[lola15]

Hi, so I just got my new car a couple days ago and I had a tiny bit of an accident. I’ve chipped the lower rear black plastic. It’s honestly a very small damage but i wanted to know if there’s any way I can repair it or if it has to replaced fully. If it does have to be replaced fully, I was just wondering what the cost would look like. I’ve included pictures of the part of the car I’ve damaged and the actual picture of the small damaged.

 

[zx10guy]

Unfortunately, there's no way to fix that. The only way I can think of to fix it is to sand the area and then put filler in there. Then sand the filler and paint the entire section. Painting it will obviously alter the looks the area and also cost money. At this point, you might as well just buy a whole new part and replace the damaged one to restore the factory look. Frankly, the area looks small and is down low where it's not in your face all the time. I'd personally just leave it. I had someone bump up against that exact section and left scratch marks there. So I didn't even cause it. I can get pretty OCD about these things. Initially it bothered me but over time I've actually forgotten they're there.

But if you're really OCD about this, you can buy the part and replace it yourself. It's not that hard of a job to do if you're handy with tools. I had to pull that body part off when I installed a trailer hitch to my car myself. So I'm very familiar with what needs to be done. If you choose to go this route, I'm providing a video link below that walks you through pulling that piece out. You can obviously skip the parts where it goes into installing the trailer hitch. The only thing which I'm not sure of is your park distance sensors. Here in the States, we don't have that option. The part you order for your car may come with the holes pre drilled for the sensors or you'll have to drill them yourself. And of course the video doesn't go into how those are removed as the video was created by a US based company.

https://videos.etrailer.com/static/images/video/install-curt-trailer-hitch-receiver-2021-toyota-c-hr-c11567.webm

 

[FrmDaLeftCoast]

What I would do (besides replacing that panel) is sand down that area and add a 3m pinstripe as I did with my car. While installing a subwoofer, somehow I managed to chip off some paint (please see picture). It was a small chip, but bothered me. 3M makes a carbon fiber pinstripe that is thicker than your regular vinyl (and they have it available from 1/2" width to 2"). If done right, you can cover up that blemish.

 

[zx10guy]

What I would do (besides replacing that panel) is sand down that area and add a 3m pinstripe as I did with my car. While installing a subwoofer, somehow I managed to chip off some paint (please see picture). It was a small chip, but bothered me. 3M makes a carbon fiber pinstripe that is thicker than your regular vinyl (and they have it available from 1/2" width to 2"). If done right, you can cover up that blemish.

View attachment 6731

Sanding down that area and only attempting to cover it up with a pin stripe won't look right. Because you have to sand past the affected area to make sure there are no high spots. This will necessitate a very wide pin strip which would look really off. Even without the issue I bring up, having a pin strip in that area would still look odd to me.

 

[FrmDaLeftCoast]

Sanding down that area and only attempting to cover it up with a pin stripe won't look right. Because you have to sand past the affected area to make sure there are no high spots. This will necessitate a very wide pin strip which would look really off. Even without the issue I bring up, having a pin strip in that area would still look odd to me.

The word pin strip is misleading, I'm assuming the damaged area is here (see picture).

If you were to cover up that area with the product i'm suggesting, it would look similar to what I did here (please see below). Remember this product is thicker than regular vinyl used on hoods, roofs, etc. It's a lot thicker, therefore doesn't have to be sanded to near perfection.

 

[zx10guy]

The word pin strip is misleading, I'm assuming the damaged area is here (see picture).

View attachment 6732

If you were to cover up that area with the product i'm suggesting, it would look similar to what I did here (please see below). Remember this product is thicker than regular vinyl used on hoods, roofs, etc. It's a lot thicker, therefore doesn't have to be sanded to near perfection.
View attachment 6733

Still would look odd with a single strip going across the textured plastic lower bumper cover. The only way it would look halfway decent is to do the entire piece. But then you have only that one piece done in that pattern which would still look odd. The only way to make it look right is to do all the plastic around the car in the same vinyl which then defeats the attempt at cost savings; which would then lead back to replacing the entire piece as the best solution.

 

[Dagey]

Hi, so I just got my new car a couple days ago and I had a tiny bit of an accident. I’ve chipped the lower rear black plastic. It’s honestly a very small damage but i wanted to know if there’s any way I can repair it or if it has to replaced fully. If it does have to be replaced fully, I was just wondering what the cost would look like. I’ve included pictures of the part of the car I’ve damaged and the actual picture of the small damaged. View attachment 6729 View attachment 6730

Sincerely, it doesn't look like much. Just ignore it & keep moving, you will forget its there overtime. Else, just run a sand paper over it & find a spray of same color... that should solve it.