Repair cracked plastic bumper

[dikdik]

I hit a bollard and bumper is cracked. How do you repair a plastic bumper please

 

[dikdik]

Pic

 

[SLKNick]

For small repairs you can generally use glassfibre behind for strengthening, then a flexible filler on top. However, yours might be too far gone for that to work.

If it were mine I would start ringing round the car breakers, you might even find one the right colour.

 

[Blue Moon]

I hit a bollard and bumper is cracked. How do you repair a plastic bumper please

Firstly, you should invest in a plastic stapler kit (c£130) to stabilise the crack, after drilling holes either end of the crack to stop it spreading. Then purchase a plastic welding kit (another £140 or so) to use to seal the crack, after checking what sort of plastic the bumper is made from to ensure you use the correct compatible plastic rods.

From here it's simple, sand down the filler, clean with solvent and silicone cleaner, and prime with plastic primer. Then, the easiest bit, match the colour, paint, blend and apply clear coat. I'm guessing you already have a compressor and spray guns with the appropriate air caps for spraying the base and clear coats. If not, you could do what most professionals do, and pop down to Halfords and buy a few cans of high solvent content aerosols to use. You should probably be able to do this in a day, and definately over a weekend. Depending what you value your leisure time at, say £15 per hour, 12 hours would cost you £180, plus the staple kit and plastic welding kit at £270, plus abrasives, filler, paint etc say £40, so the real cost of you doing a DIY repair around £490.

The satisfaction of doing this yourself should far outweigh the benefits of a local bodyshop or specialist cosmetic repairer doing the job for around 1/2 the cost, obviously with a guarantee thrown in for free. Hope this helps

Nothing personal intended, but I've spent the best part of today sorting out a DIY 'Halfords' repair that had solvent pop, fisheyes and other reactions And if you don't know what I'm talking about, I'd respectfully suggest the easiest way to repair a cracked bumper would be to call a recommended local bodyshop or cosmetic repairer and ask them to do it.

 

[Blue Moon]

Pic

Sorry, too quick off the mark, hadn't seen the photo. Definately a DIY job

 

[st13phil]

I'm with Blue Moon. That needs a pro repair, or replacement. Anything else will be a waste of time, money and materials.