swajames

Nudged a higher than normal kerb at low speed while parking in the Black Friday malaise today... First ever damage to the car

Anyway, the net result is some scrapes right on the very bottom of the forward facing part of front bumper. They're down to the primer. Anyone know if it's easy to get these repainted, and if so what the likely cost might be? And anyone know of a good repair shop here in the Bay Area?

thanks guys

Edgy01

Perhaps this is a little crude, but you can buy an aerosol can of your color from PAINTSCRATCH.COM and mask things off a little and spray it. It's not a very well seen part of the car--no one else will even notice. Everyone should have a can or two of their color in aerosol laying around--and a lacquer clear coat can.

swajames

thanks Edgy. good idea. Here's a pic of the scrapes, sorry for the low quality but all I have available right now is the blackberry camera!

FlatSix911

Grrrrr... Hit a kerb. It's a Curb ...
Try a can of flat black spray paint made for plastic

swajames

Guess that depends where you come from!

PHDX2

Sorry to hear this. Unfortunately, roadway hazards abound.

But perhaps there's an opportunity in this...

Have you ever considered upgrading to an aerokit front bumper (see http://www.e-partssales.com/miva/mer...ory_Code=997AK)? If so, you could go ahead and have it installed, while also repairing your standard front bumper, keeping it on hand if you ever want to change up the look of your Porsche---or need it in the event of another accident.

Just a thought...

bradyb

If you do decide to go the body shop route I highly recommend this guy:

Derek Lafferty
Concours Autobody Collision Repair
1460 White Oaks Rd.
Campbell, CA 95008
Phone: 408/377-7997

I have a very picky and mishap-prone friend that's taken his cars to this shop over the past 5 or 6 years and all the work I've seen is excellent. My wife's black C230 recently went through the same parking lot curb incident as your 997 and I had it fixed there as well. Not cheap, but not overpriced either.

Good luck and sorry to hear about your mishap - we've all been there - and some of us way more often than others.

swajames

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I'll definitely think about the aerokit idea, pdxh2, I've given that some thought for a while! I'll also check out the repair shop you recommend, bradyb.

Appreciate everyone's ideas!

Edgy01

Just remember, if you did this once, you will likely do it again. A friend had to finally sell his GT3 because he was going through front chin spoilers all the time. (The GT3 is a bit lower there). With all the impact damage (small rocks) that affect that area seriously consider a rudimentary repair with a can of spray paint.

JW911

What kind of bumper is that? It looks like it is about 1 inch off the ground!

bradyb

My guess is there are a few previous posts about this but I don't recommend getting any aftermarket front end plastic goodies lower than stock if you do any driving around the SF Bay Area. The 997 is a great machine and I've had mine for a month now but it's mostly wrapped in a bunch of plastic crap underneath.

Reminds me of those plastic storage bins you buy at Target that look good but the lid just never quite stays on (sorry guys, I know there's some great engineering but there's also some goofy overlapping ABS/Nylon-blend crap going on down there as well). I don't have a lift but I can see that mess when I'm chasing the neighbor's cat out of the garage.

I spent some time checking out the front spoilers on many 997's before purchasing the one I have now - which WAS perfect - until I started driving it. I'm not the sharpest rock in the pile but I know from previous cars that almost every driveway needs a slow entry - and a more careful exit - but already after 1K miles into this car I now have some pretty good scrapes all along the front end ("wow - how the heck did I do that one?")

Anyway, just mostly venting as I got "the look" from the wife tonight when I had to park pretty far down and across a busy road as I knew I wasn't going to be able to get into a friend's driveway. If this car was any higher it would be an SUV but adding a lower front end is a mistake. I do notice and appreciate the higher doors however, as my previous car (BMW) had doors low enough to scrap those 2 foot high Palo Alto curbs every single time!

swajames

It's stock, it's just the angle of the shot that makes it look low!

stevepow

Those wacky Californians - always trying to be different

Linguistics for the day: it's actually a valid alternate spelling.

number9ine

Hard to tell, but I suspect it looks far worse than it is. I recommend you buy some touch-up from your dealer. A bit of careful touchup, wet-sanding and polish should make it look new again from a few feet.

If you don't trust yourself to the process find a reputable detailer. I wouldn't bother repainting the entire bumper because a) multiple layers of paint on bumper covers never looks just right and b) you might do this again.

Good luck!

Mark

swajames

Thanks again everyone - appreciate all of the input and advice from you guys. It's not particularly obvious unless you look at the straight on from close up, and I know we are all going to get dings and scratches at some point, it's just annoying that one moment of stupidity and carelessness from yours truly put that first blemish on my otherwise beautiful car! I'm going to try the touch up route first but I might get someone more capable than me to do the deed. If it looks basically OK from a few feet out, I'll probably skip the remove and repaint option.

Thanks again guys!