Waaahh! 1st Accident! :(

[MCDei]

Well, we had a lot of snow here in Edmonton, and I had to go out in it. No accidents in over 12 years of driving and I love-tapped a Ford Explorer.

No significant damage to either vehicle, but I did dent the front bumper cover with dude's trailer hitch (shows you how slow and careful I was driving my baby). The dent is barely noticeable (yes I'm totally overreacting). I don't even think I scratched the paint.

I have a little (3-5mm) up and down wiggle in the front bumper cover. Has anyone had their front bumper removed at a dealer shop to check the bumper clips and bolts?
How much did they ding you for time/parts?

Second, has anyone ever tried the heat gun pop-out trick on a front bumper dent or on any other body part for that matter?

I'm gonna go cry a little more...

mcdei
'06 Matrix XR-B
Meterorite Metallic
~8000KM

PS: I've only had it since September, this sucks...

[Frank@toronto]

Yuk, the car is now de-virginized.

Never heard about the heat gun method in order to remove dents on plastic.

[xrs22]

It works as long as you don't leave it there for too long. Best would be to do it on the non-painted side. I can't get any pics. on this computer so...

[MCDei]

Originally Posted by xrs22

It works as long as you don't leave it there for too long. Best would be to do it on the non-painted side. I can't get any pics. on this computer so...

Yeah, I thought the interior would be the place to do it, but I didn't want to take apart the whole front end. I am going to see what the dealership has to say about the state of the bumper clips etc.

Speaking of which, If you grab the front bumper cover below the grill and gently wiggle it up and down, how much play do you see in the gaps near the headlights/wings?

mcdei

[Raddman]

Second, has anyone ever tried the heat gun pop-out trick on a front bumper dent or on any other body part for that matter?

Never heard of that before..anyone here have any more info about that process?...your dealer will probably charge you a couple hundred bucks USD...In Ohio here we have a place called "the ding man"...would fix that in a couple hours perfect for less then $100......Radd Guy...

[OnAir]

I too am from Edmonton like MCDei. And I too put a nice dent into the plastic part of my '06 Tacoma. I was parking in my garage and (very very slowly) drove up and into my snowblower. I guess I need a longer garage! Anyhow, I was thinking about removing the bumper and trying the heatgun method of poping the dent out. Has anyone tried it yet? Does anyone have any other suggestions?

[xrs22]

My dad is an auto painter and body man and he did a rear bumper on a van and the bumper was pushed in. So he used a head gun and gently pushed it out, using the heat gun from the inside of the bumper.

[OnAir]

Yup, heat works alright. Before I had the time to work on my dent, the heat from the sun alone popped most of the damage out on its own. I removed the bumper cover and used a heat gun (on the backside) and a little pressure to get the remaining dent out and back to the original shape. The paint didn't even crack. You'd never know that anything ever happened. I also cleaned the junk out of my garage so that I don't have to experience this again! ;-)