Paint repair [non-LBC]

[William]

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Which is what happens when someone cuts across two lanes of a parking lot whilst you try backing out. Nobody's insurance wanted to pony up, so I'm stuck with the repair bill.

I've already replaced the taillight, but would like to get the paint scrapes in the bumper fixed. Since I'm broke, taking it to a shop is not an option-I'll have to do it meself. The paint is scraped down to the white plastic, and the plastic itself has some scratching as well. Fortunately there was no metal damage, so no rusties to worry about.

The way I figure it, I should be able to sand down the offending area, clean and prime it, and shoot some basic black auto paint over it. A little rubbing compound should finish off an at least somewhat presentable fix (the car is pretty ratty, with all kinds of dings and whatnot-many members of Miatanet would probably faint if they saw the condition of my car!).

Any other ideas, or am I on the right track?

-William

 

[jayhawk]

You can do a good job yourself. I've done similar work on my wife's cars and one of mine with the "rattle cans". You might want to check the auto parts stores for the specific
Miata paint-- black isn't always black!
Pete

 

[Guest]

Well, bumper covers and soft plastic parts are sometimes hard to tackle from what I hear. If you took it to a shop I think they would shoot it with a urethane based paint, which is flexible and gives with the plastic. If you shoot it with regular old enamel or something like that chances are that if someone leans on the bumper, or some force is applied to it to cause it to flex, the paint will crack like crazy. Urethane based paints are not cheap from what I understand either. A girl I work with just had the rear bumper cover of her Mazda 6 shot (silver) and most of the shops she got estimates from wanted a few hundred to do the job. Granted there was a bit of labor involved with removing the bumper cover and putting it back on, but not that much.

All depends on how good you want the bumper to look some time from now.

 

[waltesefalcon]

If you are comfortable with shooting black, then the job should be pretty easy and straight forward. Rubber bumpers aren't really all that hard to prep or paint, I've never had any problems with having a laquer cracking on a plastic part. As far as someone being charged a couple of hundred for a bumper to be painted then they were just getting ripped off. Its a shame that so many places out there go for that approach, at our shop we've never done a bumper that cost moret han about $80. If your plastic is gouged you should consider using a body putty rather than sanding it smooth. Putty is basically just paint in a clay base, so it is good for filling light gouges and shallow dents. On your paint I'd suggest driving down to your local O'Reillys and getting them to shoot your car with their color match gun. That way they can mix up the exact color of black for you. Good luck on the car.

 

[Bugeye58]

William, SEM makes a wide variety of products to do just exactly what you need to do. Any decent parts store or paint supplier near you should be able to fix you up.
I've repaired <u>torn</u> bumper covers using their products, and the repair was undetectable.
Jeff

 

[CraigFL]

Sometimes, just to ease my mind, I sue the person in small claims court. The costs are cheap -- usually less than $50 -- but at least they don't get away with their mistake completely. I do have to say that even if you get a judgement against them for an amount, you may never be able to collect but at least I feel that I tried.

 

[Hayfever]

Could be worse. Check out the post by budaholic on this Pistonheads thread (Pistonheads is kinda like BCF, but almost completely about newer British cars and is very Anglo-centric.

 

[William]

Craig- I gave some consideration to going after the the other person, except that, since I was in a moving car, I am at least partially to blame (this according to my insurance company). This despite the fact that the other car effectively drove into oncoming traffic and tried to cut around me.

Actually, the whole affair was pretty disheartening. Guy decides to swerve around me as I'm pulling out of a space (there was no way in heck he couldnt have seen me, as at the time I was the only car in that row, so its not like I was hidden behind a large van or something. He came from the next row over, between parked cars opposite me). Other guy pulls out into the access road (I'm parked at an end spot, and the main "road" through the parking lots at the shopping center I work at is next to me, separated by a median with a tree in it), goes all the way up the next aisle, into the next parking lot over, and back across the access road and parks at Dunkin' Donuts. I leave a note informing him that I'm going to call the police, do so, file report, call my insurance company to tell them something's up. Other person's ins. co. calls me and leaves a message. I call back. Nothing. They leave another message. I call back. Nothing. (my "contact" at the other insurance company did not answer his phone. ever). My agent suggests filing a claim and that they'd get in touch with the other guy's company. Other company calls, leaves message, I call back. Nothing. Eventually I got a letter from the other insurance company telling me that if I don't respond, either with a letter or to the phone number I have called repeatedly, they will consider the case closed. The date I needed to respond by was....two days before the letter actually arrived in my mailbox. My insurance company ponied up fifty bucks, which was what their estimate came to above my (admittedly extortionate) deductible.

What bothers me more is the way I was treated by the local cops. For starters, the officer who answered acted like I was bothering him. Didn't say hello, you're welcome, goodbye, nothing. The PD also didn't seem to think it necessary to answer phone enquiries to try and get a copy of the police report, which I was then told "wasn't filed" for some reason.

I don't know why I was surprised by that, though. A year or so ago, my mother was T-boned by a cop who pulled across two lanes of traffic to pull into a gas station. Totalled Mom's car. Eventually their insurance was willing to stump up some money to more or less replace the car (we still had to spend our own cash) but not without a fight. Their defence was that Mom's car was black, and therefor hard to see. In broad daylight.

Gee, I didnt mean to start ranting. Rough day at work. Sorry, and thanks for the painting advice!!!!!

-William