Attempting DIY Bumper Repair........

[seismic22]

I'm looking to tidy up the unsightly damage to the rear bumper on my 320d touring. I bought the car like it and the previous owner seems to have been a bit enthusiastic with the halfords touch up pen on onside before thinking better of continuing onto the other side.

I recently made a small repair on a silver front bumper using a number of different grades of wet and dry, a miniscule amount of flexible bumper filler, halfords primer and halfords premixed manufacturer specific silver (it was a sunday, I was feeling impatient and only halfords was open!). I didnt get round to laquering it (i bought a can). My spray technic was to hold the can quite far away and very very lightly spray the area short and sharp, 2-3 times letting it dry a little in between and though very slightly darker on inspection the colour match was good and once fitted barely noticeable even with being laquered.


My question is, these scratches are bigger and on relatively flat panels where a repair is likely to be more obvious. Can anyone suggest/ give me a break down on the best method to do a good DIY repair?


I know I should go to a bodyshop but I have all the materials already to give it a go myself. If it doesnt work out, I can prep the bumper myself and send it to be painted or more likely hunt for a used item in colour instead. Thanks

[Andehh]

Can't add much, but will watch with interest - wife's car is in a similar condition!

[steveo3002]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlYmVel74fk

thats not a bad how to

those spraymax 2k cans are far nicer than halfords type paints too

[The Surveyor]

It's the wrong colour to be trying a DIY repair. Silver is an awful colour to match.

[73mark]

Remove bumper sand/fill/sand/spray the whole bumper with rattle cans colour matched of course.

YouTube has loads of how too's.

By the time you've got it to where your satisfied car will be out of action for about 2 days

Edited by 73mark on Tuesday 11th August 13:28

[BOBTEE]

I'd be looking to swap that out with a used one in the same colour if possible

[seismic22]

Swapping with a used one is what I have done in the past and would prefer to do this but seeing as I have the paint and would like to keep costs down on this vehicle I might still give it a try.

I know silver is the hardest (or one of) to match and I said I would never buy another silver car again due that reason but this car was too good too miss for other reasons.

[BuzzBravado]

Forget about trying to save money just cause you have the paint, it will look crap. Another bumper in the same colour is the best way to go bang for buck.

[seismic22]

BuzzBravado said:

Forget about trying to save money just cause you have the paint, it will look crap. Another bumper in the same colour is the best way to go bang for buck.

Agreed that used is the best idea, but on that basis its not going to hurt or cost me anything to give it a go beforehand. I can spare a couple of hours..

Thanks

[MDMetal]

I'm of the same mind-set if you'd replace the bumper anyway then replacing if it's a poor job hasn't lost you anything and it's given you something fun to do and if your only after an 80%-90% level of finish then why not. Sure it's not suitable for a show room finish but I'm guessing your not after that so go for it! Take your time, validate each step. Don't ever (I do this so much) look at something that's not quite right early in the process and think it won't cause an issue later, it will! Put the effort into the prep and your results will be fine

[ALBA MELV]

Here's a bookmark I've had saved for future reference which should help you.

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

[anonymous-user]

Forget DIY and get a smart repair done. They use proper paint and laquer, probably cost £150 tops inc materials.

[freshkid]

Forget DIY is good advice I'm sure but not really relevant. He has specifically said he wants to try a DIY job to see how it works out and just wants to know the best way to proceed.

The answer is to take the bumper off and try to respray and colour match the whole thing rather than patching it.

If it was me, I'd just try patching anyway to see how good the results are when you fly in the face of the 'right and proper' way of doing things.

Yes it will probably look st but at least you'll have found out through trial and error and this thread can then be committed to history so that mankind can be free of making such errors in the future.

[anonymous-user]

freshkid said:

Forget DIY is good advice I'm sure but not really relevant. He has specifically said he wants to try a DIY job to see how it works out and just wants to know the best way to proceed.

The answer is to take the bumper off and try to respray and colour match the whole thing rather than patching it.

If it was me, I'd just try patching anyway to see how good the results are when you fly in the face of the 'right and proper' way of doing things.

Yes it will probably look st but at least you'll have found out through trial and error and this thread can then be committed to history so that mankind can be free of making such errors in the future.

That was sort of my point. History is already with such tales of failed bodgery so best save your cash and cough up a little extra for the time of a professional sprayer with proper materials. It's partly skill but the main thing is the paint from rattle cans often doesn't match so whilst surface preparation and filling is easy, getting the paint to the same standard is pretty difficult. Smart repairers will turn up to your house and by the time you've been to halfords for all your materials, taken into account your own time and the fact is will look st, it's a no brainier. Just trying to save the guy some time and money.

[73mark]

wormus said:

freshkid said:

Forget DIY is good advice I'm sure but not really relevant. He has specifically said he wants to try a DIY job to see how it works out and just wants to know the best way to proceed.

The answer is to take the bumper off and try to respray and colour match the whole thing rather than patching it.

If it was me, I'd just try patching anyway to see how good the results are when you fly in the face of the 'right and proper' way of doing things.

Yes it will probably look st but at least you'll have found out through trial and error and this thread can then be committed to history so that mankind can be free of making such errors in the future.

That was sort of my point. History is already with such tales of failed bodgery so best save your cash and cough up a little extra for the time of a professional sprayer with proper materials. It's partly skill but the main thing is the paint from rattle cans often doesn't match so whilst surface preparation and filling is easy, getting the paint to the same standard is pretty difficult. Smart repairers will turn up to your house and by the time you've been to halfords for all your materials, taken into account your own time and the fact is will look st, it's a no brainier. Just trying to save the guy some time and money.

It would help if you two read op's statement about him having the paint that is matched already and the fact he wants to give it a go.

[freshkid]

73mark said:

It would help if you two read op's statement about him having the paint that is matched already and the fact he wants to give it a go.

That's exactly what I'm saying. Even though we KNOW it's going to look st he wants to try for the sts and giggles.

[seismic22]

73mark said:

It would help if you two read op's statement about him having the paint that is matched already and the fact he wants to give it a go.

I'm not naive to the fact that most repair attempts end up looking worse than started but giving it a go is going to cost me zilch. I have "patched" the front bumper of another Titan silver car as mentioned above and the colour matched well enough to the point that no one noticed I had done anything. Just wanted advice on how I could improve upon this previous attempt as I accept a flat panel like the one in question will be harder to hide.

If I cock it up, I'll buy another "used" bumper but be satisfied I tried. Like a poster said above I am only looking for a 85/90% result.

Thanks

[freshkid]

Go for it. It will be fun and you might prove the experts wrong and get a decent result

[73mark]

If you overlap spray 50% and be confident,spray it on as quickly as you can without putting to much on so it runs.

If you've done it before and the preparation is done right,spraying is easy.

I've spray a few of my cars in the past silver one as well and I've just got better and better at it now. friends and family ask me to do their cars.

[seismic22]

This is the corner of a front bumper I repaired (pretty much my first attempt at such a repair), there was a deep scrape to the top corner of the vent/fog opening and other deep scratches above. Took me an evening of rubbing back, filling and spraying, walking away and spraying again later etc etc. Very very very light coats from a distance. Doesn't look "st" to me, just a tad darker and a abit dull (no laquer) in the flesh. Just wanted any advice on doing better job on a flat/more visible panel as know this will be harder.