Rear Bumper Cover Repair

Bought an 07 Prius a few weeks back. It appears the previous owner backed in to a trailer hitch putting a hole I. The back and cracking some of the top of the bumper cover. I didn’t wNt to pay for a body shop repair that the dealer said would be about a grand at the Toyota body shop.

So, I’ve set out to repair it myself. Here are the steps so far.

1). Remove the hideous gold duct tape the former owner used to cover the damage. This wasn’t easy. I used so Goo Off and a hair dryer to gently scrape it.

2). Buy a plastic welding tool for $15 at Harbor Freight. I then sanded the area around the hole and welded the cracks together. Fortunately, the piece of bumper from the hole was behind the tape, and I was able to weld it back in place. If you aren’t familiar with plastic welding, check out YouTube. It’s great for fixing plastic bumpers and not extremely hard.

3). Use a body filler to patch over the welds to prepare the surface for sanding and painting. I’ve learned you can’t use regular Bondo. It apparently doesn’t hold up well on plastic. 3M makes an epoxy repair kit for this purpose for about $11. I’ve not gotten to this step yet.

4). Will be sanding to paintable stage, plastic binder application (apparently very important), priming and painting.

In the end I’ll have about $150 into the repair plus my time. Beats the grand from the body shop. Apparently you can buy painted to match replacement bumpers for about $300. You remove the damaged bumper and install the new. My way has not required removing the bumper. I’ve repaired it in place. .

I didn’t remember to take pictures of the hole pre repair. Attached is what it looks like now. Hopefully, I’ll remember to take pics during the next stages. I’ll admit I am a little nervous about the paint match. I have seen it available online, but I do t know how to decide which seller I should buy it from.