Expert: Gary - 5/7/2008

Question
Hey, I own a 2005 camry with a dark grey paint. I was backing up and lightly hit a rigid concrete pole. So, the corner of the bumper got lightly scratched. It took of little pieces of the paint. (Its not like a straight line its like many dots and dots where the concrete diged in). It is not dented at all. If I buffed it off im sure I would see tons of tiny with spots where the paint came off. The car is not dented at all and the spot is about 6 inches by 6 inches. Its like a light grater was rubbed on it. Now its somewhat hard to notice from far but I still want to fix it.
Am I forced to repaint the whole bumper? I don't wan't to use touch up paint becuase you can always tell when it was used. Is there no way to just target that spot? Any suggestions at all? And what do you think it will cost to repaint a bumper? Thanks a lot.

Answer
Hi Roshan,

If the bumper is a base-coat/clear-coat finish then you shouldn't have to paint the whole bumper. However, according to most paint manufacturers recommendations you will need to clear-coat the whole bumper. My suggestion would be to go to a local PPG dealer and have them take a look at it for you and try to get the appropriate variant color for the paint code on your car. This should give you the best match available for your car. Then you should only have to paint the area that will need to be repaired and you should be able to blend the color into the surrounding area on the bumper.

As for the cost to repair, If you plan to do it yourself the material will cost about $150.00. If you take it to a body shop then your probably looking at about $350-$500. Of course this is just a guesstimate. I hope this helps!

Gary