PeteyV

A car must have backed into me slighlty with part of their car the tow hook goes into and I have a small crease on my rear bumper to the left of the tow hook panel. I was hoping that I could take it off and pop it out. Or use a hair dryer to maybe warm it up and then mold it back out somehow. Or should I just take it to a body shop?


I spelled bumper wrong in the title.

C230 Sport Coup

Ask a body shop 1st.
I replaced mine but never asked if it was possible to repair mine.
I was quoted 2 grand by the dealer. Ha.
Basically removing the rear bumper you have to go in through the wheel wells,
remove some hex head bolts and clips, then
go in through the trunk pull up the carpet and trim on the sides etc.
You'll find the main steel rails where the bumper bolts to on each side.
Unbolt them, the whole bumper slides off. Then once off you remove the bumper cover.
I paid about 300-350 I think for the whole bumper, then 225 to paint it off the car.

The service DVD has nice pics and what not. 60 bucks from MB USA.

PeteyV

Those steel rails you are talking about are right next to the service hub where the spare stays, right? I have a picture of the crease, you guys would probably laugh, but I cant upload the imagine. It just takes a long time and then says unable to load.

PeteyV

Ok I got it. Idk if you see it, I boxed the crease. It looks like it was the rear of a car without a trailor hitch on it that hit it. Just the square part because it almost is a perfect square but it was hit on an angle.

PeteyV

Any suggestions on what I should do?

CoupeCrazy03

+1 on his dilemma, I had a vespa hit my rear end a while back and was always curious if these dings can be fixed on plastic bumpers.

C230 Sport Coup

I must have asked someone or I wouldn't have gone and bought the whole bumper.
Then again, I had multiple scrapes, gashes, and a big square dent in the middle.
I paid about 350 with shipping.
Coupe pn is 2038851225, non 2005.
As they are flexible, I'm not sure what kind of filler can be used without cracking and falling out...again., ask a body shop.
I see repaired bumpers on ebay all the time...so.....that tend to lean towards a yes...
then again, you don't want to paint it, have the filler fall out and be back to square Zero.

I can't even see anything wrong in that pic.

Glyn M Ruck

Take it to a paintless "Dent Magic" type shop. They will fix it with ease but not without spot blending the paint which you will never see.

PeteyV

You guys are gonna think im crazy but heres another pic, the dent is between the arrows.

I tried a hair dryer to warm up the plastic and the crease probably came up about 20% more. I was going to take it to a body shop today but Manchester Barcelona was on and then the Red Wings are on in a little bit so I really didnt have time. Plus I slept in today since it was my day off and I had a long weekend with 2 weddings and work the next 2 days after.

Basically its just really bothersome to me. Can a body shop take it out without taking the bumper off?

Thanks for the diagram Glyn.

Glyn M Ruck

You are fussy like I am. The small dent & skirmish crowd will fix that without removing the bumper.

Some ******* bumped me slightly on this rear corner. Tell me where the dent is? Fixed by Dent Magic - Cape Town, on car in 2 hours. Excuse the drying marks on the chrome

PeteyV

My long lost bother! I just dont like when things happen to my car, especially if it isnt my fault! What is a skirmish crowd?

Hey glyn, do you know anything about retrofitting comand in a 2004 c class? I just bought one and I want to know how difficult it will be but I cant find any of the old threads with the info that I need.

Glyn M Ruck

Dent & skirmish crowd = the small dent & airbrush repairers - not full crash repair shops

Sorry - no experience on command retrofit. All I can give you is a pdf that tells you how everything comes apart if that helps for an Audio 10 replacement. It includes all the photos that have been lost from the forum.

PeteyV

Oh alright, well if you dont mind could you post them?

Idk if anyone else has heard this, but I hear if you have the cassette player (which I do) the wiring is a bit different when you need to retrofit the COMAND.

Glyn M Ruck

Here
https://mbworld.org/forums/attachmen...tructions-.pdf

I fortunately pdf'ed this before we lost all the pics on the server.

PeteyV

Thanks Glyn.

FrankW

those creases can be fixed with plastic filler and then smooth it out. take it to a bodyshop and get some quotes on it.

PeteyV

Frank have you ever had a body shop do work like this on either of you cars? The reason I ask is i'm worried it will be more noticable than if I don't get it done. Btw thanks for the PDF in my other thread on comand.

FrankW

i have on family member's car. after they do the necessary work the entire bumper needs to be repainted. unless the bodyshop does a bad job at color matching you should not have any problems with it.

PeteyV

Glyn, that was a spot painting job on your rear bumper right?

PeteyV

Well I got 2 estimates today. One was for $280 which is a ripoff since we usually take our cars to that collision shop. Then I went to another one and they quoted me $200, and they are one of the more respectable collision shops in my area. I guess I'm just going to fix it, it doesnt bother me as much anymore since the pain has settled in...but still it bothers me. So now I gotta throw away 200 dollars, does anyone want a MSI wind minilaptop with 2GB of ram and 120 GB HD for $250?

Glyn M Ruck

That was a spot painting job - Only sprayed the damaged area with Glasurit water based, base coat & then nano clear. Perfect match - cost $60. Get a competent small repair place to do it. They don't have to spray the entire bumper. The US has these small paintless repair shops. There were a number of them when I lived in Dallas & later Marin County, Bay Area.

Glyn M Ruck

I know this needs painting but the paintless repair shops are usually equipped to do spot repairs. If I type in paintless dent repair Detroit on the internet I get pages of them - I know Detroit is a big place but there must be one close to you.

PeteyV

Most of the ones that come up are in the more ghetto area and I dont really trust them with touching up the spot that well. You did remind me of a guy I had that took out some door dings I had a while back, I just called him and left him a message. The thing is that the dent in the bumper is right in front of the bumper reinforcement and I dont think he'd be able to get behind it, unless we took off the tow hook cover and cut threw some of that foam.

Glyn M Ruck

You have to use your best judgement. Even if they fill the dent it only needs to be spot blended with an airbrush. They do not need to repaint the entire bumper.

PeteyV

Glyn, I took it to an airbrush guy and he fixed it perfect. There's a little noticeable crease if im 10 millimeters staring right at it and looking at the distortion of the light but it looks good. The guy sprayed the whole bumper and the color is matched very well. Paid him $100, and I think thats because he saw me being a younger guy and my W203 looks like a supercar. The first try he did wasnt good at all, it was distorted from him not sanding it well but after that he fixed it. Overall Im very happy.