How to fix car? Derp.

[Denchi]

So I'm an idiot and backed into a boulder. Was backing out of a long dirt driveway, lost track of the driveway, and instead of getting out and looking/turning around, I thought it would be a good idea to just keep going.

Yep, didn't turn out well, and I bumped into a low boulder. Chopped up my rear bumper. This is my car's first and only ding, and I'd like to try and fix it, but I have no idea how I would go about it.

I took it to a Maaco this morning to see what they would charge, and they want about $460. It's definitely not worth $460 to me to get fixed. So if I can do it for cheaper, I'm all ears.

Pics:

Spoiler: show

[Buffy]

460$ doesn't seem bad. They are going to have to even that out and match the paint and redo the whole bumper. Having said that, I bet you could find a local garage that does it half.

[Brill Weave]

That's actually fairly reasonable considering they are probably going to refinish the entire bumper.

[FNH]

If it isn't worth $500 to you, it will be very difficult to fix that. I wouldn't worry about it.

[Abandon]

adds character, ride with it

[Fr34k]

I had a local shop finish up a few hours of body work and spray my whole rear bumper on my SUV with 3 coats of black and 3 coats of clear for $300. You can probably find some place to do it cheaper, but probably not much cheaper.

[Zeb]

adds character, ride with it

bitches love scars, dudes love dents?

[Tyche]

You can find pre-painted bumpers on ebay for cheap.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2006-2007-20...555bf4&vxp=mtr

$220 shipped

[Abandon]

bitches love scars, dudes love dents?

yup

[Furionstormrage]

Whatever you decide, don't take it to Maaco. They have sub-par workmanship and materials. Going with a decent paint shop, you're going to be in for 300-500 to fix that, or try to find a pre-painted one on Ebay (as previously mentioned).

If you wanted to patch it up really really cheap, sand and scuff down the area that's messed up, slap some bondo on it, sand that down, and paint it with some rattle-can paint that matches your cars paint code. (Available at the dealership, or possibly Advance/Autozone/O'Reiilys etc). It won't look great, but it'll cost you about $20 and it'll pass the "looks good from 20 feet away" test.

[*Shinzon*]

You're never going to be able to touch up that area of by yourself. It'll need to be professionally painted in a controlled environment to match. You could fill it in a bit with some bondo but it's probably best to just let someone at a body shop that has a good reputation take care of it.

[archibaldcrane]

Leave that shit, jesus you can barely see it.

[Anakron]

You can find pre-painted bumpers on ebay for cheap.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2006-2007-20...555bf4&vxp=mtr

$220 shipped

This is a really good deal, but the bumper is probably not OEM. I can't imagine a new, painted bumper getting cheaper than this.

[djzombie]

That shit is cheap. When we were living with friends after just moving to the area before finding a place of our own they had a driveway built for two cars that they loved to shove 4 cars into, neighbors did the same and liked to park one of the vehicles in front of our mailbox. Backing out one day i knicked their bumper due to the cluster fuck that was their driveway. Insurance pays out 3000 bucks to fucking buff a tiny scrape off their bumper, there was no dents or anything, just paint. Needless to say they never even bothered to fix the bumper with that money, to this day its still got the mark there.

Before you say ermagerd all that for just paint, its westchester county ny, where things are expensive just to be expensive.

[Denchi]

Leave that shit, jesus you can barely see it.

This is what I'm thinking at this point.

For the amount of money quoted from you guys.....fixing it is going to cost a bit of money. If I did this shit again, or it got worse, I'd probably grab the bumper Tyche posted and just throw it on there (props for recognizing the late 2000 Civic Coupe btw). But at this point it doesn't seem worth it.

And it's a Civic....it's not like I have a reputation to uphold. Was just really hoping that there was an easier way out of this (was hoping I could get away with $50-$100).

Blegh, was just really trying to keep it spotless. Do those parts usually increase in price over time? Like in 5 years if I decide to sell the car, would it have been/be worth it to fix the bumper before trying to sell?

[archibaldcrane]

Just wait til you get rear-ended at some point in the next how many ever years - seems to happen to me once every few years. Then get it replaced on someone else's dime.

[BaneTheBrawler]

Leave that shit, jesus you can barely see it.

This. It might stick out and look ugly to you, because you know it's there, but I could barely see it in the first pic, and I knew there was something to be looked for.

[idklol]

This. It might stick out and look ugly to you, because you know it's there, but I could barely see it in the first pic, and I knew there was something to be looked for.

QFT. I didn't even see it in the first pic. Personally wouldn't bother myself. Like already said too there's no way of touching that up yourself, need a professional to repair and repaint it.

[Cyn]

Whatever you do, NEVER let Maaco or Peach touch your car lol.

[*Shinzon*]

If you're not going to get it fixed, then buy touch up paint from your local dealer and paint over it. What's going to happen is that it'll rust and weaken the entire bumper. That would drive me crazy but I got my car used with 50k miles on it and I've touched up every little spot I could that was chipped or missing paint. There's some things I've come to accept until I have money to respray my car.