I'm not looking strictly for sympathy. Mia is only 3 days old, but I feel this chip is like ripping off a band-aid. Get it over with. It was going to happen sooner or later as a city commuter!

I've never owned a car with painted bumpers that you breathe on and they chip. Can I do a reasonable touch up job on this, or should I look into a pro job? I would consider splurging since it's the first and I will be doing less street parking soon.




And as I had to explain many time to my wife, it wasn't my fault! It's the inside of the driver's rear, it's not physically possible to do that parallel parking! Some jerk parking behind me I guess.

 

OMG! Poor Mia!

rooandren, one of the major downsides (if not the major downside) to owning a metallic paint color is the difficulty in touching it up.

Here is my thought on it. You can try touching it up yourself, with this little mouse in the back of your head saying, "If it looks like poop, then I will get it done professionally."

Covering an exposed part of the body is pretty much the priority, even if it plastic.

Do I need to fix you up with a "#1 Ding in NFR" tag?

 

Depends on how much you are willing to spend.
To have a pro repair will likely cost around $500. I had bumper problem and was quoted that for a refinish. They will need to strip and repaint the entire bumper to get a good result.

Touch-up will be less, but you will be able to see the repair.

 

What thulchatt says it very true. Unlike solid colors which can be spot repaired with nearly no signs of the repair showing. Metallic colors almost always have to be done in complete body sections.

 

Why not try touch up and, if it isn't good enough for you, have it fixed professionally? My guess is, touch up won't be perfect. But, you might as well try.

 

Eeek! I had heard metallics were harder. Didn't know a pro would want to redo the whole bumper!!!

I should forgo spending money on a parking spot, save the money, and just have it painted every year! (KIDDING!) I'm having a good attitude, my wife is distraught. My fear though is I might kill my father-in-law. He's going to see the car for the first time tomorrow, he's pretty OCD, and he's going to have a heart attack!

 

He wouldn't necessarily want to redo the bumper, but he most likely would want to cover a much larger area than the actual damage so that it blends well.

 

Go to langka.com and check it out. I bought their kit on paint chip repair and it works great. I'm not sure how it would work on your's as it bigger than a chip.


06MCS/DS/B/Bbonnetstripes/Whalen8ballshiftmachine

 

Thanks for the input, I'd be happy for more!

Skuzz-siggy is duly updated

 

langka ain't gonna work for that large of a chip

 

Check locally for a touch-up specialist.

On my last car the bumper had been rubbed by a fender (no damage but the paint had been rubbed off leaving black smudge mark - The black was the base plastic). The car also had chips in many places where rocks and gravel had hit over the years. And lastly, there were areas on the car where I had used touch-up paint (you could tell if you looked closely). So .. I hired a touch-up specialist (a new car salesman had recommended him) who charged me $200 to make the car look flawless. He succeeded.

This guy had a special trailer with all his materials. Most of the time he and his helper visited car dealerships and took care of paint blemishes on trade-ins.

Wish I'd known years ago that these guys existed. When I had earlier taken this same car to those who repair damaged cars I was quoted $560 and $820 respectively just to do the bumper.

 

LynnEl
You may be correct, but the paint people I know would not blend a urethane bumper cover. It is hard enough to get the paint to match in the first place. On top of that, red is the worst color for fading at different rates.
While some might blend, I would not allow anyone to do that on my cars.
Just my $.02.

 

Where is he located at? We can't find anyone here that I'd trust with my Mini.

 

I'd be happy to hear Boston area recommendations as well, if anyone has any suggestions (to discuss it at least).

 

I just had two bids on painting back bumper one $500 the other $700.

 

Very true. I had a maroon 1977 Toyota Celica GT Liftback, which got hit on the side. The fade was horrible a year after the fix.

 

What a nightmare. Every time I go out to my car since picking it up last week I am afraid that there is going to be a dent or scratch on it. That is so unlucky that it happened to yours so soon. Hope you can find a good solution for it.

 

Thanks! But c'est la vie. I don't recall if you said you have a parking spot. As of today, I get to pay $125/month for a lot spot and/or protection. You should see the cars in my neighborhood. Front and back are just wide blurs of scratches, scrapes and marks. Granted, many have probably been parking on the street for 10 years... Best of luck to you!

 

$125 is pretty good, will you have a decent sized spot? I'm assuming this is for a lot outside of Boston near where you live or is it for work?

I kind of have off-street parking. There is a driveway that will fit three cars at my house, but it's a three-floor house and we don't have any system for the driveway other than first-come-first-served. People are constantly having to back out to let others out of the driveway when blocked in. I should be able to get my car in the driveway half the week or so. The rest of the time it'll be on the street. I don't drive to work though, so weekday/night driving is pretty limited (maybe once or twice a week). I've put almost 200 miles on it since picking it up Wednesday, which is about what I normally drive in a month.

 

Yea, it's a full size spot in a lot with decent cars (i.e. the audi next to me is hopefully more cautious of swinging doors than the 89 taurus on the street is about backing up into me).
Here's one of the funniest solutions I've found! Bumper diaper!
http://www.eurobumperguard.com/bumper_pad.html

 

Ouch, I certainly feel your pain. I would agree that the whole bumper will need to be done if you want to keep from wincing every time you look at the spot. Sounds like your parking options are limited at best. I'm absolutely obsessive about where I park my MINI, and will walk the entire length of a large parking lot if necessary to get where others can't open doors into it, etc. I STILL ended up w/ a slight door ding, and I really don't know how. Might even have been someone's fist. It was found by the estimator as he looked at the damage done after my door was run into and slightly creased while parked along the curb at a friend's house, looking absolutely safe. I was hit by a lady coming out of the driveway from the OTHER side of the street. She apparently thought that turning her car into the street as she backed up was an optional maneuver and used me as a car stop instead. The irony is that a week after I got my car out of the shop having had both the ding and the crease fixed, I was severely rear ended, as per my previous thread of that title. As the saying goes, when it rains, it pours. I guess when MINI comes out of the shop a month from now, I might want to give up driving until whatever's in the air goes away and makes my car a less attractive target. Otherwise, judging from the increase in damage and consequence per encounter, I won't walk away from the next one.

 

Eeek! Let's say instead that you have gone full circle, and now you'll be encouter-free for a couple of years!