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Old Aug 7, 2012 | 05:04 PM
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Default oops, paint repair

Minor fender bender. The bumper deformed inward but popped right back out on its own. Looks like only paint was affected. Any suggestions on a quick & easy fix? It doesn't have to look perfect and I'd rather not take the bumper off if I can avoid it.

The car was originally Dark Red, and was repainted at some point with a Dupont paint that seems to match the original, plus a clear coat. The previous owner gave me what's left of the can of red paint, but no clear coat. Also, the original '75 rubber bumpers were replaced with something like fiberglass or ABS plastic by the PO.

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Old Aug 7, 2012 | 05:26 PM
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Ah - -that stinks - - but looks like a minor repair and with the repaint, you can re-do the bumper guards in black!

See? Always a silver lining . . .
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Old Aug 7, 2012 | 08:46 PM
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Originally Posted by CQRT
Ah - -that stinks - - but looks like a minor repair and with the repaint, you can re-do the bumper guards in black!

See? Always a silver lining . . .
need to stip it to base, then it appears that it has distortion where it flexed. you can try careful heat and press it with a rag dipped in ice water and hold in place to cool. repeat until it's close enough to be body worked. any filler should be epoxy as it will flex, putty won't. fix depends on how patient you are and how picky you are. good luck.
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Old Aug 7, 2012 | 09:20 PM
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Are you saying to strip the paint just in this spot or the whole bumper? If the bumper would i need to remove it or just tape off the rest of the nose and paint? When you're talking about heat & filler do you mean sticking the frayed paint edges back down to flat and putty/paint/sand overtop in just the affected areas??
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Old Aug 7, 2012 | 09:23 PM
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Man that is too bad. The front end on these cars are so long its sometimes hard to gauge where you are. Unless someone backs into you, and then that is just as bad because the front end is so low they cant see you when they back up.

I think the paint will need to be stripped off that area to see what type of wrinkles are hiding under the area.

kdf
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Old Aug 7, 2012 | 09:40 PM
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I'd repaint the entire thing.

It *looks like* from the photos that there is a bridge between your bumper and front clip, indicating that the last paint job was done with the bumper attached. If this is truly the case, I'd paint it on the car... taking it off would likely peel paint off the front clip.

This is not the right way to do it, but probably the best and easiest way.

It may be worth while to have new paint made if you're interested in maintaining that color for a while.

I also doubt that it will match well, I'm sure the rest of the paint has aged a bit. But not a big deal, certainly better than where you are now.
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Old Aug 7, 2012 | 10:36 PM
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Originally Posted by Shark Racer
I'd repaint the entire thing.

It *looks like* from the photos that there is a bridge between your bumper and front clip, indicating that the last paint job was done with the bumper attached. If this is truly the case, I'd paint it on the car... taking it off would likely peel paint off the front clip.

This is not the right way to do it, but probably the best and easiest way.

It may be worth while to have new paint made if you're interested in maintaining that color for a while.

I also doubt that it will match well, I'm sure the rest of the paint has aged a bit. But not a big deal, certainly better than where you are now.
strip the damaged area only, heat the damaged area a little at a time, cool it. get it as close to original flat as you can. fill with epoxy, prime with sandable primer only the bare area. sand whole bumper with 400 grit. take you sample can to an auto paint store. they'll get you finished. leave bumper on the car.
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Old Aug 8, 2012 | 12:46 AM
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Yeah, good posting this here, is think there's more damage than you might think. Obviously there's some bumper deformation, so I'd have a proffesional repair shop look at it. You can probably get away with some poly flex fill repair work, but may have to trim some material too. You have a beautiful car there, so really wouldn't wanting to be cutting corners at this point. Hey, you're driving/enjoying your car, and stuff happens. Kinda not losing sleep over it anymore.
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Old Aug 8, 2012 | 09:40 AM
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Originally Posted by brianPA
...Any suggestions on a quick & easy fix?...
Sorry. No quick and easy fix unless you paint for a living.

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Old Aug 8, 2012 | 11:04 AM
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Yeah it definitely looks like the PO painted the car with the bumper in place, there's paint in the seam gap. I'll try the localized fix and see how it comes out. I can always take it to a pro to redo if it doesn't look right... just paint, right?

Despite looking good from a distance, the car's entire paint job is all orange peeled. Because it has a clear coat I doubt I can just wet sand it down flat. I'd love to repaint the whole thing but I want to wait until the winter time. I had it out for 3 weeks doing a suspension rebuild and I want to keep it on the road for the rest of summer.

Any reading recommendations on paint work? Online or books.
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Old Aug 8, 2012 | 12:45 PM
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If you go under the forums at the top of the page you will find a paint and body section under the General Corvette section.
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Old Aug 8, 2012 | 03:35 PM
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Originally Posted by 929nitro
If you go under the forums at the top of the page you will find a paint and body section under the General Corvette section.
Thanks, didn't notice this.
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