Argh! I'm on week 6 of ownership and I scraped the hell out of my airdam. I've been so careful because I knew how low the front of the car was. But last night while making a U-turn I managed to scrape the curb right in front of the right tire. Has anyone repainted just an impact spot or should I repaint the whole bumper cover to assure the color matches? Or maybe just forget it because it'll happen again and again... I know I'm just ranting now.
This is a great opportunity for you to learn how to paint your bumper. Not everyone gets this opportunity. I have a pictured "how to" on my website to get you started and the color match is pretty much dead on. You can go to a bodyshop but expect to pay about $600 for a bumper repair and paint, at one repair every 6 weeks it would cost you about $5K per year in bumper repaints. You can ignore it if you can't possibly learn to park properly but if it's a problem, maybe strategically placed parking cameras may help. That's what my buddy had to do.
I did the same thing while backing out of my driveway too fast...i just sanded it and bought a can of modeling paint and repainted it. Not too shabby! Not perfect, but no one is gonna be starring at the underside of your car while you're driving.
Black is a litle different for touchups. I used to use a black permanent marker for touchups on my old black C230 coupe when I scraped the bumper, but other colors demand more precision.
Sorry to hear about your scrape. I bottomed out on some bumps and scraped up the chin with about 1000 miles on the car. I had the bumper cover replaced and it was around 870 bucks and painted. Some other undercladding was replaced as well. I submitted an insurance claim since the car was so new.
If it's not too bad, I'd try to touch it up. These cars are low enough that it's going to be a common occurance--I drive extremely carefully with this car now and wish I would have gotten a 280 4matic for the extra clearance.
Tough decision reporting a single car collision to the insurance company as the rate increase will probably exceed the claim. Do it again in a short amount of time and they will probably cancel you.
Well, it seems that the scraping of the air dam is very common so i thought it might be fun to see who's got the worst scrape by having every "scraper" post pictures of their custom bodywork (or not if you think this is stupid.) Here's mine:
Buellwinkle,
Wow, nice scrape & nice repair. Did you repaint up to the crease line? On the +'05 there's no good place to stop the new paint and I'm afraid there will be an abrupt change of color/texture/sheen if i try to spot paint it. Tough your pics give me hope.
I see what you mean but there's a visual break at one of the creases that should be fine. Remember, this is the bottom of the bumper, not your hood, perfection is not required. What pro's use to soften the line instead of using masking tape, get a strip of foam and fold it over the line so it creates a nice soft edge and then apply masking to the top of the foam. Then you color sand the color coat to blend it in an then clear coat over the larger area so it's not obvious where the break is. The color match was pretty much dead on though.
What exactly did you do ? I have a small scrap on mines. The scrap is like that white car pictured above. How much will a body shop charge for a small job like that ? Or can I do it myself for cheap ?
What exactly did you do ? I have a small scrap on mines. The scrap is like that white car pictured above. How much will a body shop charge for a small job like that ? Or can I do it myself for cheap ?
If you haven't visited Buellwinkles site there are very detailed pics & instructions. I, on the other hand, managed to run over a tire and ripped off the entire lower section of my bumper cover which amazingly takes all the attention away from the minor scrape. (see separate post) And now that everything has been replaced (thank you insurance) I noticed over the weekend that one of my new foglights has been reduced to shards. Oh, when will it end? :crybaby2:
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