Scuff on bumper...suggestions for DIY repair??

My husband scuffed my front bumper on a high curb last night, and its pretty noticeable...at least to me... and I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions about how to repair it myself and make it less noticeable.

I just bought the car, so I don't have the $$ to have a shop fix it...plus its hard to justify for minor cosmetic damage.

I do have a touch up paint pen, but the scuff is rough and I honestly dont think just putting touch up paint on it will help.

Lend me your expertise and let me know what I can do to hide it.

I would tape off the area around it then wet sand the high spots with 400 grit to a point where it is level with the surrounding area. Get a small rubber spreader and some spot putty and fill in the scratches. Let it dry and wet sand again. Fill in any low spots and let dry. Wet sand again until the area is like its original form. This may take a few times to get it just right. When you have the shape right wet sand the painted area with 1000 grit in about a 6 inch area around the repaired area. You just want to scuff the paint slightly, not alot. Now tape off the trim in that area as to not get paint on that. Take time and care while doing that. Now spray primer on the repair and try your best not to get into the color area around it. If the primer is rough you can wet sand it smooth. Now spray the primed area with color and fade it into the surronding color area. After doing that do the same with the clear coat extending a little beyond the color and sanded area. The materials should be about $50

Yeah your not repairing that very easily. The simplest method would be to sand down until it’s smooth then get a touch up pen for the color code and color it in.

JohnnyL described exactly what to do, but that is a lot for most folks to do. You could take the sweep under a rug approach and put a front nose mask (bra) on your car. That will cover it up and expose you to critics of the car bra.

JohnnyL said:

I would tape off the area around it then wet sand the high spots with 400 grit to a point where it is level with the surrounding area. Get a small rubber spreader and some spot putty and fill in the scratches. Let it dry and wet sand again. Fill in any low spots and let dry. Wet sand again until the area is like its original form. This may take a few times to get it just right. When you have the shape right wet sand the painted area with 1000 grit in about a 6 inch area around the repaired area. You just want to scuff the paint slightly, not alot. Now tape off the trim in that area as to not get paint on that. Take time and care while doing that. Now spray primer on the repair and try your best not to get into the color area around it. If the primer is rough you can wet sand it smooth. Now spray the primed area with color and fade it into the surronding color area. After doing that do the same with the clear coat extending a little beyond the color and sanded area. The materials should be about $50

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Obviously a time consuming process....but how does it look and hold up over time?? I dont mind putting in the work if the results are good. And yes- some of the results will depend on skill, but Im confident in my painting and samding abilities. I will say that it makes me cringe to think about taking sandpaper to my paint job.....but maybe Im worrying for nothing....IDK.

If I decide to bite the bullet and do it I'll post pics of the process. Kinda scary though

Because the bumper is plastic you may also want to consider some adhesion promoter before applying the base color coat for a more successful repair.

https://tcpglobal.com/products/sem-39863_5

Yeah I watched this vid bc the guy was a novice just to see what I might be getting into. Seems like its doable....just a lot of patience. Oh and a lot of sanding...scary LOL

That spot will always get scratched.

It looks pretty easy to touch up because the scratched area is just below a sharp edge that will hide eventual paint differences. I would just fill everything with touch up paint and polish.

jessieomc said:

Obviously a time consuming process....but how does it look and hold up over time?? I dont mind putting in the work if the results are good. And yes- some of the results will depend on skill, but Im confident in my painting and samding abilities. I will say that it makes me cringe to think about taking sandpaper to my paint job.....but maybe Im worrying for nothing....IDK.

If I decide to bite the bullet and do it I'll post pics of the process. Kinda scary though

Click to expand...

Yes it will take you 2-3 hours. Yes it will hold up over time.
This is the way I look at. If you use touch up paint you will not be totally happy with the results and your eyes will always be drawn to it.
I did do a repair a few years ago on my BMW bumper and the first painting try didn't look great so I did some light sanding and did it again and it was near perfect. The way I see it is the worst that can happen if it doesn't work out a body shop will do it for about $300 but you'll be happy with the results.

I used the Honda official touch up to cover up a scratch on my lower lip and it works great. I did it paint it for 3 layers.

I got almost the same mark but from some kind of road debris early last year. Only diff is it is the mirror side of yours. I just left it alone where my car is black. I only ever found it because I was detailing the car in the spring. You could indeed sand it but man, you could be quickly making it stand out to you even more. That is a particularly curved/curvy part of the painted bumper. Making it blend in will be hard to impossible.

If you want a real cringe, go look at what I did this weekend. I cleaned it up pretty good but count yourself lucky and just accept that there will for sure be more and more of these little friends showing up on your bumper cover. I was pretty rotted with myself yesterday but really, I will just go a few more years and let it get used more and then replace the cover in one go at a body shop. These cars are so low to the ground, it is nearly impossible to avoid impacts and rubs on the lower portions of the bumper. I was at the grocery store this afternoon and a Gen9 black was right next to me and there is indeed a noticeable difference in clearance under the bumper cover. At least an inch difference.

Heres what I did for my scratch which was worst than yours. I went to the auto store and purchased the following:

-3M assorted sandpaper (220, 440 , 800, 1000)
-3M bumper repair kit
-Duplicolor Perfect match (color of your car)
-Duplicolor Perfect match clear coat
-Duplicolor sandable primer

Total cost ended up around 60$ CAD.

I sanded down the scratch with the 220 until it was level with the rest of the bumper, used the bumper repair kit filler (the scratch was pretty deep), sanded that down until it was smooth with the rest of the bumper. sprayed the sandable primer and sanded that again (you want this super smooth). put 2 coats of the perfect match paint and then the clear coat goes on last (30 minutes interval)

the end result was unnoticeable as if the scratch was never there. only part that was "off" was the paint but it wasn`t too bad for 60 bucks. i had to use taffeta white instead of orchid white pearl which meant it didn`t have that shimmer. unfortunately dont have any photos as I got it repainted from an accident recently.