What What You Do?

[jsg]

Hi Bolt Owners,

I've had my Bolt for about 6 weeks and love driving it. A few days ago I scratched up the bottom of the front bumper (the front rubber piece that goes across the front of the car). You can't really see the marks from the front unless you bend over to rub your hand over it, but it still bugs me that I marked up a brand new car.

I can get it fixed, the money isn't the issue but I am a bit concerned because in order to replace the rubber part (and some felt lining on the bottom of the front of the car) , the body-shop needs to remove the entire bumper. I checked with two body shops and both said the only way to replace the part is to remove the entire bumper. Is this risky? Should I just leave it as it is or is removing the bumper to replace the 2 parts easily done with no risk to electronics, sensors, etc?

Thanks for your opinions!

Jerry

 

[oilerlord]

Hey! Welcome to the forum. I'm glad you're enjoying your new Bolt!

It would bug me too. If it was my car, I'd fix it but of course it's your money, and your decision.

Most bumpers use a series of clips and/or fasteners and are easy to remove - given the person doing the job knows what they're doing. After a horror story I had with painting / bodywork for a BMW X5 I used to own, I went to the BMW website, for a referral for another shop to fix the shoddy workmanship. BMW maintains a list of "certified" collision repair centers. In order to maintain that certification, these shops are required to send their people for factory training on the latest repair techniques. The work is also guaranteed.

They not only fixed all of the mistakes the previous shop did, the X5 looked absolutely brand new. The paint matched perfectly. Perhaps GM has a similar list of certified repair shops. From experience, and as you already mentioned you don't care about the money, find the right place to fix it, and you won't be disappointed.

 

[jsg]

Thanks for your input. I just read that some body shops don't know that the Bolt's front bumper is aluminum, not steel, and that it requires different tools. Now I am going to proceed with caution and choose the body shop carefully as I don't want to take very minimal damage and turn into a complicated mess.

Best,
Jerry

 

[SeanNelson]

Thanks for your input. I just read that some body shops don't know that the Bolt's front bumper is aluminum, not steel, and that it requires different tools.

I wouldn't expect that to be relevant to removing and fixing the plastic bumper cover. Even if for some strange reason they had to remove the aluminum cross member it would just be a bolt-off / bolt-on proposition.