plastic bumpers ot

[CKain(MI)]

the modern vehicles have very big 'bumpercovers'. mostly all one piece. I 'bumped' a deer and now have a 12 dent in the corner of my front bumper. Anyone know the trick to pop that dent out ?? Cannot get behind it to push it back out, thinking about 'HEAT', and/or making a puller, 1/4 rod through small holes in the dented area. Hope I do not have to remove the complete bumper cover.

 

[Michael Soldan]

Use boiling water to heat the area and then a small plumbers plunger and it will likely pop out.

 

[Super H Mike]

I carefully heat with a propane torch or heat gun and push them out. if you cannot get behind it to push, it is usually fairly simple to remove it . It is good to have it in a warm shop overnight to avoid cracking it when removing.

 

[CKain(MI)]

Thanks

 

[ss55]

Is the crumple-zone metal that supports the plastic bent?

 

[Goose]

Heat might work if you have a way of pulling it out. When warmed, plastic will usually return to its original shape. I'd question whether anything is damaged inside of it, though.

By coincidence, my plans for today include painting a new front bumper cover for my Chrysler minivan.

I need to replace a busted headlight, and to do that you need to halfway remove the bumper cover anyway. The original cover is showing a couple of cracks and wear and tear so I figured I may as well replace it while I'm pulling it partway off anyway. There are four screws and about six bolts holding it on, the rest just snaps together.

I found a new aftermarket cover on Amazon for $160, free shipping, with five star reviews. I primed it yesterday and I'll shoot the color on it today. Probably be the end of the week before I have a chance to change them.

 

[Steve in VA]

Some vehicles use Styrofoam backers as additional crumple zones so use heat judiciously.

 

[circus]

At the bumper exchange they would immerse the bumpers in hot water for a couple hours. They were mangled but came out nice. Then weld any tears.

 

[Charles in Aus.]

A hot day and a hair drier is usually all it takes . Plastic has a memory of its original shape and will always revert to that once other stresses are removed or relaxed .
My neighbour's Audi was hit in a car park , we did exactly that to the bumper and hesaved thousands not needing a replacement.

 

[Steve@Advance]

Don't drill it.

They come off fairly easy, usually a few plastic rivets to remove.

Might can just remove one end enough to get your hand back there, heat it up with a hair dryer and see if it will pop out.

 

[Stephen Newell]

I think you will ruin the bumper cover if you don't remove it from the car so you can heat the dent and push it out from the back side.

 

[Mule Meat]

(quoted from post at 09:13:56 03/08/22) Is the crumple-zone metal that supports the plastic bent?

Saw something about that on the inner web. A guy got rear ended in an SUV and the only visible damage was to the rear bumper. Two auto body places estimated about $2500 to repair. The third totaled the car. He raised the car and pointed out the kinked trailing arm brackets on the unibody, pulled the cover from the sides in the back of the car and pointed out the the body was damaged where it absorbed the shock as it was designed to. None of it was visible from the outside. Then he went on to point out that a cars plastic bumpers could be smashed against the metal and pop back out showing very little visible damage upon impact.

The car need up being totaled.

 

[Mule Meat]

Doubled posted

This post was edited by Mule Meat on 03/08/2022 at 02:49 pm.

 

[SkipperII]

My wife backed her Escape into a bumper hitch, right on the corner. I was able to heat it with her hair dryer, and pry it out with a bar, padded by a thick towel, folded several times. You can tell, if you know where to look, but not very noticeable.

 

[4play]

Many vehicles require bumper removal to do normal repairs like headlamp or headlamp bulb replacement, or a/c condensers and radiators. I think it's stupid to remove a bumper cover to replace a bulb but with most vehicles, removing the cover is pretty quick and easy.

After removal, it will be much easier to heat and work the dent, and you will be working on the unpainted side too. Partial removal might be all you need to do.

 

[ratface]

If you can remove a few plastic rivets to just get a hand inside you can use an inner tube to push it back out. I have fixed two of them by getting bicycle tubes behind them and inflating.

 

[dr sportster]

Bring back hard steel chrome plated bumpers that really work ! I tapped a guy and it was 1500 bucks.

 

[Mike M]

How about trying a suction cup ?

 

[jniolon]

or ???

 

[Jaden]

My wife's car got the bumper dented. I removed the plastic cover, left it out in the sun (summer) and most of the dents disappeared.

 

[CKain(MI)]

I did not remove the bumper cover. a heat gun for carefully heating about 15-18 minutes. and it pushed out to 'norma' !1
Thanks all.