3rd & 4th Generation (1992–1996 & 1997–2001)Toyota Camry Discussion for years: 1992-1996 & 1997-2001
Topics of discussion range from fuel economy, safety, modifications, performance all involving America's favorite family car, the Toyota Camry.
my car isnt in mint condition or anything, but for like a 14 yr old car, its in pretty good condition.
then today happened. i backed into a curb where i thought i had clearance. and i scuffed and scraped my bumper pretty bad (atleast to me)
i just want to know what you guys think this will cost to get repaired...
most of it doesnt look horribly scraped off, but at the bottom of it, there is some bits of the bumper sticking off. i was talking about it today with some of my coworkers, and they just said i should just go to the detailer, get the same kind of paint, and paint it instead of getting it done at a shop because it'd cost so much. would that be a good idea? or would it be really noticeable?
a curb? i feel like a dumbass right now, cuz i didn't know curbs go that high...
i really cant explain it. the curb is a normal curb. but i was in my apartment complex and the part of the street i was on, was on a SLIGHT rise, and then the curb was more at the bottomish of the rise. so my car was higher than the curb, and thats why its so high.
ahh... now i think i understand the curbage issue. haha.
so you're stuck between doing it yourself and going to a shop. why not go down the middle (around 100-200 bucks) and find the cheapest under-the-table job in town? the paint match and quality will not be par with what a reputable shop can do, but it would be a whole lot better than doing it yourself with a rattle-can.
or who knows, maybe the majority of it can be buffed away by a really good detailer. doing it this way will prevent ugly paint match and quality, but you still have a small scratch or gash here and there.
either way, you're gonna spend a little.
all-in-all, it's what's important to you.
and btw, congrats on having the camry as the first car. old camrys are perfect first-cars imo.
Live with it... Paint urself is going to turn out bad, getting it done cheap is gonna look like shit too(old paint and everything, hard to match)
One other suggestion, head to the junk yard, pick up a bumper of a similar era Camry, swap it on. That is, if they have a bumper of the same colour with no scratches. Shouldn't be too hard, so many damn Camry's on the road.
Or jack one off another car. (just joking, don't do it)
It's hard to tell from the pic how much of that is surface scuff and how much is actually scratched into the paint. Pic up a tube of Meguiars ScratchX from WalMart for $6 and see how much of it you can buff out by hand. ScratchX can do wonders on surface scrapes, but won't help if the scratches are deep. For something like that it will take quite a bit of rubbing and you'll need to do multiple applications, but it may clean it up quite a bit, and then you can have a better idea of what the real damage is that needs to be repaired.
I just woke up intending to ask about the Meguilars Scratch-X.. So you've had good results with it?
It works well in certain applications. It won't remove serious scratches, but will remove light scratches and is good for getting stuff off the paint like paint transfer when something scrapes against your car and leaves paint on the surface.
I've also had success using it to get baked on brake dust and such off wheels that wouldn't just clean off with spray on wheel cleaners.
It doesn't work on everything, but it's something I like to keep on hand. It's usually the first thing I grab when I find a scratch, etc. on my car. If I can't fix it with that, then I'll step up to something else.
Its not that bad, I have 2 fenders and front bumper unpainted. Just black because I got into an accident a few weeks ago. Not only that, I have a really bad dent on the front driver side, so I'm on the look out for a door but doubt I'll find it.
I rather my money into something else though, like suspension which is what I'm doing. Cost over $1k but I'm sure it will be worth it.
if you've got time and touch up paint and clearcoat you can probably make it look acceptable, at best...
you could try to sand the area down, apply touchup or primer first depending on damage, and then apply the paint and clearcoat. If you want to save money
I do stuff like that to my car all the time, and I usually repaint the local areas myself so that it becomes difficult to see unless you come within a foot or two away of the damage.
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