This & That

[itsnotanova]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. To me, that looks like someone backed into your bumper with a trailer hitch. The dent looks too focused and small to be the middle of a bumper.

[78F350]

Thanks all...
I really don't have any doubt at this point that it was that Suburban. Given the layout of the parking lot and what was parked there that day, it wouldn't make much sense for any of the other vehicles to have done it. I'd park back to back with an early '90s Suburban to prove the point, but I've obsessed enough about this already.
Here's a pic with a slightly downward view of the Suburban bumper and how it lines up including the scuff on the bumperette.



Considering the mass of a Suburban slowly backing into the soft plastic bumper of a 986, I think she may not have felt it happen. ...I hope that she didn't.

I have another matching tail light already. I can do the paint work myself. I plan to get a gallon of Arctic Silver, so that along with the bumper, I'll have enough paint to fix some spots on THAT as well - hood and a rear fender.

[78F350]

I replaced the tail light and spent a few minutes with a heat gun to pop the dent out without taking the bumper off. Prepping and repainting the bumper is going to take a lot of time. For now, I have a temporary solution to cover the paint damage:

[78F350]

I have too many projects and too many cars. I plan to sell THIS and THAT. ...but I want to fix up a few things before I sell them so, MORE projects. THIS only has a few issues that I plan to address and one of them was the rear bumper damage. I didn't want to sell it with the stickers covering the bad paint.

I found a spray can of Arctic Silver Metallic 92U paint among my boxes of stuff that came with cars. It came from one of the several vendors... scratch-something or color chip. When tested, it matched color well and sprayed smooth. "Awesome." I thought, "I can just spray the bad corner and blend it in with the rest of the bumper." I did a few hours of prime and fill to get it perfectly smooth and feathered. I sprayed the color, the clearcoat and it looked decent, but was a little dark at one edge when it all dried. No big deal I thought, there was just enough paint left to go back over that edge. I did a light wet-sand then went to wipe it with a cloth that had some industrial grade alcohol. The alcohol turned the paint gummy and the cloth pulled streaks across the paint. Ruined and not much paint left. Time to pull the bumper off and do it right.


THAT needs some paint work too. It had a few rough spots when I bought it and they have gotten worse over time. I decided to get a full gallon of paint, a Nason single stage acrylic, and use it for both cars. About $200 at O'Reilly Auto Parts for the paint and hardener with Military (retired) discount. I already have some basic supplies, a 60 gallon air compressor, and Devilbiss spray gun set. All I need is some skill and more patience.

Re-sanded. Re-primed.


Re-painted. It looks pretty good from about two feet. The paint was still soft and a little tacky last I checked. Hopefully I can just put it on the car and leave it alone, but part of me wants to do a very fine sand and polish on it still - which will probably ruin it again.

[Homeoboxter]

Looks spotless to me. You really made that with a spray can? Great job, don`t ruin it!