Last night, went home and pulled into the garage. Of course, these garages are not deep enough nowadays, so you really have to pay attention to what you are doing when pulling in. Anyways, after an extremely long 11-hour work day, I will admit I was a little burned out, and not paying as close attention as I normally do. I turn on my headlights to judge just how deep I am pulling in. Well, long story short, even though i crept in at maybe a foot an hour, I managed to go too deep. I put a slight 1 inch long crease on the leading edge of the bumper. It did not crack the paint, as far as I can tell. It didn't leave a deep, folded crease, but it is creased.

I'm running it by Olathe Ford during lunch today to see how much I will get hit. The car is the Tungsten Grey, so it is metallic. How screwed am I? Any ideas on cost to repair? Will they have a hard time feathering in the Tungsten (assuming they don't have to replace the front bumper cover - I hope not!).

Also, should I try independent shops or maybe even a dent removal shop? Any help would be appreciated deeply. I can't live with this. The car only has 3,800 miles on her.

The wife says to live with it, but I will not.

 

hey accidents happen man!

 

Try a take-off site. You might be able to find a painted one.

 

That sucks. I use an old trick I learned from my Grandma 40 years ago. Put car where it belongs in garage, take a tennis ball attached by string, and staple it to the ceiling, with the ball lightly resting on the windshield right where my head is. Not only the correct depth, but keeps me lined up side to side. Next mod I want to do, and keep forgetting is, attach string to top of garage door and run it through a loop in ceiling, hence when door is up, string is your target. When door is down, and car is let's say outside, no ball in the way while working.
Make any sense.

 

Thanks guys. I am hoping I won't have to replace the entire bumper cover for a 1 inch dent, but if so, so be it.

 

hey, Jayhawk, I would also try Bob Allen Ford (I got my car from them and, so far, they havent tried to ream me). also, there is a place on shawnee mission parkway about 1/2 mile east form Superior Chevrolet that does dent repair called Instadents, I think (its on the south side of the road). My dad took his truck there after a hail storm and it wasnt all that expensive to fix his entire truck; they did a pretty good job too.

 

Check out Brenspeeds take off parts. I recently messed up my passenger side door pulling into the garage so I feel your pain.

 

Thanks guys. One collision center says $546. Going to Olathe Ford after work. Guys at first collision place said two hours work. $546 for two hours work. That is a pretty good average per hour rate (even with the materials, etc., taken out of the amount). I'm in the wrong business.

 

Wow, then definately go for a takeoff part.. I think takeoff bumpers are $350 shipped at most. and they come prepainted.

 

Sorry about your car.
We tried the tennis ball trick,but for some reason we've started using a piece of 2 x 6 on the floor. It used to be held in place with liquid nails, but sometimes that was in the way. Now it's just on the floor with an outline around it so we can move it if we need to, and then put the board back in place.

 

My solution is a little Ford Blue ball with the Oval on it that my wife found somewhere. When it touches the windshield, I'm safely inside the garage door and have about 9 inches of room in the front.

 

Yeah, the way these garages are designed and built into most homes, there isn't room for much more than a small-to-midsize car. When the Stang is in place correctly, there is a 4 inch buffer zone in both the front and back.

Our GT will be fixed soon. I've already started putting money aside to get it fixed. I know my wife and son think I am obsessed, but with such a new, beautiful car, well, I can't stand looking at a blemished nose everyday. I know you all understand.

 

Yup, we all know that feeling...

 

I just got a tungsten front bumper cover from newtakeoff.com. They probably still have one but at this point I think they're stock on tunsgten is low (they didn't have a rear bumper or hood in tungsten) $320 shipped and it got there in 2 days. It came in great condition. The license plate holes weren't even drilled out yet. But I will warn of two points:
1) Some of the corners and edges had tiny spots where the paint was worn off down to the black.. probably from rubbing during shipping. Touch up paint takes care of that to where you wouldn't notice them.
2) I would call the color a 99% match. It's ever so slightly off. On this particular one it almost looks like it has just a little less metalic flake then my paint so you notice the hue change from the fender to the bumper. I'm making repairs from an accident and I have to get the front of the hood painted anyway so I'm goign to have the guys blend the bumper while they're at it.

In my opinion a $320 shipped bumper that just needs to be blended is way better than buying an unpainted black bumper cover from ford that costs $400. Plus you save a little money in that you install the bumper yourself. It's really really easy. Oh.. and maybe I'm rambling, but the turn signals have a part that attached to the bumper with rivets which you will need to transfer (they don't come with the new bumper). However, you really don't need to rivet them back in since the bolts you use to hold the bumper to the car also hold the turn signal bracket in place.

 

The Ford collision guy made that point about Tungsten. He said the problem with purchasing a takeoff body piece is that there really is a difference in color when going from 2005 to 2006 to 2007, etc. He also said the same thing about the metal flake content being different for different batches of paint. He went so far as to say the metal flake inside the paint may "lay down" in a different pattern if trying to blend an area into an existing body panel. I am beginning to think what would be best is to repaint the entire bumper cover so that it is an even Tungsten. The fact that the bumper cover will not be butted up against the hood or the fender in a side-by-side comparison all the time, i hope helps.

I am leaning towards having Ford collision do the work.

 

you can have mine for free if you want to pick it up

 

My wife had a very similar level of damage to her PT Cruiser, and I paid a body man $350 cash for the repair, and it came out perfectly. Try offering cash; you may get a discount.

 

Sucks when you have know one to blame but yourself...lol.

I did something similar a few months ago. I was beat after a long day of work. I backed into the garage, get out, hit the button and procede into the house (attatched garage). I hear a slight crunch as I'm about to shut the door. Uh oh.... and then a loud curse word shortly follows. Of course it's olddd and doesn't even bounce back. It's simply tries to smash my poor Stang. I panic and hit the button again. Door goes back up and I'm scared to see the out come. My wife runs out and is like wtf happened. But lucky me there wasn't even the slightest scratch. Must be do to the rubber seal on the bottom of the door. I felt pretty dumb afterwards, but releived.

Garages these days are not deep enough. My T-Bird (200" Long) Will barely fit in the garage.

 

Thanks guys - and any gals who've responded. She'll be back to looking 100% in the near future. I do some freelance hot rod art (digital - Adobe Illustrator) for racing teams and car clubs, so I can save up enough to get the Stang in the repair shop and back out before you know it. I keep kicking myself!!!

 

Oh yeah. I went an bought one of those Park N Place signs!!! Hey, I'm getting old and I may not see the tennis ball at all.