The splash shield that attaches to the bottom edge of the bumper, got caught on an excessively protruding anchor pin of a concrete wheel stop (in a public parking lot). When the car was reversed away from the wheel stop, the bumper was torn where it attaches to the steel fender.



Damage on the front bumper




Close-up




Bumper removed from vehicle and supported to start work on the damaged end in the bottom right corner of image




Tools bought online for repair job




Tool similar to a soldering iron




Cleaning around the tear/joint with isopropyl alcohol





The electric "soldering iron" for spot welding plastics. Ensure joining pieces are aligned.




Starting at this end of the tear, spot welding on the inside of the bumper




Spotwelding all along the joint on the inside of the bumper whilst also ensuring the joining pieces are neatly aligned on the bumper outside





Adding plastic filler material on the inside of the bumper to give some body and strength to the new joint




Ensure the new plastic filler material is fused with the bumper parent material





Tool used to embed heated steel staples across the joint for additional reinforcement





Steel staples installed half way into the thickness of the bumper parent material





Preparing stainless steel gauze for further reinforcement along the length of the joint





Stainless steel gauze in place across the joint on the inside of the bumper





Stainless steel gauze embedded into the plastic filler material in a few locations to ensure there is no gap between it and the filler material





Starting with fibre reinforced plastic filler material over top of the stainless steel gauze





Heated metal attachment on heat gun to fuse the new plastic filler material to the plastic filler material beneath the stainless steel gauze





End result of the repair on the inside of the bumper





View of the repair on the outside of the bumper. None of the staples or filler material pushed through to the outside.






Repair after the bumper is resprayed





Bumper is ready to be installed





View from inside the wheel arch of the plastic bumper attached to the steel fender





Bumper repair complete and bumper installed

You Tube

 

Thanks for sharing and the great write-up. I was putting off a similar repair but now I'm motivated to get it done.

 

Very impressive. Did you make the parking center aware of the anchor pin? I would say that would ruin my day.

 

Thank you.
I had the bumper resprayed by a body shop. Doing the repair saved me no more than $1000 compared to a new, but after-market, bumper. The saving was less than I thought it would be, but it's still a saving. The 2 electric tools cost around USD75.00.
Until I did this repair, I didn't know how successful a repair like this would be. I did the repair back in April of this year and so far the repair has held up perfectly.

 

How much time did you spend doing the repair and reassembly?

 

CarFan1, my wife was in Helena, MT, half way on a long trip to Canada when this happened. She was so distressed about this, and on top of that had an appointment to keep, that she she didn't report it anybody, including me! I was very annoyed, more so with the parking lot construction workmanship, when I found out. Yes, my day was thoroughly ruined by somebody I don't know!

ua549, the repair itself took me about 6 hours. I had no prior experience or knowledge with repairing plastic bumpers. Preparing for the job, the bumper removal, set-up for the repair job, taking the bumper to a body shop, bringing it back home and reinstallation of the bumper, took another good few days. There was also more damage to the bumper and other adjoining plastic parts that I didn't show in this post. I was only focused on showing the repair of the bumper tear, as I couldn't find anything like it online when I needed it.

 

Thinking about the money value of time, I would have had a body shop repair or install a new bumper.

 

ua549, you make a valid point and it is also the reason I mentioned the value of the saving. This saving was on the bumper alone. Everything considered though, I don't have regrets doing the repair. The body shop warned that there was no guarantee the after market bumper would be a perfect fit and then there were additional savings on labour and materials not part of this post.

 

SiRudBi there is also the satisfaction that comes from being able to handle a task that you haven't been specially trained to do and that can be greater than the time saving benefits of hiring out. There are more than a few household tasks that years ago I'd simply hire out, but I find there is some pleasure from completing these type of jobs myself.

I have an aunt that was quite an accomplished attorney before she retired. I would visit her in the summer decades ago and she'd be in the kitchen baking. She explained that she never cooked when she was young, but found baking relaxing. And man what she could do with cakes and pastries. I didn't fully understand then, but now I do. I still hire out but not before trying some of them myself.

 

You are right about the satisfaction aspect. However, I also look at the financial cost of diverting productive time to non-productive activities. The OP indicated six hours and several days of lost productivity. That can be quite expensive.

 

CarFan1, I couldn't agree more and very much appreciate the comment. As you said, a big part of this for me was to see if I could do the fix successfully. Additionally it seemed a waste to not save a whole big bumper simply due to relatively "clean", small and repairable damage. I should even have tried to repair the paint myself around this repair with a bit of light sanding and a paint touch-up kit from Mercedes. If I had needed to take time from work to do the repair, it would have been a different story, and besides, I don't like television anyway! Thanks!

 

Amazing job on the bumper fix! Being Eastern European, I would’ve tackled the job my self as well instead of bringing it to a shop. No matter how much time it would’ve taken me. Props to you.

one question about these wheels you have hanging. Do you know where you bought them? I need a set for my W213 for winter and love the way these look.

 

Billyismyname,

Thank you!

The wheels on the wall are the winters for our C43. We bought the rims in November last year from Fitment Industries. I got them for a very good price - I hope they're still available for you.



Vision Clutch 19x8.5 35 Black Machined from Fitment Industries





Vision Clutch rims on C43

 

Thank you! Just bought them love the look a lot more than anything I’ve seen so far for aftermarket.

 

Very good - I'm glad it's working out for you!

 

Wait until you retire...you'll be looking for things like this to do.

We had a 55" Samsung TV that stopped working. A few YT videos later and about $90 in parts (I replaced all 3 circuit boards and the LED strips - it was likely just the LED strips that were the problem), I spent about 4 hours completely refurbishing that TV. Works like a champ and I get to brag to my friends.

 

I retired when I turned 55 in 1998. I stay quite busy every day as an unpaid director on the board of two condominiums and I volunteer at other non-profit NGOs as needed. All of it is productive.

 

I completely agree. I replaced the electric switch that folds down the back seat on our wagon myself. It took me a little over an hour being very careful not to break any plastic parts. The new switch was only $41 but when I asked the service advisor at my local MB dealer, he didn't give me a quote or estimate how long it would take for one of the mechanics to do it. He just wanted me to pay for the time, at $290 per hour for however long it took the mechanic. I felt a great deal of satisfaction knowing that I did it myself and I didn't break anything (which I'm sure the shop mechanic wouldn't have cared about as long as it wasn't visible) and that it took less time than it would have taken to drop off the car and then pick it up again (about 2 hours total). So, there is something to be said for doing it yourself if you can do it right.