best approach to fix this bumper damage

[turboawd]

Hi All,



I scraped my bumper against a concrete pillar a few days ago. After calming myself down, I was able to rub off a lot of the black paint from the pillar, but some still remains, as the following pictures show. Tried claying, but not much more of the black paint was removed. The bumper is gouged near the top of the scrape, the black spot at the top is the black plastic under the white paint. If I run my hand down the scrape, it is not smooth; I can feel the "ridges" of the scrape. Do you think that a detailer can some how take care of this, or is a visit to the body shop inevitable? Complicating things even more is the fact that this is pearl white paint (3-stage paint I believe)...Thanks guys...here are the pics:

 

[Alexshimshimhae]

if you check my post on "Operation Car Spa II) I had similar problem with my brother's protege...I compounded it out (I'd say about 85-90%)

Though from your description there's probably going to be a good amount that you'll have to get done at a body shop

 

[Dan]

Grab some meguiars ultimate compound from Wal-Mart. It should get the black paint off. Then wait patiently to get rear ended...lol. To get it perfect, its likely going to need to be re-sprayed.

 

[David Fermani]

3 ways if tackling this repair:



1-Wipe with solvent / buff remaing marring / brush touch



2-Have a mobile painter (a.k.a. Lot Lizard/hack) spot paint the corner of your bumper cover (while still on the car) for a temporary band-aid fix (good luck with pearl)



3-Take it to a reputable Body Shop. They'll remove the bumper, heat straighten the slight buckle, fill, prime, sand, refinish the entire cover, reinstall

 

[Final Touch]

White pearl is incredibly difficult to match no matter who paints it. It look to me like there's not a lot of actual paint damage under the black transferr.

I'd follow David's advice and solvent wash the black then compound it. You'll probably find there is only a couple of small scratches remaining.

You could either get it repainted after this or you could 'pencil touch' the small scratches. In my experience the best way to do this on white pearl is to put down a white ground coat (any pure white will do) because white pearl is very transparent you need to kill the black so that it doesn't show through. A thin coat of wite pearl touched in over this will be surprisingly inconspicuous so long as you keep the touch-ups small and within the affected area.



White pearl looks good when it's well kept but it's the biggest mongrel to refinish.