I can't believe I did this :(

[UrbanRedneck]

At my work, I park on the side of the building up against the wall. The spot is a slight hill going up towards the building. I always park in 1st gear, because I don't trust the parking brake on hills. Every day when I leave work, I get in, start the car, and just hold the clutch in while I put on my seatbelt and roll the windows down and stuff. Mut today I reached onto the passanger floor to grab the cupholder extension so I could put it back in (I had a big cup at lunch time), and my foot slipped off the clutch. As you can assume, the car lunged foward and hit the wall that was about 8 inches ahead of the car.

For being only 8 inches and starting from idle, it SURE seemed like a hell of a lot of force when it hit that wall, right before my heart hit my ankles. So now the front bumper cover is covered in gouges (deep gouges, into the plastic) across about 2/3s of the center. It also appears that the nose must have flattened against the wall, because the gouges go up onto the flat horizontal portion of the bumper as well. The bumper looks misaligned where it meets the headlights (though it's hard to tell, because I think it always looked a bit goofy there), and the very front tip (where it is supposed to be kinda pointed) is like rounded off now, probably from being flattened. The lower grill is also popped out and won't stay clipped in correctly.

I climbed under the car and inspected everythnig, and it doesn't look like anything underneath is damaged. I am guessing I hit just hard enough to push the plastic cover into the real bumper and distort the cover. I think it'd take way more force than that to actually damage the real bumper or anything else, right?

So in any event, I guess I need a bumper cover now.... Good timing too, since I just spend $700 on performance parts. I guess Ill ring up the old credit card some more It looks like total crap, I can't leave it like that. I can't believe I could be so damn stupid. I guess I should park in reverse instead, or pull it out of gear every time I get in. I am such a damn moron.

I called Ford, hoping that I could order one already painted (I don't wanna know what it'd cost to have something painted alloy mettalic), but I guess they only come in plain plastic (for $252). I guess I'll call some body shops, and search for a take off bumper. This would be a good excuse to get an aftermarket one, too bad I like the factory one best.

Ok, I'm done. Go ahead and flame me now.

 

[Deric]

Man that sucks (as you know). Assidents happen, I was in line at sonic today I forgot I had it in gear since I usually place it in neutral and just hold the brake. Luckily I had my foot on the break otherwise I would probably be replacing my new CDC chin spoiler. I would look for a takeoff. If you have to get new and painted get the Saleen Heritage. Your stock grille will fit and it has the lower portion similar to the GT500. I think it would kick ass in Alloy.

If you are uncertain about the condition of the front of your vehicle you could always remove the bumper and look at the total damage.

Good luck.

-Deric

 

[UrbanRedneck]

I may remove it tomorrow and have a look. It looks rpetty simple.

What's that Saleen one look like?

 

[DarkFireGT]

Sorry to hear that. That is exactly why I park in neutral with the parking brake on. The only time I'll park in 1st is on a very steep incline. The eBrake holds very well as long as you give it a good tug. I had a similar experience when I was 17, except the car jumped a parking block and landed on top of 2 cars. I started parking in the neutral ever since.

 

[UrbanRedneck]

So far I have no luck finding a takeoff cover in Alloy. A few sites (including Brenspeed) say they have various colors available, so I'll have to call some when they are open and see about my color. I wonder what condition something like that would be in after UPS gets ahold of it though...

How much you think it'd cost to have a brand new one painted?

 

[Power4]

Take-offs might be in questionable condition paint-wise if they're shipped to you. I've heard that you should expect it to have a fair number of scratches on it.

I had an incident with shopping cart some a-hole didn't put away and it damaged the driver's side of the front bumper and a bit of the drivers side quarter panel. The cost for the local Ford dealer to repair and repaint that was about $500 for me in Alloy.

 

[stangdude2000]

That really sucks. Think of it this way - great excuse to get a California Special bumper cover or make the upgrage to the GT500 front end.

 

[UrbanRedneck]

I'm going to call Brenspeed tomorrow and see if they have one (they sell take off bumpers), and if they do I might consider driving there to get one. It's 128 miles from here, but that'd ensure good shape.

 

[walter]

Hey man don't beat yourself up over this it was an accident. You're lucky the damage is mostly cosmetic really. Imagine what would have happened if your foot had slipped off in an intersection with your wheels cranked straight to oncoming traffic.

 

[Deric]

I would also post some wanted ads on a few of the mustang forums.

Here's what the Saleen looks like (GT up top GT500 down low)

I may remove it tomorrow and have a look. It looks rpetty simple.

What's that Saleen one look like?

 

[DrSmith]

Who would flame you? I guess I don't know meaning of the word. I rolled my car into the back of a truck, hitting the tow deal. I was on my phone and didn't shut the car down properly. What cheered me up was all the guys on this site telling me it was a good time to upgrade or change my bumper! My quote for paint was about $500 at a dealer. I'm going to wait until I install the blower, as most of the cost is labor. My dent is small enough, I might even try to have a body shop patch it. My wife wants me to buy a gt500, I would need therapy if I scratched it. Seriously, I would honestly consider a "pre-dented or scratched" gt500, just so I wouldn't be so anal about it. I guess we are blessed to have such great cars, I could almost care less about my beater truck...almost.
Doc

 

[UrbanRedneck]

Brenspeed has one in alloy for 199! He said that if it is shipped it could arrive in great condition, or it could arrive with some scratches and scuffs. But I priced it out, and the price of gas to go get it in my brother's escalade is less than the shipping of 78 bucks, so after lunch it's about the same. Think I should go get it? Would you be confidant that a takeoff bumper is in great shape? I ask because the car was PERFECT before this, I am so anal about scratches. I want it to be perfect again.

That Heritage bumper is bitchen, but I can't afford it. I called a local chain body shop (carstar) and they said $300 to paint the cover.

 

[walter]

I would also post some wanted ads on a few of the mustang forums.

Here's what the Saleen looks like (GT up top GT500 down low)

That's exactly the one I want!

 

[stangdude2000]

I ask because the car was PERFECT before this, I am so anal about scratches. I want it to be perfect again.

A take off is a good way to save a few bucks and get something that looks pretty good. If you want it to be perfect again, you'll need to get a repaint on the bumper 9 times out of 10.

 

[walter]

If the scratches are not deep (i.e. your bumper isn't cut) I bought this thing on e-bay called Presto the clearcoat repair bottle that works like magic.

It fills in the scratches, it doesn't rub off clear around them to even it out. Try it you'll love it.

 

[Black_02_GT]

I always park in neutral anyways and will only put it in first on a steep incline... but even then ill let it rest on first gear and still pull the e brake... Otherwise i always give the shifter a shake before i crank it

 

[jlisle01]

Go get it yourself. I'll bet the scratches he's talking about are anticipated shipping damage. I just had a take off front bumper cover installed on mine by a shop that does body kits and it's perfect. If you go get it it'll be in better shape and if he's got more than one you can pick out the one you want. Lets face it $200 isn't bad at all. If only all of life's Oh ***** moments could be that cheap!

 

[shooterm1]

Who would flame you?

exactly ,,, we've all done something that bad or worse .......

its like they say, "$h*t happens"

and good excuse for an up-grade anyway

 

[UrbanRedneck]

Well I got my take-off bumper. I ordered it from Brenspeed, but as I suspected they just go through newtakeoff.com. I had them ship it, because he assured me that it would be fine. It arrived today.

First thing worth mentioning is that I don't see any possibility for there to be shipping damage the way it was packed. And the whole bumper was covered in white plastic that protected the paint, so the blemishes that I did find, I believe were already there. He said they can get scuffs/scratches when they are removed, before newtakeoff takes ownership of them.

now to the blemishes. I'm not tu sure about it. It's in pretty good shape. It has a lot of marks on it that rub right off, so that's no big deal. But it has a few blemishes that I cannot remove. Most of them are on the bottom edge (that faces the ground) so I'm not really worried about it. But there are a couple that are in visible places. They are hard to explain, I guess I'd call them like pock marks in the paint, kinda like tiny dents in the paint. There are probably 3 or 4. All but one of them is tiny, and I think after cleaning it up and waxing it they will be near invisible. But one of them is a mark with a fairly decent scuff around it, right under the drivers side headlight where the bumper meets the fender. I tried to get it out with 3M swirl mark remover (I've had good luck with it in the past on scratches) but no luck. I think I could probably make it nearly invisible with some sort of heavier duty rubbing compound or scratch remover, but I'm not sure because I am not too good with paint.

So I'm not sure if I am happy or not. I THINK I can make it near perfect, but I don't know for sure. All I know is I want it to be perfect like it was before, and I guess the only way to do that is way more than I can afford. I wish I had a damn time machine

Maybe I'll put it on, clean up the blemishes as best I can, and if I am not successful I can have a professional wet-sand them out I guess. I dunno....

 

[UFORocks]

Hey man, if it makes you feel any better I drove over one of those concrete curb things you find in some parking lots. When I backed off it scratched the hell out of the bottom and took a nice chunk out of one side. Fortunately the missing piece isnt visible and everything is in place, but it still pisses me off that I wasnt more careful about it. I cursed myself through most of the night.

-Steve