I was out last night and when I came back to my car, I found that someone had hit me and didn't bother to leave a note. What the hell hit me that would leave those two scratches at the bottom that not only go through the paint, but almost through the plastic?!

There were no paint scuffs of another color... unless the car was matte black. I almost wonder if one of the security guards hit my car with their golf cart...




Higher res images:
http://i985.photobucket.com/albums/a...8/IMG_7607.jpg
http://i985.photobucket.com/albums/a...8/IMG_7610.jpg

 

Looks like a truck bumper to me.

 

No clue, but you really need to wash your car.

 

I just waxed it the other day; that's dust from the wax combined with the car sitting outside 5 and a half hours while I was inside.

It's not dirty, just dust.

Here it is dusted off:

http://i985.photobucket.com/albums/a...8/IMG_7611.jpg

Here it is after polishing and touch up paint:

http://i985.photobucket.com/albums/a...8/IMG_7615.jpg

The bumper is a buckled on the top part and those two scratches at the bottom are extremely deep and rough.

I'm going to call the dance club and see if their security guards saw it happen or if they had a camera pointed at my car. I'm a regular there, so they should recognize my car.... My car was flawless so I'm going to see if I can get the hit and run driver to pay for their mistake.

 

It looks alot better after the touch up paint, hopefully they had some cameras.

 

No cameras, just some security in golf carts, but nothing was said about an accident. It was minor enough that it probably didn't set off my alarm and didn't get any suspicion.

The general manager said he'd question the security staff tonight and ask if they saw anything. I'm likely SOL.

The days of looking flawless are over...

I was even in my usual spot where nothing should have happened.

 

Or bumber hitch???

 

Don't want to turn it into insurance? As clean as your car is I would probably do that, or just pick up a new bumper and have it resprayed for maybe $1,000 total. ???

 

I don't think it would serve me very well. I'd just end up out of pocket a lot of money. I'll just continue using touchup paint and build it up and sand it once it is built up enough. Hopefully that plan will work (though I doubt it will).

GXP bumpers are particularly expensive, about $720 compared to $500 Grand Prix bumpers. If I had a heat gun, I could probably get rid of the buckle as it's fairly minor. The jackass fortunately hit it at a good height and it's not too awful.

Car show season is just about over so I'll just wait... :-\

 

Scour eBay looking for a bumper of your color. You might just get lucky. Sucks that your car got hit, though. I know you were really excited when you picked it up, and I know what a stickler you are for keeping your cars (and your family's) in top-notch condition.

 

I've made peace with it, so I'm fine with it for now. It isn't really all that bad after polishing and touch up paint. If the humidity goes down here, I'll just apply a new coat of paint every few days til I get the scratch filled enough to sand down flat and the damage will be almost invisible. The buckle is only there when you look for it.

 

Looks like the shape of someone's front license plate/bracket??

 

I'll be suspiciously checking car's license plate brackets for damage and stealth gray metallic paint this Friday at the same place....

I bet that's what it was. Based on the scuffs and scrapes, I bet it was a truck or SUV with some bumper above a license plate like an Escalade or something. Likely something with a chrome bumper since there wasn't any paint transfer that I noticed. There WERE black scuff marks, but as I said, they appears matte black.

 

When I worked for an insurance company, there were very rare cases where the license plate numbers of the hit and run low-life were pressed into the paint on the bumper they hit, just enough so you could read them. That would be a great help!!

 

Unfortunately (or fortunately) it looks to me like if those deep scratches came from a bracket, it was from a hard plastic one similar to the ones that go on the LT1 Camaro front bumpers, and it had edges that stick out similar to the Escalade above. Maybe they weren't running a plate but had the bracket and that's why the scratches are so intense.

I'll be sure to check the parking lot like an angry pit bull for matte black trucks and SUVs, old 1980s trucks with faded black paint, etc. If they are a regular there like I am, perhaps I can figure out who it is.

If that truly is a license plate bracket mark... that means they backed into the spot behind me and when leaving, ran straight into me when pulling out (as opposed to backing out and ramming my car). Which to me... means they saw exactly what they did...

Not cool. I wish they left a definite paint mark. I doubt a chrome bumper would leave black marks I had to scrub off with polish. The marks were definitely not tire rubber.

When I get home, I'll check my camera and see if I can upload a closeup of the black scuffs...