Repairing plastic bumper

Anyone have any helpful hints on repairing a plastic bumper. My wife's parked Subaru was struck by a hit and run driver and the rear bumper was scratched slightly. I need to fill in the scratches (a few pretty deep) and then paint the bumper. The area damaged is about 6" X 10" and is quite noticable since the car is silver. I plan on removing the bumper from the car to make repair and painting much easier. Also, the bumper is black under the silver paint. I got an estimate for the repair and it was over $800.00, most of it labor. I figure with my labor and some supplies I could do this much cheaper. Any helpful advice is appreciated. I've never did this type of repair before. [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

fist thing i would suggest is to find out if there is any damage to the amsorbption (sp?) material. they are only designed for one use now adays. i would spend the grand and buy a whole new bumper, or atleast have the foam replace, or she might have not pertection if this happens again.

Thank you for the reply. Damage is only superficial. Nothing beyond that.

There are special materials used to repair and paint bumper covers because the covers are flexible. Using non-flex materials will result in a repair that cracks, checks, or otherwise fails.
I'm unsure if these special materials can be purchased in small, consumer friendly packaging.
I would suggest investigating two alternatives:
First - find out how much a body shop would charge you to repair and paint the bumper cover once you removed it.
Second, find out how much a new cover would cost, and how much to paint it. (In some cases this is actually cheaper - and its a better repair).


Gregg

Thank you for your reply. A friend of mine knows a guys who does some body work in his home shop as a hobby. He mentioned the flexible material you talked about and he has the supplies needed. I'll probably go with him to repair it as it will be much cheaper. Even cheaper as the wife said was to just put a bumper sticker over it. Now if I can only get a CountrybyNet or TractorbyNet sticker I'd be in good shape. Again thank you!! [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]