I recently hit a curb and damaged my front bumper. See area under the light in the photo below.

I'd love to know the cheapest way to repair the bumper.

Should I simply order a new front bumper and have it installed?

Alternatively, there's a local body shop in my neighborhood. They say that they would charge me $150 to install a bumper that is already primed, painted and given clear coat.

FWIW, This place will send you a new bumper already painted and ready to install. Just for grins say $280 plus tax and shipping and the $150 for your local shop to install it. So, $420 plus the shipping and tax, Total of $500?
How about checking with a local body shop and getting a price to fix yours. Even if it was a bit more a lot less hassel that gathering parts and running around. https://www.paintedautobodyparts.co...le-2012-2014.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjtbO0MHs4gIVFarsCh0gBA-3EAQYAyABEgLshPD_BwE

 

sdspeed,

I really appreciate your feedback.

I have only checked with one auto body shop in my area. They said that since my bumper is plastic they cannot fix it and that I have to get a new one. Is this true?

 

what year is ur car? if the damage is fixedable try craightlist for those mobie bumper repair, should b less than the 500 sdspeed sugested. ran into the same problem last month driving home on the free way, hit a plastic construction cone, broke the right side front bumper by a square foot+ broke the ac condenser also. bought the new conderser for 40 dollars, new prime( matching paint is more expensive) bumper for 71 dollars on ebay. put everything together in 1 day, recharge the ac for 75 dollars and now car back on the road running fine like it used to. i can either spray paint it myself( spray can paints) or take it to a local shop i've know for 200. but i don't really care for the look so much, i'll just get some spray can and do a quick job on it with some clear coat to protect it .i post some before and after pics so u can see if it's worth it trying.

 

Nguoi,

My Camry is a 2016.

Really appreciate your feedback. I'm still in the process of trying to decide what to do.

 

Was in a similar position to you; was driving at night and bam, all of a sudden one of Houston's infamous debris in the road hit the car in front of me and managed to fly into my bumper + grill cover (not a spool, but an actual rim that probably fell off a truck). Pics below of damage and after I replaced with the new one.


I ended up just buying a foldable bumper ~200 + a bumper grill cover which should run you under 100 (I got mine for 80):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Painte...-To-Match-Front-Bumper-Replacement-for-2015-2016-2017-Toyota-Camry/323525828063


If you have the time and are semi-handy, you can probably handle the install yourself and save yourself the install fee. I finished mine within an hour solo.

 

houston here too, do you have issues with no front plate? also was the foldable bumper pre painted/how was the color match? I got a fender off eBay and it looks great. My bumper has some nasty pits and scratches from debris nothing terrible but I may get a new one and wrap in in clear bra.

 

I used to stick the plate using suction cups on passenger windshield side while I was trying to find a good way to mount the plate off-center on the bumper. Never had a problem driving without a front plate or mounted on the windshield, but a couple of my friends have been pulled over for keeping it on the front in non-houston areas like beaumont.


The foldable bumper I got was only folded in thirds so it wasn't too bad, about 20 minutes in texas sun and it reformed it's natural shape. Color match was great for the stock black and it came prepainted. Wish I had another picture to show you but my car is stuck in the shop for quite some time now :sob:

 

awesome, thanks. what are you lowered on? do you have an instagram?

 

No instagram yet


I'm lowered on BC Racing BR coilovers for the xv50 SE chassis. On stop wheels I got close to like 3 inches dropped and with the varrstoens I'm dropped about 2 inches. rn they're stuck in the shop because my guy is out of commission in the middle of working on my car :crying: Having him install air suspension (D2).

 

in my opinion, if your car is 8+years old( mine is 13 years old), fix the bumper at minimal cost,save the money for maintenace and engine+trans work. if it 's some scatch or minor damage u can live with, leave it the way it is until it's totally need a new bumper. i only replaced mine since it has a square foot hole and the condenser was broken, before the bumper got broken, it has plenty of scratch over the year but it was still in tact. so i just got a prime but unpainted bumper, slap them on m use the money saving from buying a color matched bumper to buy a new condenser and recharge the ac system. total cost was 71(bumper+shipping)+41(condenser+shipping)+60 ( ac system recharging)=172 total and ofcourse i did all the work with the exception of recharging the ac. in the future i might just get some cans of paint and paint it my self. the car is a daily work horse so keeping the motor and trans running well is my priority( and the car running super since i do all the maintence and any repair that needed), the look as long as nothing falling off the car, it will be fine. but it's just my opinion, others might find it difficult to drive around in a unmatching color bumper lol! my wife as an example, she already got pissy about me not painting the bumper yet and she doesn't even drive my car since it's a manual.

 

Nguoi,

Your car is a manual? Wow! I love manuals but I thought it was hard to find manual Toyotas in America.

Anyway, some people have told me that I can use a heat gun to fix my bumper. Have you (or anyone else) ever heard that heat guns can fix dented plastic Toyota bumpers? The idea is that you apply the heat gun to the dented spot on the bumper while you hit the dent from the inside with like a hammer handle wrapped in cloth.

Just curious.

 

jup i did in the past, u heat up the bumper so u can force it back to the way it was, be careful not to over heat and the paint will melt. i drive manual all my life, the only time i drive auto is when i have to switch with my wife to do maintaince or repair for her car. she also drive manual but only when she has to. u can still find manual in toyota corolla, there's no more manual in the camry, i think up to 2010 the camry can b found with manual trans.

 

can't tell if it torn or anything but looks like you reach behind there with something and pop it out and then use some paint rubbing compound to get rid of the scratches and it may look ok. my front bumper cover right underneath the grill was indented because my wife got to close to a parking cement thing. I just took the wood handle of an old screw driver I had and it all popped out and now you can't even tell anything happened.

 

Dumb question: What is the name of the light that is shown on my first post? The light is just above the spot on my front bumper that got a dent after I hit a curb.

Also, today I found the video below which really excited me because I want to see whether I can repair my bumper dent with a heat gun, as shown in the video:

 

Almost exactly what Nguoi Yeu Nuoc did;


On my old 2006 camry, I had one of those bo-bo's..

I first checked to see If I could get behind it with a broom handle to push it out. I then heated the area with a heat gun, not to hot or the paint will blister. When it was hot, I reached behind and pushed it out.. It poped out and you can't tell it was ever pushed in.

 

Walter,

Did you use an electric heat gun?

 

Did you use an electric heat gun?

Yes. exactly like shown in the video. You can get a cheap heat gun at Harbor Freight. You can try a hair dryer, but may not get hot enough.

 

Yesterday I tried reaching behind the dent but it's impossible. I have to remove the bumper. So my next move is to research how to remove a front bumper on a 2016 Camry. At least one advantage to removing the bumper is that I can take it home and use an electric heat gun.

 

underneat will b some plastic clips, use a flat head screw driver to pry out the middle insert then remove the whole clip. there will be some clips on top , follow the head light from side to side u will see them. once all the clips removed, check to see there could b 4 metal bolts and 2 screws around the same area on the bottom of the bumper and where the bumper connected to the wheel wells. once all that remove, just wiggle ur bumper out, be paitent, work little by little, put a big moving blanket (5.99 at harbor frieght) under neat the bumper so when u take it out, u can lay it down and not scratch it.

 

looking at ur bumper, i think u can pop it out without removing the bumper. if u look under neat ur car where the engine is, there's should b an plastic under guard. if u remove that, u should have access to pop out the dent.

 

Yes, there is a plastic underguard! But I did not think it could be removed. Maybe I should be looking into how to remove it instead of the bumper itself. Thanks for the tip!

 

Just found out that they are actually called splash shields. But they're not easy to remove. You actually need to have the car up on a lift. See this video:

 

it should b an easy job. use a floor jack and put the car on jack stands,that should give u enough room to get those screws out, only 6 screws or less, shouldn't take that long.