Push out the dent in a plastic bumper?

Yes it can likely be pushed out BUT DON'T TRY IT WITH COLD PLASTIC!!!

Go grab a hair dryer or a heat gun. Use it to heat the area of the dent and around it a bit. Be careful you don't overheat it. You want it hot enough that you can still touch it but not lay your hand on it a long time. Then use a rounded tool, hand, whatever to gently push the plastic back out.

The heat gun and pressure in the right place got the bumper back to pretty much its original shape. Thanks. But the heat has changed the color of that section of the (unpainted) bumper: previously it was grayish, but the part that was heated is mow much darker in color -- almost black -- and a little shinier. Any way of making the color more uniform?

Perce

Perhaps some paint made for plastic, or Plasti Dip paint?

Yep, warm the rest of the plastic up. The black color is the color that bumper actually should be. The heat has brought the plasticizers and color back to the surface and made that area look new (and now you also know one of the secrets of detailing a car) UV exposure and the rain and wind turn the black plastic gray.

This is what the plastic should look like.

This is the dull gray look they get over time.

Awesome! Would the 55 gallon drum be big enough to dip a bumper cover?

Plastidip, and other paints made for painting plastic, you can buy them in little spray cans, some of them, you can use a paint brush. Flim Flam Man did it in the old Flim Flam Man movie. Youtube it.

Great stuff but a barrel of it would cost several times the value of my car.

I'll take your word for it. :)

So dipping my entire car in the stuff would be impractical? :)

Plastidip Youtube and, How to wash your Plasti Dipped Car Dip Foam Youtube

Well... it would be expensive! JR mentioned Youtube. There are some great videos on spraying it on. It is so tempting... 06' Kia Spectra with color changing plastic coating...

Thing about Plasti Dip is if you get tired of it you can peel it off and do another color on your car.

I guess you could be right *if* the bumper *was* originally black. However, my Vibe's paintwork is "moonstone" (Grey), and the bumpers are an almost identical color. In fact after only a few days parked in the open, the part where I applied heat already looks pretty much the same as the rest again. So I don't think that heating the whole bumper would have any long-term effect.

Perce