Micra bumper fixable?

[neilrr]

What do you reckon?

Is this fixable or does it need a new bumper. The car is 10 y.o. & driven by an elderly lady. Presentable rather than concours is the desired outcome.

If it's fixable can anyone recommend a repairer in the Leatherhead-ish, Guildford-ish area?

Ta!

 

[renault12ts]

It is.

There are some You Tube videos about just such a dent. You could probably just push it out from the inside.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNpp6ITqCdE

 

[Doodle]

Most of that will just pop out. Heat it up with a hot air gun first to get it nice and pliable, then give it a push from the inside as yer man above said.

 

[A250 Bennyboy]

As above it should push out from the back. You may have to remove some trim to access it though.

 

[moonloops]

I think it looks better with the dent

Bash the other side in to match.

 

[AndyRan]

boil the kettle and pour it slowly over the dent. It has a 90% chance of popping out by itself then

 

[clk320x]

No paint damage so yes I'd say you can push it out...

Look up Paintless Dent Removal Guildford and call around

 

[neilrr]

Thanks for your replies.

It's interesting to see what happens when somebody who obviously knows SFA about cars goes out looking for repairs.

The first place this 80 odd year old woman went to (a small, local bodyshop) did some tooth sucking & said a new bumper would be 'about £850' on the car. A paintless dent repair guy of a nationally known franchise said it would be 'about' £350 but for that amount he he couldn't guarantee he could fix it.

I'll start with the boiling water trick & if that doesn't work move up a notch to the heat gun treatment. I'll report back.

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Easy fix, fixed worse myself. Ideally if you can get from behind it/remove bumper

 

[a111r]

A paintless dent repair guy of a nationally known franchise said it would be 'about' £350 but for that amount he couldn't guarantee he could fix it.

Marvelous...

 

[Will]

I'd have thought with a bit of heat (as mentioned above) that you should be able to pop most of that out. Pick a sunny/warm day too if possible.

You might be able to get to some of it through the tow eye cover to push it from behind with an implement of sorts.

Does the 'fog light' blank piece come out easily?

 

[brucemillar]

As per the previous replies. Heat is your friend here. A boiling kettle (or two) poured over it and then some gentle pressure by hand from behind and that should pop out. If you are lucky, it may pop with just the heat of the water. Failing this, then remove the bumper and try again.

Try to avoid 'heat guns'. They get too hot and are very localised, very quickly. That tends to give you blistering or cracking on the plastic and on your hands & arms.

It is shameful that some would look to take advantage of this ladies misfortune. I am 99% sure that in both the cases you mention here, they would use the above method to pop this out, away from here gaze. So I do not believe that they would be able to justify their quoted costs.

 

[zipdip]

I would remove that grill,it may well be clipped to the inside of the bumper,after that well get the heat gun going,even a powerful hairdryer may do it,I have seen this done,and a dent like this may well pop out on it's own given the application of heat,lots of stuff on youtube,don't forget post the results.

 

[optimusprime]

If you have problems with it ,.Pick up another bummper lots of them in the scrap yards around .Not expensive . And get one the same colour . Love our little Micra .You need a jap car to pick up parts for your own Mercedes .. to keep it on the road

 

[Doodle]

Try to avoid 'heat guns'. They get too hot and are very localised, very quickly. That tends to give you blistering or cracking on the plastic and on your hands & arms.

That's the fault of the operator, not the equipment.

 

[th3h1ghlander]

That's the fault of the operator, not the equipment.

Nevertheless, avoiding the heat gun 'til last is a good idea, if not practiced in using one, there is a high risk of causing more damage than good.

Also, to play the devils advocate, the initial quotes can be far higher than the actual cost if the company is guaranteeing the fix but has to cover labour/parts of different attempts. If the dent has caused cracking in the bumper plastic at the back, pushing it back out can cause it to split, if this doesn't happen the paint can still bubble/peel, so the quote could include initial works, repainting, and bumper replacement if the above doesn't work. That said, I would personally laugh at the £850 quote and go elsewhere/do it myself.


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[th3h1ghlander]

So, what did you do in the end?


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[neilrr]

Nothing yet.

It's the ex MIL's car so I'll kettle it next time I'm there.

 

[Mercy Me]

The only satisfactory way to heat that up enough to pop the dent out is with an infra red lamp. Don't waste your time with a kettle!

At best, the paint / lacquer will be 'bruised' along the edge where it folds in so the bumper corner will need to be repainted and re lacquered once the dent has been removed.

A professional SMART repairer should be able to repair that for you for about £250 all in.