White Rear Bumper/Cladding on '04 Damaged

[Adam Smith]

20 yr. old college girl backs out into me while I'm backing out of a parking lot space.... So the rear bumper gets some chips in the white (paint??), and the whole thing is now a little cockeyed. Anyone know: A) what's involved in removing rear bumper for inspection/realignment, and, B) where around San Diego to get the rear bumper repainted white. Not worth the insurance claim.

Thanks!

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Sorry, don't live around San Diego, but I can give you some advise...always back into a parking space, or only park in spaces where you pull-thru...backing out of a parking space leaves you vulnerable to all kinds of things. I never park where I have to back out.



TJR

 

[Deleted deleted]

Look underneath the bumper and you'll find the bolts you need to loosen in order to realign the bumper. As far as the cover goes, you may end up having to replace the bumper cover, as I think the '04 covers are plastic and cannot be repaired like new.

 

[Wes Davis]

Was she cute? :wub:

 

[Allen Brandt]

There's a bunch of brackets and bolts that hold the rear bumper assembly. You can try and realign if it's not too bad. Otherwise, you'll need to replace the brackets.



I'm also told the frame ends are subject to being bent down, and that's a major deal to fix.



Las ttime a woman ran into my Trac, it cost her about $1200 in parts and 1 hour labor.

 

[mookie]

FYI Darin,



The front and rear bumper covers are plastic whether they are painted or not.



It's the painted bumpers that can be repaired.



It's the bare plastic ones that can't.

 

[Adam Smith]

I assume the '04 white bumpers are painted vs. bare plastic. It seems like a big chip of paint is missing. Not sure what the "bumper cover" is; does that refer to the white plastic part you look at when you look at the rear of the car?

Not always an option to back into spaces in these small lots around here where people will steal your space if you drive past it to back in.

She wasn't that cute, and a date was far from my mind at that time.

My Farmers agent told me in these situations in private property lots when both are backing they usually assign 50% blame to both parties and just tell each person to utilize their own insurance (she was Farmers also). So basically even though it's her fault, to avoid a rate increase I'll have to eat it.

Any repair advice would be greatly appreciated, including bumper removal (may post separately for this).

Thanks.