To make a long story short I was tapped on my rear bumper by some lady at a stop light. She stopped and some how her foot slipped and idled into my rear bumper... To be honest I'm probably the only one that can see the damage but there is a small indentation/dent (no crease in the plastic, you can only see the indention when looking at an angle under certain lighting conditions) near the passenger tail light and the gap just below the passenger tail light is a little thinner on one side then the other. What I'm curious is, is there any chance I can just get my bumper readjusted or something along those lines? There is no paint damage what so ever. I don't care if I have to replace parts behind the bumper or whatever, I just want to avoid getting a new bumper (if I can) painted because the paint never matches... I've got a carbon silver 08 and I would image that's a ***** to match paint. Any tips would be great, thanks. By the way, sorry I don't have pictures. I'll try to upload some tomorrow.

 

going to a body shop tomorrow to see what they say... Wish me luck.

 

Went to the body shop today and they said I wont need a new bumper, mine just needs to be readjusted. They told me they will have to take the bumper off and repaint it which confused me a little (there is no paint damage). Is there any way a body shop can take the rear bumper off and readjust it with out damaging the paint? I told them I really don't want to get the bumper repainted because the paint never matches. They preceded to tell me the paint doesn't even match from the factory because the bumper is plastic and the body panels are metal (two different kinds of materials painted the same color). Even if that's true I can't tell a difference in color from my bumper and the panels around it... Any ideas or tips would be great! Thanks

 

Any pics yet? It would be nothing more than a guess at this point, so if you can get some high res pictures of the damage we could offer better advice.

Regarding what the body shop said, it is true to an extent. Even from the factory, many members complain of bumpers, side skirts, and fuel door being a different color on a factory paint job. That IS due to it being different materials, but having a PPW, I fear the same thing when I change up my body later this year. All you can do is go to the most reputable painter available in your area, pay good money, and tell them that you won't accept the car back if it doesn't meet your expectations.

 

Here's the pics...

 

Man, you weren't kidding...that is REALLY hard to see even with your circles. If it won't just pop right out, there is no way they will be able to fix it without repainting it. If thats the case, MAKE SURE you are comfortable with the shop and make sure that if you aren't happy with the match that they will repaint it. If they can't do that, look for another shop until YOU feel comfortable.

Best of luck!

 

What do you exactly mean by pop right out? It's a plastic bumper and when it's taken off I would imagine it will bounce back to it's original form when the stresses of the impact are no longer on it. For example, I got into a reck way back in high school (years ago and not in a Z) where my entire front bumper was pushed in. Once they took the bumper off it bounced back or reformed to it's original position. The Z's rear bumper is obviously not metal so I can't get the paintless dent removal to "pop it out" right? If it bounces back when taken off as I mentioned why can't I just have it put back on and adjusted near the tail light so the gap is corrected? I'm still confused with the repainting issue... If those indentations don't come out when the bumper is taken off I would rather get a new bumper rather then have the indentations filled in and the who thing repainted. Sorry, I know I sound frustrated... Thanks again for all your help.

 

That is exactly what I mean. If they (the bodyshop) take if off and the dents don't just pop (bounce) out with a light touch to the affected areas from the backside of the plastic bumper, your options will only be to replace the bumper with a OEM or aftermarket rear bumper and getting that painted if you don't want to have your current one fiberglass/bondo'd to get it corrected.