2004 Audi allroad bumper repair

[safetypro]

I have several scratches and a gouge (not very deep) in my black rear bumper on my 2004 Audi allroad.

I have been told I can't get the scratches out myself using an orbital sander with varying grit to get to a smooth finish. Can anyone advise if it can be done myself rather than a body shop ($350) I can send some photos to anyone.

[Maserati Mario]

Re: 2004 Audi allroad bumper repair

Pics will help, post them here
And are the scatches into the plastic or just the paint?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: 2004 Audi allroad bumper repair

Get a bottle of Ultimate Compound and then apply it using a foam applicator pad by hand. Your hand can exert more pressure to a small area than you can do using the huge bonnet that comes on most orbital buffers.

See what we did in this thread with UC by clicking on the below link and looking at the pictures,

Scratch Removed using Ultimate Compound


THat thread is in our "How To Articles" forum and there's tons of good reading in that forum as well as our "Hot Topics" forum.


Have Questions? Looking for Answers?
So much good, practical and helpful information in the "Information Station" like these two forum groups and the List 'O Links thread.
Hot Topics
How To Articles
List 'O Links 2.0

[Mike Phillips]

Re: 2004 Audi allroad bumper repair

Also, click the below link and read some of the threads related to the search term exert.

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/tags.php?tag=exert

[Mike Phillips]

Re: 2004 Audi allroad bumper repair

Pics will help, post them here
And are the scratches into the plastic or just the paint?

Good question...


Is this black paint you're working on?

As in a black plastic bumper but it's painted with black paint like the rest of the car?

Or is it straight black plastic?


Read this thread to understand completely what you want to undertake, again, this thread is in our "Hot Topics" forum. It's actually a Sticky in that forum because we reference it so often...

What it means to remove a scratch out of anything...

[safetypro]

Re: 2004 Audi allroad bumper repair

Not painted black it's a flat black color, Car is Audi's Highland Green with black bumpers not polished paint like some EU auto's

[safetypro]

Re: 2004 Audi allroad bumper repair

Scratches are in the plastic

[Maserati Mario]

Re: 2004 Audi allroad bumper repair

Scratches are in the plastic

Umm?
I can't recomend anything except melting it.
Never worked on scrached plastic.
What was the shop going to do?

[safetypro]

Re: 2004 Audi allroad bumper repair

Was not sure if just sanding with a progressively finer grit would yield a smooth finish since it's plastic and not paint.

I can e-mail photos my e-mail is aksafety@ctcweb.net

Thanks fo the assistance

[Maserati Mario]

Re: 2004 Audi allroad bumper repair

Well sanding will do something, just maybe not what you want.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: 2004 Audi allroad bumper repair

safetypro e-mailed me two pictures, I've changed the name of one of them from bumper 2.jpg to bumper2.jpg so it will upload. (Note the space in the first file name)


Note to everyone reading this, just because your computer can recognize and open a picture file that has a space in the file name, vBulletin software and MOST software used for GUI on the Internet cannot, thus don't ever try to upload a picture into any kind of gallery until you first remove the spaces.

This is covered in detail in this how to article.

How to place an image in your messages


Anyways, here's the picture,





And just like explained in the thread posted above, this one,

What it means to remove a scratch out of anything...

We get a lot of questions on our forum and at our Saturday classes from people trying to remove scratches out of all kinds of things, for example:

How do you remove a scratch out of;

* Glass?
* Clear plastic like a headlight lens, radio face plate, dash gages?
* Chrome, like a chrome wheel?
* Paint?
* Interior plastics like a plastic door sill or glove box door?
* Stainless steel, like a stainless steel door sill protector?
* Aluminum?
* Rubber?
* Pebble textured plastic like trim components?

This article isn't' about the how-to for removing scratches out of the above materials or coatings but about the practical science behind how you remove a scratch or any below surface defect out of any material or surface coating.

Read the below statement and think about it for a few minutes...

"Some materials and/or surface coatings don't lend themselves well to being abraded with the end-result looking good or looking like the original appearance"

In order to remove a scratch out of anything, metal, plastic glass, paint, etc. You must remove material around the scratch until the upper most portions of the surface are level with or equal to the lowest depths of the scratch or defect you're trying to remove.


Does that make sense?

The below diagram is for paint, however the the same idea applies to just about any coating or surface material.





In essence, you don't really remove a scratch, you remove material around a scratch.


Then the big question becomes...

Is the material or coating workable?

As in, can you abrade small particles of the material or surface coating and leave behind an original looking surface.


For example: Some things you can abrade, (remove the scratch), but you can never completely remove all of your abrading marks, thus you can't really fix the problem, all you can do is exchange one set of scratches of a different set of scratches.

The next factor you have to consider or at least understand is;

How thick is the surface material or material you're working on?


You are limited to what you can do with any material or surface coating. By this we mean there is usually a limit as to how much material you can remove before you run into the risk of removing too much and exposing the underlying surface or removing so much material that you change the component you're working on in a way that it won't look good and you can't undo the damage.

There's a saying on this forum we use often when discussing different members detailing projects and it goes like this,


"Sometimes you don't know what you can so until you try"

It's always a good idea to test your choice of products, applicator materials and application process, (by hand or by machine), to an inconspicuous area. If you cannot make a small area look good with your product, applicator and process, you will not be able to make the entire surface look good.

It's always a good idea to test first and error on the side of caution, versus make a mistake you cannot undo over the entire component or vehicle.

This plastic bumper is not going to lend itself well to being abraded with the end-result having it look better or the same. (That's two kinds of end results).

It's also one of those projects you can make as complicated as you want to make it and in such situations, rarely does more and more work result in a better and better looking result.

The fastest way to fix this would be to get the bumper or at least the outer skin replaced.


Best of luck with it...

[Mike Phillips]

Re: 2004 Audi allroad bumper repair

For your reference, every member of our forum gets their own photo gallery. You bumper photo is in your gallery here,

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/showgallery.php/ppuser/23424/cat/500

The article I included in the above reply about how to place an image in your messages also shows you how to find your gallery.

[safetypro]

Re: 2004 Audi allroad bumper repair

Thanks so much Mike,

A shop here in Boise said they can do it for about $350, another body shop says replace the bumper "skin" @ $750 + labor (lot's of attachments) thay said ...so I assume that means a few hours at best to remove.

But your comments on removing the material around the scratch were interesting and make sense. Sanding, then wet sanding may result in a poor finish, so I may just leave as is rather than create a real mess that reqires prosessional body work $$$

I will remember to remove the spaces in photos.

John