How Do You Remove A Dent?

[Robert6920]

Hi all, I would appreciate some advice if possible, please, on how to remove a dent (it was on it when we bought it, honest!) from the nearside rear plastic bumper on my other half's Rav4.2. It's hard to see normally (picture 1 below) but if you are laying on the ground and the Rav's about to reverse over you, it's dead easy to see (picture 2) :o (Must clean the bottom of the door, too!)

Is it possible to heat up the plastic (hairdryer, maybe) and then "pop" it out? If anyone has any experience of trying this, good or bad, I'd be pleased to hear from you

Thanks

[chatman]

Robert6920

I was wondering how to do this as well.......This one my wife did do said she see something else and did not notice the bollard

Anyhow don't fancy removing the rear part and messing more up....I can knacker up her hair dryer fixing it :lol:

[three5]

Hi all, I would appreciate some advice if possible, please, on how to remove a dent (it was on it when we bought it, honest!) from the nearside rear plastic bumper on my better half's Rav4.2. It's hard to see normally (picture 1 below) but if you are laying on the ground and the Rav's about to reverse over you, it's dead easy to see (picture 2) :o (Must clean the bottom of the door, too!)

Is it possible to heat up the plastic (hairdryer, maybe) and then "pop" it out? If anyone has any experience of trying this, good or bad, I'd be pleased to hear from you

Thanks

Think you might struggle with this one as heating the plastic up enough to soften it is likely to b***er up the paint. There seems to be a few plastic bumper repair specialists about these days. Maybe a sign of the times. A friend had a badly mangled bumper repaired and repainted. They had to fill some bolt holes as well. Excellent job and cost £120 - much cheaper than a new bumper. Many thermoplastics - the materials that bumpers are made from - can be hot gas welded. This is the process used by the specialists.

Best regards

Chris

[anchorman]

With it being creased the only chance you have of getting that out is to push it back from the inside. Take the bumper off as described on page 8 here;

http://techdoc.toyota-europe.com/legacy/To...64-X0423-00.pdf

With the bumper off, lay an old cloth or blanket onto a hard surface then use a mallet and a piece of wood which has been rounded off as a punch to knock it out from the inside. Use the broadest pice of wood you can and always make sure the bumper is supported by the hard surface when knocking. It may not come back perfectly and you will have some touching up to do but it should look better.

If all else fails the dentmaster or chips away people often offer a bumper repair service.

Good luck Robert.

[Robert6920]

Have had some success in removing the dent. Thanks to Anchorman and his handy pdf, managed to remove the bumper without difficulty - although it might be worth mentioning that the instructions say to remove four screws; two are easy to find, but two of them are snuck away out of sight (one is right underneath the lowest part of the plastic panel, and the other is tucked away about two inches to the rear of the top, frontmost part of the panel you're trying to remove - both are accessible from below)

Once I'd got the panel off, I was able to press with my super strong thumbs and that took a good deal of the dent out of the panel. The paint, though amazingly pliable, is a bit crazed (it looks like a bit like orange peel or the beginnings of cellilute, apparently!) but not broken. Once I'd got most of the dent out, I admit to trying a hairdryer to warm the plastic up a bit, then a combination of thumbs and - a bit of a brainwave :hokus-pokus: - the back of a teaspoon. I am happy with the results, although maybe a bit more effort would have got closer to perfection, I have learned to stop before I completely bug*er it up. Here's the result......

[Hoovie]

That, Robert, is a hell of a good job

I saw the first pic and thought "no chance"

[anchorman]

I don't think many will notice that Robert, a heck of an improvement - nice one

Hoovie, I always reckon its worth a crack at it - nothing to lose but a lot of money to save!

[shcm]

Yeah, brilliant before and after pics!

How long did it take you Robert?

[dave.m]

Call that a dent in your bumper ?

Now heres a dent in a bumper -

;) ;) ;)

[Robert6920]

How long did it take you Robert?

Less than an hour start to finish - ten minutes to get the bumper off, twenty minutes with thumbs, spoon and hairdryer, five minutes to replace, and the balance spent polishing and then a coat of wax.

Call that a dent in your bumper ?

Now heres a dent in a bumper -

;) ;) ;)

I agree, that's definitely a dent!!! Gonna take a bit more than thumbs to get that one out!

[Fujisan]

Well done Robert. Great Job.

[bothwell_buyer]

How long did it take you Robert?

Less than an hour start to finish - ten minutes to get the bumper off, twenty minutes with thumbs, spoon and hairdryer, five minutes to replace, and the balance spent polishing and then a coat of wax.

Call that a dent in your bumper ?

Now heres a dent in a bumper -

;) ;) ;)

I agree, that's definitely a dent!!! Gonna take a bit more than thumbs to get that one out!

Aye - Motherwell railway station still hasn't recovered but. the trains now avoid platform 3 due to the 8 bollards being unsafe; the pedestrian bridge needing to be replaced; and the security gate still hasn't been recovered from being wedged in the points.... :lol:

[bitman]

as always advice of our meister Anchorman is TOP!!!

[anchorman]

as always advice of our meister Anchorman is TOP!!!