So, like a good guy I take my wife's 64 Galaxie over to Lowes to get some rubber expansion plugs to cap the front off of the newly installed lake pipes that are presently not hooked up. I figured (right or wrong) that until I hooked them up to the actual exhaust, that it might be a good idea to plug them to keep the water out so the cheap chinese chrome doesn't rot away like it did on the chrome reverse rims I got from Summit a while back (different story). So, anyway, if you are not aware, it's very difficult and expensive to find a very good 64 Galaxie rear bumper. I got one. A mint one. Rust free dent free. Got it chromed at Advanced Plating up in Nashville right off the freeway (which by itself is a $1000 proposition). Excellent work, BTW. As ususal, I park WAAAAAYYYYY in the back, and take up FOUR spaces. No one else around. I come out, 15 minutes later, and some moron has hit me in the corner of that bumper, and pushed it in maybe a 1/4 of an inch, and it's about size of the bottom of a 12oz beer bottle. Not noticeable unless you own it or I pointed it out, but still, it's there. BTW, no, they did not leave a note. When I got home, I very gently used an SOS pad to remove the rubber bumper material the offending driver left, and it sorta came off. I haven't had time to try anything else, I will tomorrow if I feel good. My question is, can the dent wiz paintless dent removal guys get this dent out? Anybody got any ideas?
you should know by now that there are guys that pick on you when you park like that..Makes your ride a target for them...
by all means park far away, but really 4 spots!? paintless dent guys work on very thin sheet metal and use leverage to push out dents from the back, i doubt they will be able to even scare a bumper. matt
I know...I wouldn't have even taken the car in the first place, but I wanted to be able to take a couple different plugs with me out in the parking lot to see which one I could hide the best (which, I did). Like I said, I parked WAY in the back, over a sewer grate too, figuring NO ONE would want to park over there anyway. It's like, come on, man. Really? SOME people suck.
I Fkin hate people. I think it will take some hard bumping to move a bumper. I would cut down a block of wood to match the correct contour of the inside of the bumper and go at it with a small sledge slowly.
Crap. I was looking for an easy way out. Now I've gotta pull the bumper, etc etc. And hope I don't chip the chrome. I'm concerned it might look worse that when I start. I don't know. Wish I had more experience in this.
Call around to a couple of bodyshops,see if the paintless dent guy is there,pop over and he can tell you if he can fix it or not,wont cost anything if he is there anyway,or call them and see if you can drop by for a look,all they can say is no. Harvey
hey, Do you know anyone with a press in their shop? I'd remove the bumper, cover the surrounding area of the damage with several layers of tape. Next I'd find/make some metal to place between the back of the damage, and the press's ram, and press the damage out. A facebar is made of, what 1/8'' steel? Standard Paintless Repair methods won't move bent/dented & plated 1/8'' steel! " Humpty Dumpty was pushed "
No way paintless dent removal could even touch a bumper dent. Their tools would bend before the bumper would. Take it back to Advanced Plating. Its the only way you won't screw it up further.
Arg. Kiss an 'effin 'nother $1000 goodbye and two months.......son of a... The press idea might work, IF the dent was more in the middle...but this ones right on the end corner, so you'd have to try and manhandle the bumper, keep it in place, etc...sounds difficult when I play it out in my head. AND, to top it off, about 3 weeks ago I saw a mint newly chromed 64 bumper (albeit not the quality that a Advanced Plating would do) for only $400 on ebay, and something told me to just buy it, cuz ya never know....and of course, I didn't.
Don't hit it or use anything like a hammer. It needs to be pressed. Hitting it will only damage it further by putting smaller dents in it.
Ever heard of automobile insurance with a low deductible to cover vandalism or hit and run collision damage??!? Quit taking up so many spaces, I don't care how far back you were or how much you love your beast. It's totally inappropriate.
If you drive, you WILL get dents, chips, scratches, and everything else. Don't fix it, like you said, you can't see it if it is not pointed out. You will enjoy your car when you don't worry about it so much. When you get done fixing the bumper, get a big Lexan box put it over the top and enjoy looking at it. It will get another dent somewhere.
Advance Plating should be able to straighten it without damaging the chrome. Or, any good chrome shop. They straighten worse every day.
X2 Drive it up there for them to have a look see. Maybe they can pop the dent and save the chrome. And if it's that fresh it won't be 1000.00 to re plate it.
X3 as most of the money is basically for the buffing labor to make it smooth as glass . chrome is like other metals it will stretch and thin under pressure and if you try to shrink it it will make cracks or peel .
Wow.....you used an SOS pad on fresh chrome? You had a mint bumper rechromed? If it's been freshly rechromed it won't cost as much to rechrome it.
I guess the Walmart campers deserve to get dented also I mean they take up 4-6 spots in the back row too. Stopped with my goat at mcdonalds after a show. Parked as far away from the door as I could even though the lot was empty. Sure as shit someone has to park close enough to get me a door ding. 6 cars in that lot. Idiots.
Society defies us to have anything nice, it was probably hit for spite by some classless ass. See if Lowes has it on video, worth asking anyway.
looks like you have 3 options. 1. leave it and hope nobody notices. 2. press it out with a press at home. 3. take it back to the plating place and see if they can fix it, hopefully without having to rechrome it.
31Vicky- I guess not as much on the back row.... It's when there are no other spots and some dickhead took more than one spot that makes me want to smash in their windows
Can't believe that you're getting shit on the HAMB for how you parked your car, FAR AWAY from the store. When I see a nice car parked that way, I think that the owner is smart enough to know that we are surrounded by clueless, classless assholes. I would never bitch about how you parked your Galaxie. I used to use a 39 ford as a daily driver, and was never surprised at what I found when I went back out into the parking lot, door dings, assholes standing on the running boards, and my favorite, jerkoffs trying to open the door... Guess it never crossed their feeb minds that maybe the doors ,even in 1939, had LOCKS. Park in the grass, or on the sidewalk if you need to. People suck, and you don't need anymore proof.
[ We have a new security manager at work, ex-military too. He has declared war on people who take up 2 spots and can have them towed. We got tons of spots in the back of every lot, but there were a couple who pulled that crap in the prime-time lots. With a nice car, I always respect where a guy parks it. If he wants to take up six spots in a remote lot, be my guest.
Does Lowes have cameras in their parking lots? Long shot but maybe you could see who hit it and turn it in to insurance?
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