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So, I made an appt tomorrow to have the bumper pulled, and re painted at the dealer. At $573 bucks it’s not cheap by any means. My hope is that if I get rock chips on the bumper after painting I can touch it up prior to it rusting. These spots were on this truck when I bought it but I didn’t realize how bad or how many there were. What would you guys do?
leave it?
paint it and touch it up if I ever get more?
whats the worst that would happen if I left it that way? Would it weaken the bumper at some point?
leave it for now, aftermarket bumper in a few years?
I have a 17 with 20k miles and the front bumper is beat as hell, same chips with rust. Every few months, I just lightly sand to bare metal and than use a touchup pen. I would wait until it looks bad, than repair and clear bra. The new water based paints are junk when it comes to rock chips.
Had a 2016 F150 with 5 rock chips. Now have a 2018 for about 6 wks and already 2 rock chips. Just washed my wife’s 2017 Explorer and found 6 rock chips and a door ding (someone hit her car supposedly). All touched up. No problems.
Is the dealer paying the 500$ or are you? If the dealer then go for it and clear bra it. If you you can buy a lot of touch up paint and beer with 500$ so I would go that way. It will happen again, so I say put your money in the bank get a bit of interest, beer and touch up paint.
I was driving my 13 GT500 on the highway and a construction truck and trailer where in front of me. A large rock came off the trailer and hit my bumper, put a large rock chip in it. That happened four years ago. I touched it and forgot about it.
You don't say what year your truck is or how long you plan on keeping it.
I had an '09 Oxford While FX4 which had white bumpers. Around here in the winter they use a 50/50 mix of sand and salt. The sand is actually more like finely ground gravel. My front bumper took many hits every winter.
Every spring I would touch it up with touch up paint. After 9 years it looked OK but when looking at it closely you could see all the chips even though they were touched up. Looked kind of like acne I guess. In afterthought a clear bra on the front end would have been very well worth it. My next new truck will certainly get it.
You can touch it up unless it really bothers you. Since you have some rust - I would take a tiny piece of emery paper and glue it to a pencil eraser. All it took was a little twist of the pencil to get most of the rust out of each chip. Then use touch up paint and stay after it every 6 months.
If you do get it painted absolutely put the clear bra on it right away. I would shop the price a little first however - you may find a good body shop they may do it a little cheaper and still do a fine job.
Sell the bumper and buy a bumper made of real steel instead of the tin foil they are made of these days. Then like Scott above said...Line-X it. Problem solved.
Sell the bumper and buy a bumper made of real steel instead of the tin foil they are made of these days. Then like Scott above said...Line-X it. Problem solved.
AK4wheeler
Lol, the problem with this statement is that both front and rear bumpers are made from steel, while the rest of the body is made of beer cans.
To answer some of the questions it’s a 16, and I plan to keep it as long as possible (7 years minimum). I live in TN, so a bit of snow/salt, etc is definitely possible and dirt roads are also pretty regular too lol.
I’m more worried about if it will rust and cause any structural integrity but I guess based on the size of these that would take a LONG time.
I am paying the 500, not the dealer. It bothers me, definitely, but by the time I paint and clear bra it, I’m talking ~1k I’m sure.
I looked at aftermarket off road bumpers but holy hell are they expensive. Guess if I keep the truck long enough, and it gets bad enough, that’s an easy solution down the road too?
I can definitely sand it, and touch it up, but some spots are on a corner so definitely will be tricky. If sanding it, then hitting it with touch up/clear coat will mostly stop the spread of it, I’m fine I guess.
Any other thoughts guys? Appreciate all the help so far!
Fix it? Leave it?
