jsh1120

Not sure whether this belongs in the "Show and Shine" or "Exterior" forum, but here goes.

Having owned the RX-8 for about a month, I have a couple of marks on the rear bumper resulting from very gentle contact between the bumper and obstacles of various sorts. (Yes, I know this suggests a mobility challenged driver, but I have two excuses. (1) Extracting the RX-8 from my garage is an exercise in three dimensional origami, requring four turns in reverse to get the car out of the driveway. Yes, I know I should buy another house. (2) My wife drives the car from time to time.)

So, other than moving and/or ending my marriage, I'm wondering about both fixing the damage already inflicted and, more importantly, avoiding it in the future. I'll be seeing a local body shop about the former. The scrapes are only slightly too deep to be handled by polishing as far as I can tell. I'm hoping I can get it handled at a reasonable cost.

As far as the latter is concerned, I'm thinking that application of the same 3M film (Stongard, for example) I have on the front of the car to protect against paint chips might do the job without destroying the clean look of the rear bumper. As far as I can tell, however, no one makes a custom kit for this purpose.

Does anyone else have a similar problem? Anyone know if I can purchase the film and cut it/have it cut to fit? Anybody have another suggestion?

magixpuma

What i did for my garage since my parents have the Door throwing strong man competition disease. My garage is unfinished so i put a plank of wood on the support beams and then wrapped them in foam so know when any 1 opens the doors, no worries cuz there paint safe courtesy of styrafoam. Purchasable at loews or home depot. I suggest you foam up your walls or "objects" that you avoid in your 3 point turns outta the garage.

2nd idea

Purchase a second rear bumper. Soon your car will get older your wife will want to drive something else and get bored of sharing your car. so in 4 years youll have nicely preservered new old stock.

magixpuma

Ill send you pics when i feal like takeing them

markd

Even if you could find a clear bumper guard, would that really help? Using a clear bra, for example, would help in preventing rock chips, etc., but I'm not sure if it would defend well against constant scraping on a garage wall.

As far as keeping a spare bumper around, you may want to post in the Parts For Sale/Wanted section. I'm sure someone out there should have one.

jsh1120

Actually, for what I have in mind, I think it would work quite well. I'm not really looking for industrial strength protection. In this case, the paint on the bumper appears to be so "soft" that even the gentlest contact with an obstacle leaves a visible scratch/scrape.

magixpuma

yeah but dont forget once you rub up the bumper on somethign the plastic hazes up from the friction so youll have more of a eyesore then your bargaining for.