Car repair on a Camry

Most cars these days use styrofoam absorbers in the bumpers. Completely normal, jst the way it left the factory. Scott

Thanks to all of you. I'm relieved.

um, the cusioning material behind the bumper cover IS a big piece of styrofoam!

They have been doing this for a few years now.

Monday we went over to the repair shop. Our detailing/minor body shop is in another building. One of the techs had to replace a radiator and pulled the front end of a Sienna. There was the styrofoam. The guy from my shop with me was also amazed they used styrofoam for a filler.

There is the painted vinyl outer bumper cover, then a big block of engineered Styrofoam to absorb all the energy in small bumps and help absorb what it can in big crashes, and an inner bumper of welded sheetmetal shaped into a channel to spread the forces from hard hits out onto the chassis members (unibody front fenders and fender liners with structural box shapes at the bottom).

When the car is in a wreck, they need to replace all the layers of the bumper, as well as repair any damage to the fender liners and other structural body parts.

If you crawl under the 'fixed' car and can see creases or bends in the structural box sections of the body, it was not fixed properly - bend a spot once and then bend it back, and you will form a crease on the part. If you get into another collision on that corner of the car, the sheetmetal folds a whole lot easier on that crease.

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