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This morning on my way to work someone decided to try and squeeze by my car and scraped the poo poo out of it before topping it off by driving away I'm not a car person, so I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction as far as what I need to do next. Looks like it scratched past paint and my tail light cover is busted at the bottom but still intact Can I fix this myself? Is it worth it to do so? If so what should I buy and what are the steps? Should I take it to someone? How much am I looking at? Thanks, this isn't exactly what I wanted to deal with today https://ibb.co/M5p7w4M https://ibb.co/Jm3nfLd https://ibb.co/qx2M0xj Edit: in Massachusetts if that makes any difference. Definitely explains the other driver
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May 31, 2023 13:39
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 21:05 |
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Squiggly posted:This morning on my way to work someone decided to try and squeeze by my car and scraped the poo poo out of it before topping it off by driving away It's a bit hard to see the extent of the damage from the pics, but it looks like rubbing compound would take out most of the surface scuffing. Won't be perfect, but it's $7. Properly color matched touch up paint and appropriately sized detail brushes would get you close on the rest, but again, not perfect. It kind of looks like the breakthrough areas are limited to the plastic parts, but if any of the metal parts have paint that's broken through to bare metal, I'd have a body shop look at it asap. Since you're in the northeast where salted roads and rust are a thing, that would have the potential to get bad fast if it's not taken care of properly. Taillight should be a relatively easy DIY swap out, probably find one at a junkyard or on Ebay. Car-part.com might help finding one near you if your car is uncommon or too new-ish to be in most yards yet. I'd do the above, and if I still wasn't happy with it I'd look into maybe having the bumper resprayed. All depends on you and the level of perfection you want vs what you want to spend on it. Bodywork can get expensive real fast for even minor stuff if you're going out of pocket.
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Jun 18, 2023 05:31
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Personally, I'd probably either junkyard a bumper or find out how much a body shop wants to repaint your existing one, and find a used taillamp assembly from eBay or car-part.com. With scrapes that deep, buffing and touchup paint isn't going to really look right IMO. You didn't mention what kind of car it was; taillamp assemblies range from "that's it?" to "what do you mean I have to take the bumper and exhaust off first?!" in terms of difficulty. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 14:29 on Jun 19, 2023 |
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Jun 19, 2023 14:24
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There are definitely some pretty deep gouges especially on the left side it seems. I'm not a bodywork guy but fixed a ton of stone chips and I think it would be very difficult to make that look reasonably nice. Though a professional will probably be able to respray the affected area only and make it look decent.
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Jun 19, 2023 14:45
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Love to learn a bit more, but the resolution for everyone popping in: I took it in to a body shop pretty quickly. Got a good recommendation, and he seemed like a really honest and decent crotchety old repair guy. The main expense was the tail light that was broken. I drive a 2018 Hyundai Elantra, and those tail lights range from $200-600 or so. I had the least expensive version. He fixed the tail light for $350, but also buffed the damage and gave me a matching coat of paint on top as well for free End result is here: https://ibb.co/dtVN1tS Said it would be about $1000 to get it perfect again, but he didn't recommend it. Would have had to take the bumper off. Can add more close ups if anyone wants to see, you can definitely make out the scratch marks still but it blends in to the car if you're not looking closely. All plastic so no worry about potential rust
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Jun 19, 2023 14:53
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