You spent too much time putting the website up.

Go to a hardware store, buy a rattle can of white paint that is specifically
formulated to be flexible after painting - vinyl paint I think they call
it - and
mask and spot paint.  For crying out loud - it's a bumper.  Something else
is going
to bang into it and then what?

Sure it won't color match.  So what?

Ted

Your neighborhood auto paint shop can set you up with the right stuff.  They
probably have it in spray cans and I have found the paint specialty stores
to be very helpful.

PoD

Thats a high price it seems.  I just paid $370 to repaint the hood and cowl
on a 93 Explorer, that's a strip to bare metal, prime, paint with color tint
and clearcoat.  Looks mint now.  To be fair though, those plastic bumpers
require different prep steps to strip it and it is far more contoured.  It
may not be a fair comparison.

I bet your price is high due to high labor cost.  If you could remove the
bumper yourself and bring it in to the shop a-la-carte then the price would
be mich lower.  Few or no body shop will just touch up the section and still
offer a warranty.  To get it to look good, you have to paint the whole thing
and that takes prep.

Did you try Maaco, they have better prices than typical body shops and may
be willing to just do a tape up, sand smooth and feather in job.

Heck maybe you can find a used bumper off a car with a wrecked front end at
a pick and pull lot, call around, can't hurt to ask.

Did you try rubbing compound on marks 1,3

It's neoprene, same as they've been using since 1978.

Sand the scratch out starting with 400 papaer, then 600. Just sand out the
rough spots, not down into the yellow neoprene material. Use a degreasing
agent. Shoot a bit of primer on, then the correct auto touch up paint for
your car's color. That scratch is so minor I wouldn't even worry about
using a flex agent in the paint.

$600? Yeah, they trade a bit of knowledge against your lack of it. That job
would take them 15 minutes, top. $2400 an hour for the shop. Nice profit
margin.

 You can get the supplies you need at any good auto parts store that
sells automotive paint and prep supplies to the body shops.  The paint
is regular auto paint with a special flex additive so it won't crack
and fall off as easily.  The prep supplies are standard and widely
available.  And the counter person can offer suggestions on materials
and techniques to use, where the mail-order shop might not know where
to go.

 If you live in Southern California or certain other areas you have
to deal with the smog laws and will have to buy a HVLP spray system
and deal with special low-volatility paints and supplies.  A lot of
water-based paints and supplies to cut the solvent content.

 The reason they quote so much is the labor - it takes a lot of hand
labor to fix bodywork properly, and time is money.

 The proper materials are a very small fraction of the total cost -
where you'll get bit for money is buying the proper tools and durable
supplies for the job - an air compressor, air-powered body sanders,
paint spray guns, hoses and air filters, rubber hand-sanding blocks,
sanding sponges, an assortment of wet-dry sandpaper grades for all the
sanders, etc.  Don't try to skimp, you really can't do a good prep job
without them.

 If there are no dents in the bumper cover just buff it out, fill any
big scratches, prime, and paint fading out to the undamaged paint
around the owie.  If there is a visible dent left you have to warm it
up and pop it out, or fill it in, or both.  

 If you hit something hard, you may have damaged the foam energy
absorbing blocks or the steel bumper beam under the beauty cover.  You
may have to take the bumper cover off, then fix the under-bumper
structural bits, then put the cover back on and fix the paint.

 The only really critical part is the final painting - which you can
get done for cheap by a professional "Shooter" at the local body shop
if you have done all the prep work and it's all ready to shoot, and
you hand them a quart of paint all mixed with the flex additive in it.

 --<< Bruce >>--