Bumper scuffs

[Chill]

While on holiday this summer I reversed into a low concrete flower pot in the hotel car park, and scuffed the rear bumper, low down on one corner. The scuff has gone through the paint to the plastic below.

The dealer has quoted ~£300 to repaint the whole bumper, and says there isn't really an alternative, as any other type of repair will be visible and won't last.

So does anyone have any experience with alternatives? Is there some kind of plastic filler that can be colour-matched somehow and 'buffed in'?

The scuff is low down and not particularly visible so I was thinking that a reasonable repair might suffice until the next time I reverse into something!

[CJ7VFR]

How wide and how long are the scuffs?

If they are less than an eigth of an inch wide, and only a few inches
long, you can get yourself some touch-up paint from your dealer, and
touch it up yourself.

If you buy the touch-up paint in the spray cans, that is best. And get
yourself a nice little brush from a hobby shop, that has soft bristles that
are about 3/8 of a inch long.

Clean out the scuffs as best you can with soap and water, and dry it real
good with a non-lint cloth, like an old teeshirt or micro fiber cloth.

Then, shake up the spray can to mix up the paint, and use either the lid
from the spray can, or some other object that can hold some paint in it, but
is small enough for you to work with. I like to use the paint can lids, as they
are a good size, and they are always there for me!

Spray the paint into the lid for a few seconds until you have enough that
it can be swished around. About what would fill the lid of a 12 oz twist off
coke or pepsi bottle.

Then, use your brush to swirl the paint around some to mix it up good, and
then clean off the brush with a towel.

Now, take the brush, and dip the bristles in the paint, and apply the paint
to the scratches in thin coats. The object here is to keep the paint in the
scratches, and not get it on the surrounding good paint.

You want to apply the coats of paint in thin layers, as you are going to
be doing ALOT of coats, and thin coats work best.

You will have to do this about 10 or more times, to build up the paint in the
scratches to the level of the surrouding paint.

After about a week, you can go back and buff it with some rubbing
compound if you are carefull, and don't rub too hard.

Or, if you have an auto parts store nearby, you can see if they have a
touch-up paint section, and you can get yourself something called Paint
Leveler.

This stuff is made to remove paint from high spots on touch-ups, and
basically "levels" the new paint, and smooths it out to the height of the
surrounding paint.

If you are carefull, and take your time, the result will be a scuff that is
only noticable at 3 feet or less.

Hope this helps. This is more for scratches, but if what your are describing
as "scuffs" are like scratches, then it should work.

Jim

[Chill]

Jim

Great tips, thanks. I'll try to post a picture of the scuff - it's more like a large number of parallel scratches making a patch roughly 3" diameter. One or two scratches are deeper than the others, but I reckon I could cover up a lot of them using the method you suggest. I doubt it would take many coats for most of them actually, and even a single coat would hide the whiteness of the scratches.

I half imagined there might be some sort of plasticised filler that could be rubbed into the scratches and buffed smooth - maybe I've spotted a gap in the market!