# Help - Bumper repair!



## robinl (May 14, 2009)

Long story short, I leant my car to my brothers wife whilst I was doing my brother a favour and cleaning hers!! - Well she has arrived home about an hour ago as white as a sheet and in a right old panick. 

Turns out, she has reversed MY car into a wall!! 

I am not happy! or impressed! but I think I can re-seat the parking sensor (which she has dislodged) and can take out most of the small scuff marks she has added with some time and care and my trusty DA and Menz polish.....but there are two marks where she obviously impacted which are a 5 pence piece diameter each in size which are pretty badly scuffed and go 1 mill bvelow the surface of the paint.....!

I have told her not to worry as I don't want her to feel any worse, but I am not sure how to remove these dings.....Can any one point me at a how to repair guide for bumpers including how to rub down (what unigrip to use), what to fill with if neccessary to build layer back up and then whats the best way to paint / spray them to hide.

Any help is greatly appreciated as always.

I'm now off to sob into my tea and polish the shotgun!

Thanks, Rob.


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## steveo3002 (Jan 30, 2006)

if its a half tidy car its gona be best to use a bodyshop or at least a smart repair guy


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## robinl (May 14, 2009)

steveo3002 said:


> if its a half tidy car its gona be best to use a bodyshop or at least a smart repair guy


Yeah, its less then two years old, immaculate everywhere, except the bumper now! - Any idea what sort of cost would be involved at a body shop?

Its a BMW E87 in Black.

Thanks


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## little john (Jun 10, 2007)

Places seem to charge more for painting bumpers, maybe due to them being plastic Im not sure, I needed what would normally be a touchup 5p sized scuff on the corner of my vectra bumper and the place was already doing some work on the car and they wanted £150 for a half bumper spray. I didn't get it done and had a play myself.


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## steveo3002 (Jan 30, 2006)

should be around £80 for a smart repair ( be carefull theyre not always that great )

maybe £150 at a bodyshop

once you add up a few rattle cans and sandpaper etc its not that bad really


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## robinl (May 14, 2009)

Little John did you get reasonable results? - I am thinking of going to Halfords to get some Davids filler and have a go myself....then prime and touch up with touch up paint......Now I have slept on it I am absolutely gutted but don't want to be paying silly money.


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## amcfad (May 22, 2009)

robinl said:


> Little John did you get reasonable results? - I am thinking of going to Halfords to get some Davids filler and have a go myself....then prime and touch up with touch up paint......Now I have slept on it I am absolutely gutted but don't want to be paying silly money.


By all means have a go youself but by the time you have paid for paint sundries etc. you will be half way to paying for a smart repair ! There are some excellent repairers out there unfortunately the bad one's get all the limelight !

I belong to a nationwide network of independent repairers, every technician has to of been repairing for a minimum of 4 years before they can join. Pm me if you want contact details of the office i'm sure there will be someone near you who can help or at least offer you advice on this !

Andy :thumb:


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## pdv40 (Sep 11, 2008)

robinl said:


> Yeah, its less then two years old, immaculate everywhere, except the bumper now! - Any idea what sort of cost would be involved at a body shop?
> 
> Its a BMW E87 in Black.
> 
> Thanks


Sorry to hear about this mate. If you're going to get it done at a shop, I can recommend Tonbridge Coachworks, myself and a few other locals have had work done there to a good standard. I had four very deep scratches that had gone through everything and deformed the plastic of the bumper repaired for £320. I'd imagine your work would be considerably less.


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## little john (Jun 10, 2007)

The results were ok, not perfect but it was a quick job just to make it less noticable and thats what it did. I should have spent a lot longer on it and it would have been better I will get round to doing it again at some point.


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## robinl (May 14, 2009)

Thanks guys, I have taken the first step and brought some filler from halfords and have this morning filled the offending holes (looks good at this stage!). It takes an hour to fully set so I will leave until after 2pm then rub down and see what I have achieved :doublesho

If this is not satisfactory I shall go down the coachworks / smart repair route - but this will need to wait til I get some more funds in the bank account!

Many thanks again, and the lesson here is never lend anyone (particularly family) your prized car - it really is frustrating when left with loads of work and having to take another day of work to try and resolve! hey ho!


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## adam87 (Dec 11, 2008)

you could always do the prep work yourself, rubbing down, filling, sanding smooth etc.. and then take it to a bodyshop for paint. A lot of the cost in painting is the prep work.


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## sootysteve (Jun 23, 2007)

how the hell do you reverse a car with a parking sensor into a wall?


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## slim_boy_fat (Jun 23, 2006)

sootysteve said:


> how the hell do you reverse a car with a parking sensor into a wall?


Just ignore "the funny noise the car's making"......:lol:


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## richie.guy (Apr 10, 2006)

adam87 said:


> you could always do the prep work yourself, rubbing down, filling, sanding smooth etc.. and then take it to a bodyshop for paint. A lot of the cost in painting is the prep work.


Most people massively underestimate how much prep is actually needed, though.

Or they do the prep incorrectly, then the bodyshop has to do it anyway.

Just let them do the work from the off IMO


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## amcfad (May 22, 2009)

richie.guy said:


> Most people massively underestimate how much prep is actually needed, though.
> 
> Or they do the prep incorrectly, then the bodyshop has to do it anyway.
> 
> Just let them do the work from the off IMO


Couldn't agree more ! i've came across some home repairs that have gave me so much grief having to undo them before completing the repair, that the extra time and effort has to be passed on, which ends up costing the customer more in the long run.


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## Fastmonkey (Aug 4, 2006)

Be good to see pictures of the damage and your efforts in repairing.

My wife's X5 is in the same position she revesred into the corner of the wall, and did this damage, I am just having a go at a repair at the moment.










Note the position of the parking sensor........... :doublesho :wall:


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## little john (Jun 10, 2007)

I know someone who had a 7 series with the parking sensors that does the radar image on the screen in the dash he managed to reverse in to a wall with it.


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## robinl (May 14, 2009)

Well guys, I decided to take the easy route and have booked the car into a well researched bodyshop - It goes in on the 19th and I get it back on the 21st.

I listened to all of the advice and decided that I probably would never be satisfied with a patch up job and decided to let the experts do it:thumb:

Now I am talking to my sister-in law again (joke) I asked her why he didnt stop when the bleeping started and she said, get this......I couldn't hear it over the stereo.......I'm not so sure I believe it, but hey ho all sorted for £150 and no more family arguments so I guess I am ok now.

Thanks for all your help - really appreciated.


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## robinl (May 14, 2009)

Well, I have just picked up my car from the coachworks that were repairing and respraying my rear bumper after my sister in laws redisgn work (let it go Rob!) and they have done a fantastic job, it looks marvelous.

They listened to me winge about the damage and then moan about how fussy I can be about my car but I needn't have worried as when I saw it today It was bloody brilliant, I am just so pleased as I have heard so many horror stories of this type of repair.......:thumb:

So as a thank you, the company in question are GL coahworks in sidcup (just off crittals corner) kent - I am so impressed everyone should now use them!!....if you want to of course, don't let me influence you!:wave:


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## Fastmonkey (Aug 4, 2006)

good to hear you got it fixed.


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