S80: Twit scraped my rear bumper, £££ to fix?

[lillia]

The lovely weather yesterday inspired me to undertake an impromptu trip to surprise a friend who was conducting business out by Lakeside. Drove into the car park at the shopping centre, found a lovely parking spot on the (one-way) section leading away from the entrance to Primark. This was only my second visit to Lakeside in this car, and I already knew from previous observation just how terrible many of the patrons were at parking. So I parked well within the double white lines, made sure that no parts were sticking out. In short, I did everything I could to ensure that an unthinking moron would not manage to touch the car, no matter how badly they drove. Satisfied, I left the car. Had a quick meeting, arranged for an evening adventure, did a brief spot of shopping, picked up some food and went back to car after less than an hour.

And stood there in disbelief.

The rear nearside bumper was quite visibly, and very recently scraped, removing the paint in parts. No note on the windscreen. And not a soul in sight, save for the security guard pacing the floor up the road in Primark. The car beside me had no signs of damage, however the ones in front of and beside me did. In fact the one beside me had such fresh damage that I wondered for a second whether the perpetrator had been stupid enough to park on the other side of me after having scraped my bumper. Took a few photos of my damaged car. Also took photos of the cars around. The security guard was helpful. He suggested I ring the mall security on the courtesy phone and ask them to check their CCTV footage. Another helpful gentleman came, took details. Unfortunately the cameras were not trained at that section of the car park, so they would not have footage of the incident, but may be able to look at cars approaching and leaving the general area. They will contact me if they spot anything. To safeguard myself more than anything else, I filed a report and received the all-important police report number for insurance purposes. My 45-minute visit turned into a 3-hour ordeal. But the police at Grays were very helpful and accommodating. Have never done anything like this before, so had no idea what to expect. We'll see what happens. If I catch that bugger(!).

The thing is, to many, the damage is not significant - but it is to me - I have now joined the ranks of pitiful people in London with banged-up/scratched up cars, and this makes me really, really sad. The car was looking so good before.

Now to my question: my insurance excess is either £350 or £500 - I can't remember which at the moment.

1. How much would it cost to fix the bumper and make it look decent again? Obviously, if it isn't much then I would cover the cost(s) myself.
2. What would the job entail and how long would it take?
3. Can anyone recommend a place in London?
4. I would not mind having the entire car machine polished at the same time if possible, to remove a few surface scratches. I don't suppose any of the expert DIY-ers on the forum would be up to the job for a sum that would not bankrupt me?

All suggestions are welcome. I am calmer now, but last night I just wanted to hit something/someone.

[40s]

o.k. lillia calm down it's not the end of the wold .I know it looks bad and every time you go to get in the car your eye is drawn to the skuf. but it dosen't look to bad.the car will still drive as it should,you could go to a paint shop and get a match of the same colour for say about ten pounds.just find someone able to do the job on the cheap. ten min job.

[stevo48]

That does indeed look like very minor damage, I do however understand how you are feeling having your pride and joy damaged by some careless moron who should learn to park.
I personally would use autoglym high resin polish, a soft cloth and a little elbow grease should see that as good as new.

[Paul Wildsmith]

always worth trying a gentle rub with autoglym (my favoured make) - I once thought I'd done terrible damage to a wing, but most of it was paint from the lamp post! However, autoglym however good won't replace the paint! I did similar damage to my car last year (backed into a low (but not low enough) rock. I think I paid my paint man about £90. The alternative, assumming only a little paint mising is to touch up oneself - it won't look like new, but would just cost the price of the paint tube.

Where possible I always try to park on end positions, or at far reaches of supermarkets, or even just very badly across two spaces (well, that's Volvo drivers for you ..). Actually my main problem is occasional passengers (in laws are the worse) who think nothing of just throwing the door open regardless of what you may be near. I try and keep the doors locked, then leap out to open it for them (this also helps ones reputation as a helpful son in law ...)

[JamesV70R]

A friend of mine has a similar size + style of scrape on the front of his Alfa's bumper - He has been quoted £90 for a repair. I'd expect that would be around-about what you'd be expecting to pay for that.

They might even be able to "touch up" any extra stone chips etc for a few extra £ while they've got the paint, so it would be the perfect opportunity to get rid of any little annoyances in the paint!

[lillia]

Thanks for all your tips and suggestions. I am slowly coming to terms with it, but am still a bit annoyed about the whole thing. And you're right. It was enough to look at the photographs this morning; I have still not been able to look at the car in the flesh today, I have a feeling it would be too depressing.

How about places to get this fixed? I really don't mind driving a bit (under an hour) to a good place to get it done. Would like to get it fixed this week if I can - sooner, rather than later.

I do have a Volvo touch up stick (base metallic + clear coat) that I bought before the summer, but I think the amount of missing paint would require more than that. And I would not dare try to do something like that myself, might make it worse.

[arcturus]

You could try the mobile paint people. Can't remember what they are called. They come to your house. Fixed up the bumper a couple of years ago, good enough so that I won the class at the BKV. I believe even Halfroads offer that service in store.

[Ninja59]

looking at that i would seriously consider taking it to a professional detailer iirc around your way there is a fair few but it might be worth ringing James at Auto Finesse hes london way and will give your a proper op. of whether it will polish out or just respray (personally i would avoid SMART repairs at all cost i have had/seen some good and frankly awful work and sadly the latter is more common it all depends on how good you want the finish and if necessary james or one of his guys could find a decent BS)

[Chaddie]

My old man had a couple of scraps like that on his bumper and a dent, he got a quote from someone in the local supermarket car park (think it was Chips Away) and they came to his home to do it, they filled the dent (to big to pull out) & sprayed the whole bump.

He was selling the car so wanted it doing, they charged him about £150 and made a really good job, I could tell because I knew where the dent was, but the spray and colour match was near perfect.

[gibble king]

looks like someone from opposite behind you reversed into you not from parking to the sides....got all the hall marks of reverse and turn scraping ...swines...you have my sympathies..i hope you stiff them good and proper on the charges