Should the entire bumper be repainted if there is partial scratching?
4 Answers
Bumper scratches require a full repaint. Below are relevant details: 1. Main difference: The primary distinction between a full bumper repaint and a partial repaint lies in color matching. A partially repainted bumper struggles to maintain the original factory paint color (resulting in color discrepancy), whereas a fully repainted bumper, though still differing slightly from factory paint, achieves uniform coverage. 2. Additional note: Partial repaint color differences are barely noticeable except under strong lighting. 3. About bumpers: Automobile bumpers are safety devices designed to absorb and mitigate external impacts, protecting the front and rear of the vehicle body. Decades ago, car bumpers were made from steel plates pressed into channel steel, riveted or welded to the frame longitudinal beams with significant gaps from the vehicle body.
When I took my car in to fix the bumper scratches, I specifically consulted the experienced mechanics at the repair shop. They demonstrated on the spot: scratches the size of a fingernail don't require a full respray—just some putty and a few dabs with a touch-up pen. However, if the scratch spans the bumper seam or involves a palm-sized area of paint loss, spot repairs will leave noticeable patch marks. It's even trickier with metallic or pearl finish cars, as achieving a consistent reflection between new and old paint is difficult. The mechanic mentioned that nowadays, 90% of repair shops use digital color-matching machines to identify the original paint code, but even the most accurate machine can't compensate for the fading and aging of plastic parts. Unless your bumper was recently replaced, a full respray is the truly hassle-free option. Last time, I opted for a partial spray and noticed color discrepancies within three months, ending up spending an extra 600 yuan for a redo.
Last week, while reversing, I scraped against a stone pillar in the neighborhood, leaving a white scratch on the lower left corner of the bumper. Initially, I thought a simple touch-up would suffice, but the repair technician shook his head after measuring with a paint thickness gauge. Turns out, my white car has been driven for five years, and the plastic bumper has oxidized and turned yellow, making the newly mixed paint impossible to match. He suggested either a full respray to ensure uniformity or leaving the scratch and waiting for a more significant damage to address it later. Nowadays, the water-based paint technology at the shop has improved significantly. A full respray involves using a paint remover to strip the old layers, starting from the primer and reapplying three layers of paint. Although it costs about three to four hundred more than a spot repair, the finish is nearly indistinguishable from the factory gloss, and most importantly, there won't be any uneven color effects.
Last year in the parking lot, the bumper got chipped by the neighboring car's door opening, exposing the primer in a coin-sized area. After consulting several repair shops, I realized there's quite a bit of knowledge involved: For regular solid-color paint cars, spot touch-up spraying is perfectly feasible. The technician would use 500-grit sandpaper to feather the edges of the damage, ensuring a natural transition between the old and new paint. However, for metallic or pearl-effect luxury car paints, a full respray is necessary to avoid color mismatch. The most frustrating part is that some repair shops might push for a full respray unnecessarily, when in fact professional shops now offer minimally invasive paint repair techniques. I ultimately opted for a partial repair at the dealership. They used a dust-free baking booth for four hours of curing, and half a year later, the repair is completely invisible. The cost was just over 300 yuan.
