless one looks. So I decided to live with them because I'm sure the cover will get scratched in the future.

Thanks for the quick reply. Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is the bumper cover?


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What you see from the outside of the car is the bumper cover. On your car, it is the red plastic like item that is scratched. Under or behind the cover is a bar that is the actual bumper itself. The bumper is located right behind the quarter sized access hole for the tow hook. You can see it if you pop out the tow hook cover.

I was going to suggest trying to see if at least the scratches that are visible from the outside could be buffed out with a cutting pad and an aggresive polish. But I see there's a deep gouge in that second photo. Either way painting a front bumper is not expensive nor should you spend much on painting the bumpers if you park the car on the street ever. I had my front bumper painted by a shop that deals with lots of Porsches and not a month later some guy in an SUV backed into me when I was away from the car for barely 5 minutes. And to be quiet honest the difference between the expensive repaint and a cheaper one I did a few years back would only be noticeable to a very experienced eye. The cheaper repaint was just a tick darker. $250 vs $600.

I understand now. Thanks for the info. I will be taking it down to get new tires this week, and they will also give me an estimate then. I'll let y'all know

Thanks


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