Bumper Damage HELP!!

[Alpo]

Hey guys I need some help I was backing out a friends driveway here recently and my bumper got caught and broken away from the bolts that hold it in place. Is there an easy way to repair that material? I'm not even sure what it's made of.... or how much would it cost to have it repaired professionally. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. I'm attaching some pics of the damage as well. thank you

 

[pasadena_commut]

Hey guys I need some help I was backing out a friends driveway here recently and my bumper got caught and broken away from the bolts that hold it in place. Is there an easy way to repair that material?

That's the rear bumper, right? I've had my front one off a bunch of times and it doesn't look anything like that, but I don't quite see how you could rip off the rear bumper like that while backing out.

Anyway, check out page 9-10-7 of the manual at http://protege5.ugly.net for instructions on removing the rear bumper. Once it's off you can see how bad the damage really is. Also you can hopefully retrieve the missing pieces, or at least compare the bad side to the good side to see how things should be.

It looks from the picture like the pieces that broke off are not visible from the outside of the car. If so you can patch with pretty much anything you want that will provide a hole for the screws that ripped out to go through. For instance, a bit of thin metal could be attached to the remaining pieces with a bunch of screws, nuts, and loctite (and maybe some goop or other adhesive smeared elsewhere).

I've got a 3"x3" hole in my left front wheelwell liner patched with a bit of the thickest vinyl floor tile I could find at Home Depot. It cost about $1 and was roughly the same dirty dark grey color as the liner that was being patched.The patch is gooped on and then there's a nylon screw through it. There is not much of a load on the patch and it has held up well for several months now. Vinyl floor tiles are pretty tough and are easy to work with. Just don't put it near anything hot. If you can find the missing pieces when you take the bumper off try gooping the bumper and broken piece to a backing of vinyl tile, which will probably hold it all together.

Or go to a body shop. When I was rear ended it was around $1K to replace the bumper cover and the bumper underneath. Probably $200 or so less for you since the bumper is ok.

Heck of a lot cheaper to patch it yourself.

 

[Alpo]

That's the front bumper. I appreciate the ideas I'll def check into all the cheaper options. It's not going to be visible so I should be ok with just a quick fix. Here's another pic to look at if anyone has any other ideas to shoot my way. Thank you for your help.

 

[pasadena_commut]

That's the front bumper. I appreciate the ideas I'll def check into all the cheaper options. It's not going to be visible so I should be ok with just a quick fix. Here's another pic to look at if anyone has any other ideas to shoot my way. Thank you for your help.

The front bumper cover hooks onto the front wheel well liner below where your pictures show. There could be all sorts of things messed up along there. Definitely take it off and have a look. There's also a sort of retaining clip that sits right up under the headlight where the bumper cover meets the body. Odds are pretty good that yours broke since they are fragile and the tabs it is supposed to engage are visible in one of your pictures. The clip isn't very expensive or very hard to replace, but you will have to remove the headlight on that side to do it. When you pull the bumper cover be careful with the clip on the other side, they are easy to break.

One note about removng the nylon screws that hold most of the plastic parts together. You may find that many of them will just turn and turn and nothing will happen. If you can pry the screw head up a little and then press on it sideways with a fingernail or small flatblade screwdriver while you gently unscrew it with a stubby Philips screwdriver it will come out.