Ouch! (Part 2)
So some of you might recall the little encounter I had in April with my garage door. Somehow, the entrance to the garage moved just a half-inch or so on me right as I was trying to pull in and I scraped my front bumper some. I got a few quotes from the local dealer and other body shops to fix the issue and came away knowing a full-blown repaint of the bumper would cost me about $1,500 out of pocket. I was not ready to spend that time of money, since I could pull out of the parking lot at the body shop and be in an accident seconds later.
I looked for a more cost effective repair and had the bumper repainted by a mobile repair body shop that the local BMW CCA chapter forum recommended. I was satisfied with the repair, which fixed a few other smaller paint issues on the car as well for about 1/3rd of the cost.
That repair didn't last terribly long, unfortunately. :bawling:
On the way into work today, I was driving in the left lane on a 3-lane highway. I spotted some wood in the middle lane that looked like fencing boards. A car a few lengths in front of me was about to run over it, so I braced myself for the other car potentially veering over into my lane, which it had plenty of room to do so. It decided against that and ran over the wood, which prompted part of the boards to flip up and come flying towards my lane. It all happened somewhat slowly but I had no place to go safely at 75 mph and had to make contact with it. Thankfully by the time I came across it the wood had settled on the roadway and I ran over it.
It didn't sound too bad, mostly just like my tires ran over it. I was most concerned for the tires and paid attention if they might be losing air, since I'm running go flats. No issues there and I arrived safely at work and started walking around the car. Inspecting all four tires I saw no immediate damage and the fencing wood was pretty soft, so I did not expect it to bend a wheel.
Unfortunately, the bumper ended up taking some damage. On the driver side right at the bottom of the lip there is a pretty sizable indention into the soft plastic and some small scratching. The scratching seems like it might improve with a bit of polishing. The indention would take some filler and sanding, so I will probably just leave it be for now. Because the damage is so low, it is not really visible unless you look for it, but I'm still bummed out.
The passenger side fared better with all damage under the lip, which is mostly scratching which I should be able to polish, if I care.
For the most part I will leave this damage alone. This is a daily driver with 45,000 miles on it and the bumper is the most prominent part to take damage. I'm not looking to repaint or repair this, if anything, I might look to replace the front bumper with an M-sport one and call it a mod or upgrade. :thumbup:
Be safe out there, friends! (Or like the paint guy told me when I picked up the car "They're all crazy out there, man, watch out!")
I looked for a more cost effective repair and had the bumper repainted by a mobile repair body shop that the local BMW CCA chapter forum recommended. I was satisfied with the repair, which fixed a few other smaller paint issues on the car as well for about 1/3rd of the cost.
That repair didn't last terribly long, unfortunately. :bawling:
On the way into work today, I was driving in the left lane on a 3-lane highway. I spotted some wood in the middle lane that looked like fencing boards. A car a few lengths in front of me was about to run over it, so I braced myself for the other car potentially veering over into my lane, which it had plenty of room to do so. It decided against that and ran over the wood, which prompted part of the boards to flip up and come flying towards my lane. It all happened somewhat slowly but I had no place to go safely at 75 mph and had to make contact with it. Thankfully by the time I came across it the wood had settled on the roadway and I ran over it.
It didn't sound too bad, mostly just like my tires ran over it. I was most concerned for the tires and paid attention if they might be losing air, since I'm running go flats. No issues there and I arrived safely at work and started walking around the car. Inspecting all four tires I saw no immediate damage and the fencing wood was pretty soft, so I did not expect it to bend a wheel.
Unfortunately, the bumper ended up taking some damage. On the driver side right at the bottom of the lip there is a pretty sizable indention into the soft plastic and some small scratching. The scratching seems like it might improve with a bit of polishing. The indention would take some filler and sanding, so I will probably just leave it be for now. Because the damage is so low, it is not really visible unless you look for it, but I'm still bummed out.
The passenger side fared better with all damage under the lip, which is mostly scratching which I should be able to polish, if I care.
For the most part I will leave this damage alone. This is a daily driver with 45,000 miles on it and the bumper is the most prominent part to take damage. I'm not looking to repaint or repair this, if anything, I might look to replace the front bumper with an M-sport one and call it a mod or upgrade. :thumbup:
Be safe out there, friends! (Or like the paint guy told me when I picked up the car "They're all crazy out there, man, watch out!")
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Why wouldn't you leave the damage alone and not fix it? I think someone needs their Bimmerfest Forum priviledges removed! :yikes:
I feel your pain, CDub. I also know from personal experience that if you throw a little time and effort to it you can do a pretty good job of fixing those scratces yourself. When I had that chunk of wood impale my front lower grill area it left a huge (deep) gouge in the plastic. With some concentrated effort, I was able to get it back to "acceptable" (meaning that at 3 feet I have to look for it and I know where to look).
If the daughter and wife give me a detail day I will certainly put some effort to it. As it stands, I have difficulty finding time to wash the car. Since I have no exposed metal I feel there is no rush in fixing it for now, but I will try to certainly improve the appearance in the future. Again, if you do not know where the damage is, I think you'll have a hard time finding it unless you specifically look for it.
(I'm also going to check parts websites from time to time for deals on the M-sport bumper.)
(I'm also going to check parts websites from time to time for deals on the M-sport bumper.
)
Bummer!!!! I had a similar experience to where a car in front of me on the highway ran over a piece of wood and dinged my front bumper next to the small cover for the tow hook. I live with it for a year and then when my car was in the shop recently I went ahead and had them fix it. They removed the front bumper and filled the gouge and repainted the whole bumper for $500.
Best of luck on getting it fixed.
Best of luck on getting it fixed.
last summer with my old 2008 e92 i ran over an "invisible" curb (single curb object with no sidewalk, on flat concrete which was the same exact color and not painted), ran over it with the drivers side front wheel. had decent damage under the front part of the driver's side rocker panel. was amazed at how much it was actually paint when I went to wash it. after washing it the damage looked about 1/3rd of what it did beforehand. so maybe you'll get lucky and after a wash a lot of those scratches will come out or reduce in sight.
Do you mean, "Why would you leave the damage alone and not fix it?"
I can live with damage to my cars for about 5 to 8 minutes before I start making arrangements to have it repaired.
I can live with damage to my cars for about 5 to 8 minutes before I start making arrangements to have it repaired.
also, i got reimbursed around 400 from my insurance for it, never fixed it, and when i returned it (it was a lease) they only charged me 300. so i actually made money off it i guess. it wasn't visible unless you got down and looked anyway.
you didn't take into account for the increase of the premium assuming there was one.
there was no premium increase but i got my story confused. what happened was that previously, some girl had love-tapped me at a yield, damaging the rear bumper, i got around 400 for that. after washinig/claying/waxing that damage was barely noticeable (about a pencil-eraser sized dent). since both damages werent noticeable i never got either repaired, and my premium didnt go up for the love-tap cause it wasn't my fault. premium didn't go up for riding over the curb cause it was under deductible. when i returned the lease, they didn't charge for the love-tap damage cause it was too small. however they did charge me for the rocker panel (200$, that was the max charge for a rocker panel). at that point i was up 200, but i also had a "small" scratch on the front bumper (from rolling into some idiot who had stopped at a yield for no reason) that they charged 100 for. so at the end i was up 100.
Yep...I always repair damage that happens to my car. I am too anal to look at that scrape everyday and just ignore it. Damage happens...fix it and move on. Should be pretty cheap to do a full repaint of the bumper cover.
I did some more inspection of the damage and standing in front of the car, it is very difficult to even see it for someone that knows where it is. Part of this is that there is no paint chipped or anything that would reveal white primer. The damage is very near the bottom of the lip with just part of the damage coming up on the lip. When it comes to these types of expenses I'm a value guy and see no reason to spend $500-$1000 to get this fixed on a part that takes this much abuse.
Given some time, I'll put some polish and love in it and perhaps make it almost disappear. :thumbup:
Given some time, I'll put some polish and love in it and perhaps make it almost disappear. :thumbup:
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