Pole...

Jul 12, 2008 3 Replies
A

Hi All,



So, I took the wife and kid out for ice cream tonight, and I backed into a pole. Right in the stupidest place in the middle of the parking lot. The people who worked at the ice cream place said somebody hits it almost every day. Anyway...I'm trying to decide whether I should just buy a new plastic bumper at the Jeep dealer and swap it out myself, or if I need to bring it in to an auto body shop.



The plastic bumper cover looks like this:



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That much should be pretty easy to replace. My concern is that underneath the plastic cover, the metal bumper is bent a bit:



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Does that little bend matter much? Would an auto body shop be able to straighten that out anyway?



Thanks, Tom



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R

With some gentle warmth and persuasion, you should be able to work most of that dent out. Use some buffing or rubbing compound to get the scratches under control, maybe shoot some rattle can clear coat over the top.

As for the metal, it's hard to say if that needs to be straightened or not without a much closer look at the related comp> Hi All,

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D

Nah. You just bent it a bit. That's minor and unless it prevents the bumper from sitting properly I wouldn't worry much. I've put much larger dents in my ZJ from offroading. :)

You should be able to pop the plastic back to where it belongs and a bit of heat from the sun (or a heat gun on low) will remove most of the white marks. Try a bit of peanut butter. No kidding.

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