Scratched Front Bumper

[IS250cent]

Hey guys ... messed up my front bumper on my IS250 today by overrunning the parking space. The bottom portion of the front bumper got caught on the curb and it left some very visible scratches almost all along the front bumper! :(

any of you out there had the same experience? any idea how to get rid of this mess? do i need to replace the entire bumper?

[smooth1]

Can you post some pictures to let us take a look?

[IS250cent]

Can you post some pictures to let us take a look?

here you go smooth1 ... thanks for looking into this! now that i look into it closely, the main bumper didnt get scratched but rather the lower portion which I think is part of the ground effects kit. but here are the pics ...

[smooth1]

Unless you already have the front lip on there, no, it's part of the bumper. But the good news is that's an easy fix. If you put your hand just above where the scratches are, that part is actually part of the mesh grill insert there. YOu can easily pop that off, and sand that front area with 220, then 1000, then a 2000 rub, and have it repainted. Put the lower grill back in and you would never know it ever happened. If you pulled the grill yourself, did the sanding, and took it to a paint shop, I wouldn't imagine them charging more than 50 bucks to repaint it. The Obsidian Black is a single stage paint, all you need is the paint color code, and to find someone who uses good quality urathane paints and knows what their doing. If you just wanted to take it in and have it done I think you might spend $150 (ish) bucks.

[IS250cent]

Unless you already have the front lip on there, no, it's part of the bumper. But the good news is that's an easy fix. If you put your hand just above where the scratches are, that part is actually part of the mesh grill insert there. YOu can easily pop that off, and sand that front area with 220, then 1000, then a 2000 rub, and have it repainted. Put the lower grill back in and you would never know it ever happened. If you pulled the grill yourself, did the sanding, and took it to a paint shop, I wouldn't imagine them charging more than 50 bucks to repaint it. The Obsidian Black is a single stage paint, all you need is the paint color code, and to find someone who uses good quality urathane paints and knows what their doing. If you just wanted to take it in and have it done I think you might spend $150 (ish) bucks.

Thanks smooth1 ... Will let u know how it turns out.

[kskleigh]

Recently, I did something similar as to what happened to IS250cent except, it appears that some of the actual material has peeled back. I don't know what the composition of this material is and what can be done...it is hanging down slightly as the curb I went over must have peeled it back when I was backing up. I have become slightly neurotic about all of this and usually end up parking about 3-4 feet away from any curbs to avoid doing this...must have let down my guard on this one though.

Any suggestions or ideas about what can be done to fix this since it might be more than a touchup paint job? Thanks for your help!

[LEX-SV]

In California, we have mobile services that do bumper repairs of this kind. Sometimes I see their vans at used car dealerships fixing cars prior to sale. Years ago I had a bumper repaired, about $200 then.

[kskleigh]

In California, we have mobile services that do bumper repairs of this kind. Sometimes I see their vans at used car dealerships fixing cars prior to sale. Years ago I had a bumper repaired, about $200 then.

Thanks for mentioning this....I'll check that out. Service Rep at Lexus when she saw it after I posted this query was not hopeful about being able to repair it. She indicated to fix, I'd probably have to have the entire front end of the car replaced. Something I'm definitely not interested in doing at this point.

[VBdenny]

Sorry to hear about that. Had that happen myself in a Chevy I had.

Thanks for mentioning what happened as it is something I hadn't given much thought. I will now be thinking about this when I park.

[LEX-SV]

For a perfect fix, replacing entire front bumper is usually best. This is typical of insurance job with more substantial damage.