4 replies to this topic

[Sir Pingalot]

Hi,
I recently got my bumper grazed really well when I was in a parking lot. Had parked at a friends place and when I came back the left side of my bumper was sporting some graze marks. I've done some searching on the forums and seen some posts about repainting the body of the car, but haven't found anything with regards to the bumper. I was wondering if anyone knows how I could either repair this myself (any diy's?) or if anyone could suggest a good body shop in the Seattle area where they could do this for me?


I've attached images of the damage.

Thanks in advance for any inputs

Attached Files

•  Photo Apr 10, 6 04 23 PM.jpg   795.21K   10 downloads
•  Photo Apr 10, 6 04 39 PM.jpg   1.06MB   7 downloads

[SW03ES]

Its likely going to need a full repaint to look perfect. You might want to take it to a detailer to be buffed/wetsanded first and see how it turns out.

Not something you can do yourself without the proper skills.

[cduluk]

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but has any of the Lexus's paint been removed either to the primer or black plastic? If so, like SW said above the bumper will need to be removed, sanded, primed, colored and cleared.

However if all of the Lexus' color paint is still there, the white transfer may be wetsanded away, and the Lexus' clearcoat (clear layer of paint over the color coat) may be compounded and polished if there's enough left. But if there are scratches in the clearcoat (too deep to be compounded yet not deep enough that they go into the color coat) you may do a clear blend after wetsanding the white away just on the area affected. Clearcoated Lexus bumpers can be clear blended VERY well (I've done it myself with 100% perfection on my RX). This would however require $100 in spot panel clear+activator+blender or/reducer, an airbrush, air compressor, and a lot of masking tape and newspaper (to cover the rest of the car from overspray). If you have all of these materials and the patience to do a clear blend, it's worth a shot.

But this only works if all your color coat is there. You cannot color blend a small repair as easily as doing a small clear blend.

Is the car painted black or that dark blue? If it's black it might not even be clearcoated (you'd have to check). If it's not clearcoated that's awesome as you can do a single stage color blend and use the method above (just with the black color instead of clear).

To have the bumper removed and completely repainted will cost between $300-$600.

[KBRX330]

First try some cleaner wax and follow with maguiars scratchx and see how it looks after you get all the paint off. You may decide against a repair. On my wifes ES she has hit the same spot 3 times. I finally got a can of Lexus touch up and clear and re did it myself. Not rocket science just time consuming.

[jgilbert]

Had something similar and the body shop guy put a solution on a rag, and whiped away the white paint, reveailing my untouched black paint underneath. He then waxed the area and it is flawless. Took 10 minutes.