This is my first post, and I'm not sure this is the correct location within the forum. I have a 2013 Prius Plug-In. My car was recently hit by another car while it was parked at the Safeway near our house. The damage is on the front, passenger side bumper. I'm working with our insurance company on a hit and run claim. I'm wondering if the repairs can be done myself, and what I need to check for as far as damaged components. I'm uploading a picture of the damage. When the lights are on, it's clear the headlight on that side is askew. All the lights work. Any suggestions on things I should check before committing to doing this myself? I checked under the car when I found it damaged, and there were no fluids leaking. I didn't smell anything either, though perhaps the freon had already dissipated beyond my ability to smell it. Any idea how long it will take to fix this? I can buy the bumper online, pre-painted. Has anyone had any experience with the pre-painted bumpers? Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.
A body shop will tell you that the real bumper, the one under the plastic cover, could be damaged and no longer protecting you as it should, especially that could be true if the telescopic mount thingy got pushed it and didn't come back out all the way. That would also guarantee that your new bumper cover would sit crooked. Is that a jagged hole in the bumper cover, or is it just black paint that can be buffed out? You might want to give a thought to popping the bumper cover back into shape, getting some touch-up paint so you can hold the insurance money for a rainy day. If this happened at Whole Foods instead of Safeway, I'd just say let the insurance company make everything right.
The bumper isn’t that hard to remove . Salvage yards in your area would have them and probably be close for the paint match. Or you could do what I did and put the old school black bra on the front and no one will know the difference .
I personally dont let the ORIGINAL bumper go as the replacement bumper wont hold as good as the original in quality and painting. The replacement bumper color is going to break over time as its a paint on fiber plastic. If you can fix it (may be a heat gun would remove the dents and a slight and well crafted paint patch would fix the actual broken part.), try to stick around with the current bumper. Worst case, go for replacement.
Thanks everyone. I found a company on Amazon that will ship me a pre-painted bumper with the right paint color based on the Toyota paint code. A few months back, I had a small scrape on the back bumper from a shopping cart, and I repaired it with Toyota 781 from automotive touchup. The match was perfect. I'm hoping the match that comes from the amazon seller is the same. I'll post about my experience in a few weeks.
