In construction traffic a couple of evenings ago, the car behind me edged forward a bit too much and nudged my rear bumper. It was very slow, so the cars barely made contact, but the point where they did make contact left a roughly dime-sized chip in the paint of my bumper (it's like new cars have a target on them or something >.<).

So, my question is, how difficult is it to repair the paint job on these? Would it be possible for the dealer (who has a collision repair center) to repair a dime sized chip, or would it require repainting the whole bumper? Either way will technically work for me, since the bump wasn't my fault and the other party is paying, but I'd prefer if it was repairable both from the convenience standpoint (I wouldn't be without the car as long), and because I don't want to screw over the other guy over such a tiny slip.

 

I had a similar thing happen to my front end a month ago...and it turned out to be a $1400 repair as upon further inspection my headlight was cracked. My bumper had to be replaced even though it looked like a really big scuff...the impact broke the mounting tabs.

It's your call...if you take it to a bodyshop, they will take the bumper off and repaint the whole thing for about $300. If you ask the dealer to do a touch up, they may charge up to $100. Or you could get some touch up paint yourself and do it for under $25.

 

They should be able to touch it up, especially if it is only dime-sized.

My wife got a couple nasty scratches on the hood of her 05 Civic LX from rocks on the highway and we got a kit from these guys:

http://www.paintscratch.com

and it worked beautifully and matched well. Not noticeable at all now with a good wax job.

 

It all depends on what you want it to look like in the end. You could fill the chip with touch-up paint and it would probably look fine. You could even sand/compound/polish and get a better result. Still, you will see it, especially if it a metallic color.

The only way to get an invisible result is to sand and respray the entire bumper cover.

I would go for #1 and move on. It's just going to get bumped again by some other dummy.

 

I've got a couple of nasty black bonks (on my white HCHII) from other people's license plate screws. I'm thinking of just using touch-up paint on them, and I don't want to pay big money for something that's just going to get scarred up again. But there has to be a better way.


I googled the question and found this:

http://www.eurobumperguard.com/bumpe...tion_rear.html but I have no idea how well it holds up to such bumps.


The other alternative I've considered is some bright tape like this:
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...2461_200332461

which I could replace when it got too scarred up, and which might improve my chances of not getting rear-ended.

Anyone have other ideas? {disclaimer: I don't have any connection with either of these products...}

 

Just to rant:

Our '81 Civic had sturdy steel bumpers, chromed, with a black rubber contact strip around the leading edges, mounted to the frame with hydraulic damped cylinders. The current state of bumpers is not progress. Our current '06 Civic Hybrid is white, with the black plastic painted and screwed-on bumper. This has been the norm since the mid-80's, and will likely continue thus unless legislators and insurance companies get in gear to change things.