Front bumper damage

  • Thread starter Thread starter Newkirk
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Newkirk

Newkirk

Active Member
I just noticed this after I came out of a store today. Hadn't parked close to anyone (I always try to park far away from other cars), but it may have been a different day and I just hadn't noticed. Can't imagine where it could have happened, but it seems some idiot might have backed into my front bumper with their hitch or something. In the first picture you can see the bumper is sunken in a bit above the two gashes. In the third picture you can also see how the plastic part below the gashes is deformed and protrudes down a bit. I am angry that someone did this to my beautiful car, but I'm mostly sad....

I don't imagine there's a way to fix this completely without replacing that entire part, which is probably very expensive. Has anyone had that same part replaced? Would a body shop be able to fill in those gashes with something and then use touch-up paint to cover it up? Any ideas of what I can do to fix this, or at least to make it a lot less noticeable?

Thanks!
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A decent body shop can take that off, use some magic and filler then spray part of the bumper so the edges still match and it will be practically unnoticeable.

Or, since you haven't mounted your license plate, mount it off center and cover up the damage. I took a picture of my plate and had a bumper sticker made. That would cover it up. I forgot the dimensions. I think I went 5 3/16 x 10 3/8
 
Tommm said:
A decent body shop can take that off, use some magic and filler then spray part of the bumper so the edges still match and it will be practically unnoticeable.

Or, since you haven't mounted your license plate, mount it off center and cover up the damage. I took a picture of my plate and had a bumper sticker made. That would cover it up. I forgot the dimensions. I think I went 5 3/16 x 10 3/8
Click to expand...

JonR said:
That one part looks pretty inexpensive but it comes in primer rather than painted.

https://parts.seattlemini.com/p/MINI__/Trim--bumper-front/103828806/51115A3C856.html
Click to expand...

I live in Florida, so no front license plate. But I'll take it to a body shop and see what they say. I noticed yesterday when I looked at it in full sun that it's actually cracked a little bit on the sides of the top gash. But hopefully it's something they can fix. I also have my two-year maintenance coming up in July, so I'll call the dealer to see how much they might charge to order, paint, and install that part. Thank you both!
 
Given the age and value of the vehicle I’d personally get it fixed with a new part rather than filler and a localized blow over… that’s more the sort of thing I’d do when the car drops under 10k or so…
 
I never got this fixed because shops around me were super expensive. Got a quote from the body shop associated with the dealer about 3 hours from me and they were under $1000, but I haven't gone back since the 2 year service because it's so far away. I'll go back tomorrow to do the battery software recall and get a few other things fixed--loose active grille shutters (I noticed they were loose about 4 months ago) and driver's mirror sometimes won't fold in (the passenger side is fine). I'll also go back to the body shop and see if I can get them to fix my bumper.

Unless someone who has swapped their grille has a spare BRG part that they can sell me. If you do, let me know!
 
So I'm at the dealer and they say the active grille shutters were damaged by an outside influence, that the piece that attaches to the car on the right side is broken. So that's not covered under warranty. They are quoting $870 to replace the shutters. Seems like a lot, but I guess they have to remove the whole bumper assembly? Is it worth doing this repair? Could I just secure the right side of the shutters with some wire? They also quoted me $217 to order and replace the bumper cover that I wanted to replace anyway, but that's without painting--they need to find out from their collision department how much it would be to paint the part. I was planning to pay the $1000 that collision quoted to replace the bumper, so hopefully it won't be much more to bundle everything together. Maybe an extra $500? We'll see....
 
If it were me, I would see if I could fix the shutter myself. It sounds like some were just not installed properly. $200 for the bumper sounds reasonable. You could always shop around and see if you can get a decent quote to spray it.
 
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