Modern cars have bumpers made of plastic, which means they're easily dented even in a low-speed collision. Since they're made of plastic, however, that makes the resulting dent easier to push out. You need to heat up the plastic to make it more pliable and then gently push it out using a hammer. To learn how to repair a dent in your car's bumper, read on.
Remove Your Bumper
Removing your bumper makes it possible to reach the dented area, and removing a bumper from a car is an easy and quick process. Your front bumper is attached to your car's chassis by screws under the hood and screws underneath the wheel well. The back bumper has screws in the trunk and the wheel well. Once you remove the screws, your bumper will snap right off.
Heat Up The Plastic
Heating up the damaged area of your bumper will make the plastic more pliable, which makes the dent easier to push out and reduces the risk that the plastic will crack when you're working with it.
The best way to heat up your bumper is with a hair dryer on its hottest heat setting. Just use it on the dented area until it's almost too hot to touch.
You can also use a heat gun, but you need to take more care if you're using one. They get much hotter than a blow dryer. You may accidentally boil the paint on your bumper, causing it to bubble up. If you're using a heat gun, keep it a fair distance away from your bumper in order to avoid damaging the paint.
If you don't have a blow dryer or a heat gun, you can also use boiling water to heat it up. You'll need to slowly pour a pot of boiling water over the dented area, giving the water enough time to heat up the plastic.
Push The Dent Out
Once the plastic has been heated, take a hammer and gently push out the dent from the back side of your bumper. When your bumper is heated to the right temperature, you won't need to use much force. Work quickly to push out the dent before the plastic starts to cool down. Once you've pushed the dent out, let the bumper cool down and then reattach it to your car.
If you don't want to remove your bumper or if you're worried about ruining the paint by using too much heat, take your car to an auto collision repair shop. An experienced collision repair technician will heat up your bumper and push out the dent without any risk of damaging your paint.
Contact an auto collision repair shop for more information.