How much does it cost to fix a car bumper or damage near me?

by Tom Zoebelein - Thu, Jul 24, 2014 7:01 AM

Continued from first part of the aricle...

A Modern Car Bumper has three parts

1. Car Bumper Structural Support
Inner structural support to a car bumper
2. Car Bumper foam section
Car bumper inner foam support
3. Plastic Car Bumper Cover
Car bumper plastic cover image

Your car's bumper has three parts, the plastic cover, the inner foam panel and the structrual support. The price to fix your car's bumper will depend on how many of these peices are also damaged. The very ends of the bumper usually have no foam and have no structural support. They are also the same areas that people ding up when backing into things in parking lots or in garages. This is the cheapest and most basic bumper repair. See Image below:

Car bumper with a dent in the corner plastic

Number of damaged front-end components.
If you have just a small dent in your bumper cover or a broken fog light, then your repair won’t cost much in parts and labor.  In calculating your estimate, we would examine your bumper cover, headlights, fog lights, grill, splash shield, and more.

Can we Repair or do we have to Replace your bumper cover?
We will also need to see which parts can be repaired and which ones might need to be replaced.  Because bumper covers are made of plastic, instead of metal, they tend to require replacement. However many auto body shops do have plastic repair equipment at their shop and can sometimes literally melt the bumper back together just like we would weld metal. It really depends on the extent of your damage.

Did your car sustain any Structural Damage?
Is there any structural damage to the bumper supports behind the plastic portion?  If you have structural damage, it can increase the cost of your repair.  To determine if you have any structural damage, we’ll take a look at your strut towers, hood, radiator support, fenders, and other elements.

Did your car sustain any Mechanical damage?
We will need to determine if your collision caused any damage to your suspension, radiator, condenser, and more.  Sometimes, your car won’t appear all that damaged, but there will be costly mechanical and electrical damage beneath the surface in need of repair. Because the car is designed to transfer the energy of the crash away from the passenger compartment, it is not unusual for engine mounts, transmission mounts, exhaust and other components to become damaged even if they are far away from the area of the damage.

Does the bumper repair require any additional Paint work?
If any of your damaged auto body parts are in need of replacement, the new parts will need to be primed and painted.  If any damaged parts can be repaired, we will likely need to sand and paint them in order to have them looking brand new again.

Airbags
Did one or more of your airbags deploy? If so you could be looking at as much as $1500 per airbag to replace those.

So how much does it cost to get a car bumper fixed near you?
I always like to leave you with an answer and not a series of more questions. So I would say that if the car is more repairable than replaceable you are looking at anywhere from $500- $2,500 for a simple bumper cover replacement. $2,500- $5,000 to fix a car bumper where the structural support is damaged. This would be for a car that is still drivable. If your car is severely damaged and not drivable, you are probably looking at anywhere from $5,000 in repairs to possibly being totaled.