So some idiot backed into my car while it was parked and now there's a huge dent in my front bumper.

My co-worker told me to take off my bumper and with a heat gun, heat around the dent from the inside and it will pop back to its original conformation. I've never heard about this procedure. I was wondering if you guys can confirm.

Thanks.

 

Maybe.....

ABS plastic can be tricky, but make sure to not heat it up too much, because you may end up cracking the paint. If the dent is too big, I don't care how much flex additive Nissan put's in their paint, it's going to crack and chip.

I'd take it off, heat it up, and see if you can maybe take your hand and pressure it back out. I don't think that heat alone will do the trick. Again, I have no idea what kind of dent it is, whether its a crease, or a large concave-type dent, or an acute, almost-punctured kind of dent.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I think I know what he is saying, but he forgot about the rapid cooling part. That only works on metal, and very minor dents. Not like that video on youtube, that doesnt work. But metal will be able to retain shape like that once or twice before it gets fatigued. Again, minor dents

 

Pics?

You may be better off just buying a new bumper cover and getting it sprayed at a body shop.

 

It doesnt pop out by itself.You heat the plastic up and when its nice and soft use your gloved hand to push it out from behind to try to get it as close as possible to its original shape.Once its where you want it use a rag soaked in cool water to cool the area down so it doesnt go back to dented.

 

I have performed it on a Mercury Mountainer back when I worked for a body shop, and it works but can be really tricky and you deffinetly do not want to mess up.

Not sure why you should take it off. I performed it with the bumper in the SUV.

Post pictres and let us know how it went.

 

I've done this to my 04 Accord's rear bumper. The corner got pushed in during a minor fender bender and I popped it out without heat but it still had some waves in it. Later I used a hair dryer to heat it up and pressed very carefully from the inside to fix some of the waves. It ended up better than it was but you'll never get it close to perfect again.

 

i will post the pictures by the weekend. how much is the average cost to fix this back to brand new??

 

If you want them to perform this quick fix it will probily be $50.

If you want a new bumper, thats going to be around $350-$400.

These are just guesses from when I worked at a shop.

 

Did this to a Pontiac Grand Prix, a minor bump and the front bumper folded in, I put my hand in and pushed it out