How To Repair A Plastic Bumper Crack

 


We asked 100 body shops what it would cost to repair this bumper scuff.

Cut the Universal Repair Welding Rod at the end of the weld. Make sure the weld is even and well fused. Northern Mike - Member Depending on how bad the damage is, most shops will plastic weld the crack, then prep and paint. A proper shop will repaint the whole bumper (get rid of stone chips, etc), others will repaint only the repaired area and blend it in with the rest of the bumper. They don't normally replace the whole bumper as it is expensive.

What You'll Pay To Fix That Scraped Plastic Bumper

So you hit a curb or post at a parking lot, scuffing, maybe even cracking your front bumper. What can you do?

Your options:

  • Live with it. Wear and tear happen, right?
  • Fix it yourself. We'll get to this later.
  • Pay a body shop. You could run your car down to an auto body repair shop and have them sand and repaint the bumper.

Before hiring a shop, let's see on average how much it will cost, and how long it will take.

We emailed image above to 100 repair shops across the United States that showed the damaged back bumper from a 2003 Toyota Sequioa.

Bumper

Only 14 shops responded. Here's what we learned:

The average estimate was $560.

Fix Cracked Plastic Bumper

  • Lowest quote: $350.
  • Highest quote: $900.
  • Average wait: 2 days. A few places claimed that they could get the job done in one day, some would need it for three days, but most said that they would need it for two days (which seems to be the norm for allowing paint and clearcoat can properly dry and cure).
Obviously these were all estimates based on a single image, and not a particularly close one at that.

Plastic Bumper Repair Kit Autozone

Most of the responses I received stated that they would need to see it in person to provide accurate figures, which is why some quotes have a wide range: they would need to closely inspect it to determine the depth, and whether the scratch penetrated the clearcoat layer or dug into the actual paint.

We'll make it easier for you.

Fix bumper scrapes yourself, in just 45 minutes, with BumperWizard.

Fix Cracked Plastic Car Bumper

Everything you need, in one $49.95 kit:

  • Color-matching paint
  • Primer
  • Clearcoat

How To Fix Plastic Bumpers

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Fixing Cracked and Broken Plastic Parts

I have lots of cracked and brittle plastic inside I'd like to start going through. The glove box is very flimsy and all of the mounting holes are cracked. All of the heater vents are falling apart.

You can actually fix the plastic. Some have used epoxy and other glues, but the correct way to do it so it never happens again is to get some fiberglass cloth (the woven stuff, not the random mat), some CA glue (crazy glue), some CA accelerator and some gorilla glue (aka urethane glue).

On the back of each crack lay a piece of the fiberglass cloth and put the CA glue around the edges. The stuff will soak right through and make the fiberglass sort of transparent. Spray some acclerant on. Once you do this the fiberglass is on there for good.

If the crack is in a non-stress area, use more of the CA glue in the center and let it dry. The resulting bond and repair is much stronger than the original plastic and will never break.

If the cracked or broken piece is at a stress point (ie the door strap brackets, which will kill the plastic under it at some point), use the same steps as above but instead of using CA glue in the center portion, use the gorilla glue. This gives a flexible yet very strong substrate that will fill voids. Make sure to saturate the fiberglass so that it again turns clear. Let it dry.

You can use the gorilla glue to fill in small voids as it expands and will fill in crack (again around the door straps). Use a knife to cut off any excess foam after it dries.

If you have broken pieces (ie the screw holes on the the overhead trim) which are covered with vinyl the above works ok also, however if a piece is missing, you can get the putty epoxy that you mix as two sticks in your hand to mold a piece the same size as the missing piece. Stick it the missing piece hole, let it dry and then cover it with the fiberglass as above.

Using the above methods you can repair pretty well any of the plastic in the truck and once you get the hang of it you can't tell it was even broken.

If you need a vinyl repair, the best option is to do all the patches your self and then take the truck (or the trim pieces) to a auto upholstery shop) they can fill in missing gouges and match the color pretty well and unless you look real close you won't see the original injures.

I have fixed up a few trucks with screwed up interiors this way and as stated you can't even tell that the things where broken in the first place. Total cost to repair for each truck, about $30 worth of glue and fiberglass. With the CA accelerant you can fix a crack in less than 5 minutes.

David