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July 4th Weekend Fender Bender advice...

1K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  banditgt 
#1 ·
SO in traffic I managed to not stop in time for traffic unexpectedly stopping...I was a too little too late and bumped into a jeep in front of me.

Now my bumper and nose is off center with the hood with some plastic brackets broken inside...but the bumper has no dent, dimple or scratch, it is as if it was simply smooshed in about 2 inches...

Tomorrow I have an appointment with the auto body shop, anyone else have this happen to them? My biggest fear is that the entire bumper assembly or more has to be replace eg repainted...and the thought of the shop trying to match my paint is going to make me lie awake at night....SOMEONE bring me back to reality before I catastrophize any longer...cryin.gif
 

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#2 ·
Have you popped the hood? The radiator cover comes off in about 5, I'd take that off and take a peek, it'll show you what's going on where that front part of the bumper/shark nose bolts down to the chassis. Looks like it's just moved out of place, but really that shouldn't happen without some sort of damage occurring. Whole bumper will come off in about 20 minutes. If it's just something moved out of place and there's no damage, you can fix it yourself in less than 2 hours. :)
 
#3 ·
Once you get the radiator cover off, you can see how the top of the bumper attaches underneath.. In order for that part to get pushed down the way it is, I'm worried something would need to give...

There are two plastic phillips head screws and two bolts that hold the front bumper on at the top. Here's my bumper from a month or to ago while off.
 

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#4 ·
Yes I did peek down there! There is a mounting bracket directly under my finger that has sheered from the bolts to the frame...but below that who knows, unfortunately I am swamped with work school work this weekend to really take it apart and do it myself. Thank you for the help and photos!
 
#5 ·
Gotchya, what I was afraid of. I'm assuming it's one of the bolt holes that ripped/sheared away. Hopefully a body shop can repair that and you won't have to buy a new bumper and worry about paint matching GHIG etc... Good luck!
 
#6 ·
Paint matching is not an issue......what you want to avoid is "Paint Blending".....(an alternate approved method)...that is where they either visually determine the paint to be good, little fade, more fade and mix the paint generically, then spray the adjoining panels.....in the end, it looks like a zebra.

Paint matching is done with a laser (camera type device) that they take 3 readings and the computer mixes the paint...they shoot a supplied piece of material, let it dry & check the match to the existing paint. Paint matching should not be an issue.
 
#7 ·
I know that the paint system used on my bumper of my 2011 is base coat, clear coat. No issues with the color match. I had greater damage and the radiator core support had to be replaced. Good luck.
 
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