Off side rear bumper scratches

parrots mum · May 30, 2016

Acquired this in a local supermarket carpark. Turned out to be an expensive shopping day when I saw that. I usually park well away from others and the one day you don't !!---enough said. Tried to polish out the scratches but really it's a paint job as some are quite deep and although not too noticeable they spoil my pride and joy.
Local VW garage pointed me in the direction of the body shop they use for resprays etc. They said to do it properly the rear bumper and bumper trim would need to come off and I don't doubt that they're right.Also gave me a price and time scale ( £150 + VAT and two days).
Anyone taken the bumper trim off ?? Will it go back on or will I have to have a new one fitted??
Anyone had a similar thing happen. Practical advice welcome. Thanks. Di

Keith Smith · May 30, 2016

What about contacting one of the "we repair dents and scratches" franchises, they might be able to do it without removing the bumper as they specialise in this sort of thing. We had our TT repaired by a local firm and they did a cracking job.

Andy80F · May 30, 2016

Similar damage was repaired by our VW dealers body shop and the price was in the same ball park as the independants. We went with VW just to get the receipt for records and are happy with the result.

parrots mum · May 31, 2016

Keith Smith said:
What about contacting one of the "we repair dents and scratches" franchises, they might be able to do it without removing the bumper as they specialise in this sort of thing. We had our TT repaired by a local firm and they did a cracking job.

Thanks for your reply. Will look in Yellow Pages/online to see what's in my area. It's not so much the money as taking the bumper/trim off that bother's me, so your suggestion is an option.

parrots mum · May 31, 2016

Andy80F said:
Similar damage was repaired by our VW dealers body shop and the price was in the same ball park as the independants. We went with VW just to get the receipt for records and are happy with the result.

Yes, I may end up using the body shop VW use, as you did. However I will look at Keith's suggestion too. Thanks.

owen_h · May 31, 2016

Taking the rear bumper off is not a difficult task once you find the location of all the securing bolts (some are hidden behind the wheel arch liner). There is a thread on the site somewhere about removing the bumper.
I'm confused by your reference to 'bumper trim' though? Do you mean the plastic step plate that runs the width of the tailgate? If so this is stuck on with long lengths of double sided tape. Dental floss is often good for cutting through the tape. Use a sawing action.

briwy · May 31, 2016

That price sounds really cheap to me. Two days, paint etc. I'd just go for it.

DM · May 31, 2016

The rear bumper has been taken off and refitted on my T6 Ocean to have parking sensors fitted (another long story)! From the outside it all looks absolutely fine. However I've noticed this weekend that the inside trim on the boot floor doesn't seem to sit exactly flat and the rear blind offside blind does not close properly at the bottom. I couldn't swear that these were not like that beforehand but I'm definitely wondering if they took out a fair bit of inside trim. That could have bee to get at bumper fixings or to run cabling. If the damage is minor and can be repaired without removing the bumper by a scratch and dent franchise then I'd probably be inclined to do that.

Having said that - £150 sounds pretty reasonable. The corner of my car was scratched in a hospital car park a couple of weeks ago (after I'd already moved it to reduce the risk of it getting hit)! I wasn't going to get it fixed but for 150 quid I might.

parrots mum · Jun 2, 2016

owen_h said:
Taking the rear bumper off is not a difficult task once you find the location of all the securing bolts (some are hidden behind the wheel arch liner). There is a thread on the site somewhere about removing the bumper.
I'm confused by your reference to 'bumper trim' though? Do you mean the plastic step plate that runs the width of the tailgate? If so this is stuck on with long lengths of double sided tape. Dental floss is often good for cutting through the tape. Use a sawing action.

Yes, I do mean the plastic step plate. The man I spoke to said he thought it would be stuck on and relatively easy to get off. The dental floss is a good idea I will mention it to him. I didn't want to end up paying for a new bit of plastic, as well as the scratch repair, unless it was unavoidable. I too thought the £150, plus VAT, cost was good. There aren't any scratch and dent franchises, that I know of, in my part of Scotland and that body shop is conveniently a few miles away so a friend can pick me up. I seem to recall, years ago when my husband was alive, that the Autosleeper motorhome ( T4 chassis,) we owned went there for a front repair after a storm blew a wooden pallet into it and put a nice dent above the bumper