So I woke up this morning to a beautiful new scuff on my 2008 PWB's bumper. Grrrr! Anyway, I wiped off the dudes bumper residue from mine and noticed a slight chip and about three lines. I thought the lines were scratches but they had no texture. I applied some Scratch X anyway and nothing happened. So upon closer inspection, I noticed it appeared to be some sort of stretch mark or stress mark. About 3 inches long. I've never seen such a thing on any car I owned. Any ideas?

BTW: I'll supply picks when I get out of work.

 

Ouch! I'm sorry for your pain...people can be soo insensitive...I hope some of the detailing experts here can offer suggestions based upon your upcoming pics.

 

Our Clubman was backed into a few months back, and besides a soccer sized dent in on of the rear doors, the bumper had some stress marks in it. My guess is the surface of the plastic had been distorted by the hitch that rode up on it. The body shop was able to fix the bumper, but the door panel had to be replaced.

Mark

 

Do u happen to know how they fixed the stress marks on the bumper?

 

They sanded them out, and re-painted the whole bumper. They determined that the bumper was still sound, as in it was not cracked.

Mark

 

Plastic wil stretch and deform......paint will not.

 

Yeah, but the paint lives on top of the plastic.

Odds are that you will have to have this area repainted.

 

The stress cracks you're seeing are likely in the paint's base coat. Automotive clear coat is remarkably flexible, but the base (color) coat isn't. As the plastic bumper deformed and returned back to its original shape, the clear coat was unharmed, but you ended up with cracks in the base coat.

As such, you're not going to be able to fix the cracks with normal detailing techniques, because you can't get to them - they're under the clear. So repainting the bumper is going to be the only way to fix this 100%.

 

Thanks for all the info guys. I'm pretty discouraged but I guess it's something I can live with for the time being. I'm not sure how much a repaint is going to cost and not sure it's worth it yet unless the mark gets bigger. I'm assuming at somepoint my bumper will continue to take damage as I'm currently street parking. I'll likely just repaint the bumper if things get worse.

Any idea how much a repaint will cost and what should I be worried about when getting a repaint? Thanks NAMsters!!

 

Cost for a rear bumper re-paint is determined by the value of who does the job x the fixed cost of the paint x by what your willing to be call fixed.

Get 3-4 quotes, then apply the above formula

Mark

 

Prices vary on location but I would guess in the $350 to $550 range to just respray and polish the bumper. Spot repairs would be less..but not always satisfactory.

I saw a picture somewhere...trying to remember where I saw it..of this huge plastic bumper you attach to the back of your car to prevent people from hitting your car. Looked kinda ridiculous...

Richard