Parking wheel-stop curbs!!! Do I need a new bumper?!

[johntesi]

No better way to ruin a golf game on a beautiful Saturday afternoon than to pull in and park only to hear one of the most dreaded noises in all of automobiledom. Crunch! Scrape! BAM! KAPLOWEE! Like some kind of bad comic strip, all of those noises emminated from the front of my car. So I promtly stop moving forward, pop her in neutral, pull the parking break and get out to take a look. "#$^@ *&%# @!$%!!!" Very gentleman like, perfect for a golf course. I check to see if lifting the bumper slightly would allow me to back out sans damage, no luck. So I get the dreaded honor of having to back up and hear even more noises. Get out, assess the damage, and get tempted to leave right away. Or say lots more bad words. Pictures are worth a thousand words. Before ya'll start blaming me for pulling up too far, I have driven many a E55, notorious for having ridiculously low front splitters/air dams. I know a couple of people who ditched their CLS/E55s because of that. Happened too often. So this curb was exceptionally high (believe me, I took an actual measurement of it and compared with normal wheel stops). Then compared with the Corolla and Camry on either side of me (amazing how many Toyotas are out there these days), both of which were pulled up further than I had without damage. I know they're both slightly higher, but the front bumpers appeared to be virtually identical. I am sitting on standard sport suspension. So about 2" back from the front of the splitter, without warning, the whole thing slants and provides potential nasty situations.
On to the pics... Will this be repairable or do I need a new bumper?

[quattrosaint]

Oh man John thats sucks!!! You are having bad luck with bumpers these days. If its not repairable get the DTM front and make me jealous!

[johntesi]

No kidding! Makes me look like a dumbass, and I'm the kind of person that will drive hundreds of yards out of my way to not park near anybody... Answers anybody? The silver lining is a DTM or S-Line front are definitely in order if this can't be fixed easily.

[cstarky15]

sorry to see that. id say it just popped off but there are screws that hold it on. if those seem fine maybe you got lucky.

[3.2some]

look like you need to replace the side panel only

[KMHPaladin]

The main attachment points for the bumper on either side are two bolts from the bumper through the fender, with nuts inside the fender. It looks like you ripped the bolts straight through the fender. I'm not sure which broke, the bumper side or the fender side, but I hope for your sake it was the bumper.

[johntesi]

Ok, I'm not sure if I can get goot pictures to turn out on this, but the screws are still on, on the fender side. Sticking out from near the wheel-well facing forward. It definitely seems like it pulled them from the bumper side.. that was my first hunch? Does anyone see those trim pieces hanging in the middle in pics 1, 3, and 5? Is that repairable?

[Sanjman]

To justify yourself with having experience driving many other types of cars does not justify the mistake you made with you car. It sucks... but it happens to a lot of people... no big deal. I just see this as a great opportunity to upgrade your bumper

[Phrost]

I don't know what to tell you, we're either going to need very clear pictures of the corners of the bumper, and behind where the two 10mm nuts hold the bumper on from behind it, or else see it in person.

But the only advice I can give you is to never park over anything, ever. Treat those "parking stops" like a wall and don't run into it. I absolutely hate seeing cars park all the way over these until their tires hit, then they wonder why their entire plastic skid plate assembly is broken/missing when they go to jiffy lube to change their oil next. That, and the cars that scrape their shit real bad and don't even know it so they leave the car like that. Ahhhhhhh. I know it happens though, and it looks like yours can be repaired so just be reallllly careful from now on.

[dadas78]

The situation sucks! Your post makes me made me feel a little better about my Saturday night. Just picked up a new 2008 A4 2.0T SE two weeks ago. Went out to dinner with friends last night. Pulled too far up in the parking space without realizing, and all I heard was grinding. Rolled it backwards, shut the car off and took a look. . I am left with surface abrasions in 4 small areas. The parking curb rubbed off the paint pretty noticeably on the front bumper Luckily, there is no cracks. I’ve been soo pissed, I haven’t been able to look at the car all day. My only solution I guess is to purchase some touch up paint and sand out the imperfections left by the curb prior to touch up.

[johntesi]

Yeah, normally I treat them as walls.. The whole situtation sucked. You really don't want to be sticking too far out at that place. Enough justification and technique criticism, I really need to figure out if I need a new bumper. I'll try to go get some pics in the better light today and post them up in a sec. I'm thinking I need a new bumper...

[Phrost]

Sorry, I was in a typing mood but yeah, I would say take off a front wheel and unscrew the fender liner (if you need to to look behind the front bumper) and look where those two 10mm nuts screw onto and just inspect everything very closely. Take some good pictures of anything that looks broken

[johntesi]

Dude, you have a 2007 Enzo?! That's so 1337, i thought they stopped making those like 2 yearz ago11!11!!!















How bad is it, doctor?

[Phrost]

I'm going to have to amputate your front bumper

But seriously, I don't know... It looks like you ripped off the part that screws onto the fender, but I'm trying to think if you could get away with installing it as is and having it look like nothing happened.

If you push the sides in, will they snap into place? The very ends of the bumper (above the reflectors) actually snap into place, so I would try lining it up and giving it a quick pound with your fist to see if it will at least snap back in. Looks like the two small screws ripped out though...

[johntesi]

Hmm.. I'll try it again. It hasn't stuck in so far. At this point, using a *LITTLE* bit of force can't hurt anything now. Anyone else? I definitely think there's some ripped screws, and the trim piece looks like it has separated to two different parts of the bumper/fender
Edit: The bumper will not get even close with elbow grease.

[Louis J.]

The silver lining is a DTM or S-Line front are definitely in order if this can't be fixed easily.

That's the first thing I thought. I hope you end up with a DTM.

[Phrost]

You will need a new bumper, but I'm just trying to figure out if you can make due with what you have so it won't be flapping around and possibly do more damage.

[johntesi]

Yikes. Should I even bother going to the dealership tomorrow? I think for now I'm going to have to get real 'rice' and duct tape it. Needless to say, I'm not a happy camper right now. What have ya'll been able to get your S-Line bumpers for, painted? DTM?

[gpxluke]

Time to order a DTM front bumper man hah