Damage to bumper

I have managed to back the motorhome into a pallet and it has done some damage to the fibreglass bumper can this be easily repaired please dont really want to go through insurance

What exactly do you mean by "some damage"?

A split about a foot long

If you know a good auto body builder he should be able to do a good repair, have seen one done by a guy I know, if need a new one about £350 still cheaper than going through your insurance I would have thought, by the time you have paid excess and then premium goes up next time, if you haven`t protected no claims that will rise also.

Good luck
best regards,
Margaret

I'm not sure that a split in fibreglass can be properly fixed cheaply. Most car bumpers are not fibreglass, and many can be "plastic welded" - but fibreglass cannot.

The problem is that the split significantly weakens the material, so even if it's not stressed (shouldn't be in this case) just the normal flexing of the panel will mean that the split will tend to re-appear - you cannot just patch it from behind, fill over the split and paint it.

I'm fairly sure (having owned several "plastic" bodied cars - three in fibreglass, one in fibreglass/kevlar and one in a whole mixture of composites) that it will need the split to be cut out and new material bonded in, then sanded back and filled, then painted. A cheap repair may seem attractive right now, but it won't be if it keeps coming back!

If you can get a new bumper for £350 I would be sorely tempted to just do that - especially if it comes already in the correct colour - as I doubt a repair and local respray will come in at a lot less than that...

Great thanks will give my garage a ring tomorrow an see if they can do it - easier than me trying to make a mess of it!

Sorry mojo,

Have I seen for myself when I was at the body shop a MH actually had come in with a damaged back bumper, not mine, also saw it after repaired  and just couldn`t see any difference to a new one, also the body shop  guy said if it was damaged again it would have to be a  new one, so someone was lucky here, I did say a good body shop repairer, this guys does vintage and classic vehicles and has decades of experience.

daisy mae wrote:saw it after repaired  and just couldn`t see any difference to a new one, also the body shop  guy said if it was damaged again it would have to be a  new one

That's fair enough - I don't know what the body shop guy did to it (I guess he ~might~ have cut the split back, bonded material in, sanded and filled then painted it?).

I have no doubt that if you say so it was a good repair, but if a quick/cheap repair were to have been done you wouldn't initially be able to see the difference.

The difference between a cheap and a proper job on fibreglass only becomes apparent after months or sometimes years, due to the effects of panel flex and heating/cooling.

I should add that I do actually have some personal experience on the subject, as I bought my first fibreglass vehicle over 30 years ago, and one of my current fibreglass bodied cars is one year short of a half century old. I have also had the very dubious pleasure of chopping the roof off a fibreglass bodied car and bonding a section of it into the roof of another fibreglass bodied car - not an experience I would choose to repeat, as the fibre fragments get everywhere.

Cornishpixi - if you're going to take it to a garage, make sure they have experience with fibreglass (most don't). If your username relates to your current location, you may find that a boatyard will make a better job of the repair than a garage...

mojo,

I have also worked in fibre glass, renovating swimming pools and for a firm that did statues, archways etc. did do my bird bath over ten years ago and still looks good. also a Vauxhall victor estate car, parts of, would n`t do it again,  health hazard . agree the bits get everywhere, the matting that is.

Yes do have a boat yard close by thanks