Cracked bumper cover repair DIY project

So, a couple of months ago, I had the misfortune of backing into my neighbor's CRV. Which was parked inexplicably perpendicular to my driveway (which is on about a 40° incline and you can't see anything but street in the mirror until it's too late)... but I digress.
After insurance took care of his door, there was nothing left to repair my bumper ($600 estimate) and still keep my premiums from rising ($1800 threshold). So I decided to try the repair myself.

 

I removed the bumper, which was fairly straight forward. 4 screws (one on each wheel well, and two just inside the lift gate, and a few trim pins, then it popped right off. I cleaned it up good and surveyed the damage. It didn't look as bad once the CRV paint was removed. But there was still this crack.

 

So I head over to my local Harbor Freight and picked up an 80-watt plastic welder. I had seen posts on YouTube describing how to fix a plastic bumper with a soldering iron or plastic welder. This one was $16.99 (minus a 20% off coupon). Also I got a free tape measure, SCORE! Gotta love cheap/free chinese tools.

I also ordered some touch up paint off of Amazon, which was actually sold by TouchUp Direct. Comes with one aerosol can of Tideland Pearl, and one can of clear coat. Not bad for $30.

 

So the melting was surprisingly easy. After heating up the iron for 10 min, the bumper material melted like butter. I added in some of the rods that came with the iron, but it really didn't need a lot of extra material, since nothing was missing just a crack. It was basically just fusing it back together. I inhaled a lot of fumes, so I probably have some kind of sinus cancer now, but hey I am saving serious $$!
I also used some of the wire mesh to reinforce the back side. I probably did this wrong, but this is what it looks like on the back:

 

The main thing I learned is that while it is hot, you should try to smooth out the plastic as much as possible. It takes some delicate stroking, because it really does melt quickly. But once it cools and hardens, sanding it is far more difficult.
So I ended up adding some Bondo. I may regret this later, since Bondo is OK on Fiberglass, but doesn't say anything about plastic. I sanded most of it out, but I really just needed it to fill in some rough patches.


After sanding like crazy, flexing the bumper around started to expose the crack at the top again, so I reinforced it with more melty rods.

 

So I started spraying it with some plastic primer. I sprayed a coat, sanded, sprayed another, repeat.




It's looking ugly here, but it's really strong and fused together nicely. After this was shot, I sanded a lot more. Then I applied the first few coats of touchup base coat. The sun went down before I could get a good photo of it dry, but I *think* it was looking pretty dang good. I'll see in the morning. I'll be sure to post a follow up once it is totally done.

If it works out as well as it seems like it will, I will have saved a good bit of money. My plan B was to order a pre-painted cover off of ebay for $300. So this will save me $260 over that.

 

So I couldn't wait and last night at about 11:30 decided to just go ahead and put my bumper cover back on. It was a bit tricker getting it on, than off. Lining up the grommets and screw holes, and aligning all of the clips. Not to mention trying to hold a flashlight while doing it.
The stress of flexing the bumper back into the clips cracked it a bit again. I will have to do some in-place touchup. I'm also going to need to spray on the clear coat. But I also can do that with the cover on. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the results so far.

 

Thanks AllenZ. I'm not sure if it's courage, as much as cheapness. I wanted to spend as little as possible and was ok with less-than-pro results. Given that my total project cost was $45, I'm very happy with the results.

 

That would have been a good next option if I didn't like the outcome.

 

Alright.. one final photo. I did a little bit of melting and smoothing at the top to seal the crack. You can still see the rough thick part there, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't going to crack again, so I left it. At least there is no crack. Painted it again, and put a coat of clear coat. I think it looks great with just one coat so I'll probably leave it like this and be done with it. Definitely recommend this for an older vehicle that already has a few dings. This looks really good.. especially compared to a crack. And at $45 (plus some time and patience) it's well worth it.

 

Thanks ahmeow. It's true. My father-in-law, who was unaware that I was working on this project, but had seen the crack before, was in town this week. And he commented that he noticed that I had gotten my bumper replaced.