Rear bumper scrapes - Cheap fix?

[FR_Flavoured]

Hi guys,

One of our Leons has scrapes on the rear bumper due to a slow reverse (2 / 3mph max) into a car park wall !! - where the protruding barrier has just caught! Dont ask! hmmm.

A local bodyshop has suggested a full rear bumper respray! But considering the bumper itself has not been damaged at all, I'd prefer to go with a 'cheaper' solution if possible !?

Thankyou in advance.

 

[n_d_fox]

Any chance you can throw a few pics up of the damage?

I'd hate to jump in saying they will polish out if they wont.

 

[FR_Flavoured]

Hi n_d_fox, thankyou for your speedy feedback.

....yes no problem, I will put up a pic by the end of today (once I leave work).

To be honest, perhaps "scrapes" is a bit harsh - I'd call them more deep scratches, however the frustrating bit is they are along the central 'face' of the rear painted bumper, where it drops off.

If they were 'in' the rear tailgate area, I'd be tempted to cover it up with Vinyl or something!

 

[FR_Flavoured]

Says alot about the crappy iPhone camera (poor)!!

Well you can see around the centre of the pic - deep scratches.
Also where you see the 'white' underneath the paint, its scraped through!

Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated.

 

[Dubb]

its hard to tell by a photo but if you have a machine polisher, then you could try wet sanding with some 2500/3000, and see how it turns out, but from the photo it looks like the paint is chipped off, you could fill them with touch up paint then sand it, then polish it. worth a go! hope it helps

 

[FR_Flavoured]

Hi Dubb, thankyou for taking the time to provide feedback.

Yes, where the white spots are, the paint has been scraped off.
Also the whole area could do with a sanding & a polish (as you indicate), as around the scrapes its left rough paint.

Would be a pity to spend £400+ on a complete bumper respray, when a polish might tidy the area up so its virtually disappeared. Will definately look to give that a go...

 

[n_d_fox]

As above... touch the marks in with a touch up pen, couple of applications so the touch up sits proud of the rest of the paint, then leave it for a few days at least to harden up and then wet sand and polish.

It wont be 100% but it will be better than it is at the moment and will be cheaper than a resprayed bumper.

The other scratches look quite shallow so they will more than likely be removed with the sanding and polishing.

When you sand, go in different directions with the different grade papers so you can see when you sand out the deeper marks. try the lighter paper first and soak the papers overnight in soapy water.