Rear bumper dent

[vinniepaz730]

Hey guys, i own a 99 camry I4 and it's pretty much new, however today when i was backing up into a gas station, i hit a small statue and created a dent on the side of my rear bumper, the size of a large first, nothing was cracked, just the plastic was dented in. Do you guys know whats the best way to fix this kind of dent, I am very poor but it really makes the car look terrrrrrible. I'm thinking about either maybe suctioning it out to the original form, hammering it out from the inside, or even using bondo to fill in the dent. I have also seen new bumpers on ebay for about 200$ pre painted, but would it be hard to replace it your self?

thanks guys

Any other suggestions, and could you guys give me an estimate about the price?? thanks

[vinniepaz730]

please help me guys

[csaxon]

A picture would help, but start with a heat gun or hair dryer to soften the bumper material. Some times they can be massaged out.

[AutoBox]

try taking the bumper off the car and pushing it out. don't use a hammer if you can that might make things worse. -bumpers are made of plastic/poly and can crack easily.

with the bumper off...put on a glove or something to protect your hand and apply even pressure to the inside of the dent. don't hit it too hard that can crack&damage your paint.
try heating it up some too^^ good luck

[Eye8Pussies]

^ exactly what he said will work- and a heat gun will help it go back slowly as to not crack the paint

[drunken_panda]

This is exactly what happened to my friend's Sonoma. We took the bumper off, punched it out and now it looks great.

[Silver Streak]

I'd advise the opposite from everyone. Don't use a heat gun, use dry ice if you can. The reasoning is that if you heat up the bumper and try to pop it out, it WILL work, but your bumper may deform a bit, depending on how careful you are. Heat makes things expand, whereas dry ice will actually contract the bumper, making it pop back into shape. Or maybe, just heat it up light, then apply dry ice...it might pop back without any force.

I used the heat gun trick on my Gen 5 camry. It worked, but left it a bit deformed...but a few months later, we were rear ended so got a whole new bumper anyway.....

[Super Kaioken]

where can you get dry ice?

[98CamryLE]

The same thing happened to my friend's Cavalier. It popped back out one day after being parked in the sun for a couple hours.

[TriumphGT6]

I had to repair my cousin's grand am, because his wife backed into a tree stump. It was easy as can be. I went in old school with a sink plunger (NOT A TOILET ONE, they mess up contours) and pulled it back out. The paint scrapes, however, on a black car, took me 2 days to fix, he sold it later on and the buyer hadn't a clue that the accident ever happened.

On your Camry, I'm going out on a limb here, is probably Cashmere Beige Metallic. Pop it out with dry ice if it is no larger than 3x3", if its bigger, try the sink plunger. If it is the CBM paint, duplicolor makes a great aerosol touch up paint. I repainted 2 doors and a bumper cover with 4 cans of that stuff and 2 12oz. cans of duplicolor clearcoat, and no one has ever known the extent of the paint problems the car had prior. The total cost of paint: $30. Total Time: 4 days (6 hours active work).

I'll post some pictures later today or Wednesday.

Good Luck,
GT6