ok here's the story. it's a bit long so bear with me.

some retard scraped my bumper and quater panel in a parking lot. the bumper isn't too bad just scuffed up missing a little paint here and there. i can deal with that. the quater panel however lost some paint and is begining to rust in the area. the rust spot is about 3-4 inches long and 1/4-1/3 of an inch wide. it's right where the bumper meets the quater panel. i got a couple quotes to fix it and i'm looking at around $450 to get it done. that's to take off the bumper, grind down the quater panel, repaint it (fading it in with the rest of the car), and wetsand the bumper to remove the scuff marks. or i can pay $50 to have them try to remove as much rust from it as possible and touch it up. i know it won't look great but i don't really care about it since the car is already almost 6 years old and it saves me $400. only thing i'm worried about is that this won't really fix the problem but just mask it and the rust will eat away at the quater panel and i'll be stuck with a more expensive repair in a year. plus there might be rust in the groove between the bumper and the quater panel where they can't reach unless they take the bumper off. or does the rust not spread that quickly/severly? in any case i guess just looking for an opinion on what to do.

here are some pics (most of that white stuff is salt and not the scuff marks)...

 

Holy ginormous photos batman!

 

I would recommend a 3M clean strip disk you can find em at walmart and they remove paint + rust. Make sure ALL the rust is gone. Then a primer/sealer and paint blend to factory.

Or stop at the self etching primer until you can take to a shop $25 until paint.

But for whoever to mess it up like that they should pay!!!

 

fixed

 

i don't want to do it myself out of fear of messing it up even more and plus i don't know how to remove the bumper to buff off the rust in the groove.

i just want to know if i should spend the extra $400 to have it done right or if the $50 repair will be all that i need.

oh and i wish i knew who did it. i'm almost sure it was someone at the parking lot here at work. i'm going to check every car to see if they have damage that matches mine.

 

Hmm well, I'd pay the $450 and do it right. But if you're strapped for cash and if the shop is really good at touching up then save the $400.

 

they're good at touching up. and i don't really care how perfect it looks. i just don't want to find out a year later that the rust in between the fender and the quater panel ate away where i couldn't see and now my bumper is falling off.