Sad day for the Boxster, its been punched in the rear...
 

Heya,

So I walk out to my car the other night and I notice a nice dent punched right into the back bumper near the driver's side taillight. Probably a pick-up backed into it or something.

I'm trying to figure out the best (read: cheapest) way to get this fixed, as the bumper isn't creased in any way. It looks like it could be popped out, I (and any dent removal places) can't seem to figure out how to get behind the dent without removing the rear bumper.

I know I have the option of replacing the bumper and getting it paint-matched, but I plan to repaint the car in spring of next year anyway, so it'd be a waste of money to fix it "correctly" at the current time.

Does anyone have any ideas for me? I live in central NJ if you have a shop or DIY guy in the area that you know. Thanks!

Sorry to hear about this happening but at least they didn't do any more damage.

The bumper is plastic, and if it hasn't cracked you may be able to fix it yourself so it looks alright. You're probably going to need to remove the bumper, do a search for instructions. Then just try and pop it back into place, like you said. The only tip I know of is to use a hair dryer to heat the plastic, that will help it move back into place more easily.

you could try a combination of a suction cup and heat gun.

look up and try out a paintless dent removal shop, or PDR tech in your area that can come by to fix it...

Plastic has a memory like most molded items. Try to heat the bumper up as suggested and it should be pliable enough to push back out into shape. Worst case, you could probably have the cover removed, repaired and refinished for 400 bucks or so.

Best of luck!

It's not that big of a deal to remove the rear bumper. All you need are a couple screw drivers... I'd take the rear bumper off, heat the area, and try pushing the dent back out from the inside.

Yes, removing the bumper is no big deal. Only tricky part is removing the top of the spoiler so you can access the two bolts below. That procedure varies with model year.

apply dry ice around the circumference of the dent, moving to the center of the dent as it pops out.

Would dry ice work on plastic? I thought that only worked on metal.

Also, does anyone have a link to a rear bumper removal DIY, its a 01 if that makes a difference for spoiler removal.

dry ice will work even better on plastic due to the higher thermal coeficient of expansion.

as for bumper removal, are you removing the entire bumper, or just the poly cover? i recall removing my cover WITHOUT removing the spoiler; i just put the spoiler in the 'up' position.

to remove the bumper cover, jack up the back of the car. remove the tail lights. remove the rear wheel liners. undo all of the screws in the wheel wells, under the back of the bumper, and on the top of the bumper cover. there are a few clips that hold the heat shield to the bumper cover that you'll need to remove. after that, the cover comes right off. this is all from memory; i don't remember it being all that complicated. here's an exploded view:

even if it look a big job, removing the bumper is probably simpler than trying to repair it on the car ;)

good luck with your dent..

On my car I could NOT get those three little plastic fasteners off the spoiler without destroying them. :p The first time I did that I tapped the holes and now use some pretty aluminum allen head bolts to hold the top of the spoiler on. Works great, looks great, and the bolt heads just barely clear the rear trunk. Given how many times I've had the &*$%@# rear bumper on and off while fitting and fine tuning my Gemballa bumper I'm very glad I replaced those stock plastic fasteners with bolts.

If I was to buy a service manual detailing this procedure, and all the others I might encounter would a Bentley manual be the best one to buy?

The best one is the factory manual, but the Bentley is less expensive and a lot smaller.

Getting behind it is really easy with a bar of some sort. I did it with mine and yes it just "pops" out. You may have to remove the plastic under carrage pan thing (mines not on, so I didn')

Regards, PK