DIY Bumper Repair

[Madman]

My daughter had a minor accident over a year ago in the 2010 Mazda 5 I gave her back at the end of 2019.  There was some minor damage to the front bumper, consisting of a small hole and some scuffed paint.  There was no structural damage, only cosmetic.  In addition, the bumper was peppered with more than a dozen years worth of stone chips and the paint had seen better days.  At first, she was going to have the bumper replaced but the body shop was was booked solid and told her it would be a few months before they could do it.  They never followed up with her and, after a while, she simply forgot about it.

We were talking about the bumper recently and mutually arrived at the conclusion spending $500.00 towards the insurance deductible for a cosmetic repair on a 13-year-old minivan with 175,000+ miles just wasn't worth it.  During my misspent youth a very long time ago, I did some body and paint work and I was certain I could do an acceptable Bondo-and-rattlecan job that would look good from about ten feet away, all for a fraction of the cost.

The following photos show the results of my handiwork...




I started by heating the plastic around the hole with a hair dryer to soften it.





Inspired by paintless dent removal techniques, I used an old jack handle inserted through the tow hook hole to push the plastic out from the inside.





This helped to close the hole as much as possible.





Good old JB Weld plastic bonder to the rescue!





Apply copious amounts!





Then sand down smooth.





Next is glazing putty.  This is flexible when it dries, unlike conventional Bondo, so it will flex with the plastic bumper.





Apply more copious amounts.





Sand and apply again.





Wet sand smooth and prep for primer.





Filler primer.  Goes on thick and hides minor imperfections.





Primer applied.





Couldn't find an exact match for Mazda but I found a Ford paint that's almost spot-on.  Maybe just a tiny bit darker but I can feather into the existing paint so nobody will really notice.





That's the hole dealt with.  Not perfect but good enough.





Started working on the lower portion of the bumper to deal with all those stone chips.





Mask and sand corners.





And the lower airdam, too.





Those free community newspapers from the supermarket come in handy!





Mazda and my current Ford Escape in the background.





More paint prep.





And finally some paint.





More paint.





Still more paint.





And below.





The finished product.





Not bad for rattlecans!

[Morris Minor]

Looks great - so satisfying. 

[CaminoRacer]

Looks good, definitely a good level of repair for an older car. Big bang for the buck. I should have painted the front bumper of my old Mazda6.

[veeman]

That looks great!  I would have bought a Mazda 5 bra :)

[FoMoJo]

Nice work.

[Madman]

Thanks, guys.

It's a "ten-footer" for sure.  Close inspection will reveal it's not a professional job but it's good enough for the car's age and value.

I actually cut my teeth doing bodywork as a teenager, working on my 1952 Chevy and working part time for a guy who lived down the street who had a side hustle doing bodywork on semi trucks.  His brother-in-law was a dispatcher for a small trucking company who routinely hired inexperienced drivers straight out of truck driving school because they were too cheap to hire seasoned drivers with experience.  Let's just say we were never lacking for work!

Speaking of cheap solutions, the Mazda also needed some new floor mats.  When I bought the car back in 2015, it had no mats, so I threw the mats from the Passat which this car was replacing into the Mazda.  The now 20-year-old front Passat mats were finally shot and needed replacing and I thought I'd surprise my daughter by buying her a new set.  Originally, I was going to go with a set of cheap generic mats from the auto parts store but they didn't look like they would fit the Mazda's footwell as well as I'd like.  I thought custom WeatherTech mats were way too pricey for this old heap but then I had a brilliant idea....

I remembered I had a roll of black vinyl diamond-plate pattern flooring material in the garage from a previous project.  It's reasonably thick and I can cut it to the exact shape I need to fit the Mazda's floor.  I also had a roll of self-adhesive Velcro left over from another project, which I stuck to the backsides of my new homemade mats.  So, for the princely sum of $0.00, I had a brand new set of custom made floor mats for the car!

[AutobahnSHO]

very excellent!

[Submariner2]

That looks very good.  I've been watching a lot of DIY rattle can jobs recently and it is quite impressive what one can do with patience and a trip or two down to Home Depot and Autozone.