So recently a racoon decided to commit a form of japanese train suicide in front of my poor fit. No time to react or swurve.The thud was suprisingly quiet but the damage pretty bad. The little sucker went throgh my lower grill (somehow without breaking it beyond repair - all it took was some super glue to get some clips back on) then hit my A/C condensor (again amazingly without breaking it, although bent somewhat) then he was forced out the bottom and broke through the plastic brush guard (once again without permanent damage - honda engineers must have prepared for this?)

Anyway he managed to crack the bumper shell in the middle area right in front of the lower grille. Also caused a random small spiderweb crack below the upper grille.

So my question is, What should I do?

I just finished fixing my front bumper 2 weeks ago!!!

One the one hand I could get the Mugen front underspoiler - $500

or

I could get the JDP carbon fiber lip which would cover it up too - $300

or

I could fix it - $500 cash deal with my bodyman.

I never intend to sell the fit so resale is not a concern.

What do you think? I am reluctant to fix it again. At least if I buy one of the first two I can feel a sense of acomplishing something with my money where as fixing it only puts me back to where I started. Yet, I fear the first two look a bit too ricey :/

pics:


broken lower grill


cracked bumper



you can see bent lower radiator support brace - easy fix once I was home


bent a/c condensor, no leaks somehow


where he came out the bottom. once again, easy fix


camping trip was not completely wrecked but definitely put me in a sour mood most of the time.

 

Also, does anyone have any other ideas for covering it up?

 

I'd go with the JDP, or get a new bumper for $170 and get it painted. Seems like that would be less than $500.

 

This is true, I forget how cheap our bumper is. $170 for bumper + $75 for paint and materials + $150 for labor w/ bake comes out to about $400 ISH. ORM is an awesomely easy color to match according to the work they did on my rear bumper after I was rear-ended.

 

I say jdp. Good luck!

 

This would be covered by your insurance policy if you carried comprehensive coverage. Check with your agent, the companies I'm familiar with do not "punish" policyholders when they have a comprehensive loss. It's looked at pretty much as no fault.

 

aye $500 deductible. Irony is that I am switching to $0 ded at my renewal in 2 weeks... ... ...

 

if this is the second time in two weeks, i dont think the jdp lip would be the best decision. Crack that up and you'll be really kicking yourself. I think i would take hayden's advice and go with a new bumper. Plus if you do that you would have a spare if anything did happen.

 

My vote would be the JDP carbon fiber lip.
I am worried this will happen to me. I put 3M clear bra down there and so far I haven't hit anything substantial. Keeping the fingers crossed.

Sorry for your luck.

 

Man, LN, if it weren't for bad luck, you'd have no luck at all!

 

I feel bad for the racoon.

Get a bumper on ebay, and do the painting yourself.

 

I remember my driver ed teacher telling me many time, "Well that's why they call 'em bumpers." I'm amazed at how the FIT devoured the little rascal and spit him out.

I would follow the advise given - new bumper. On new cars I always keep a $0 deductible on my comp coverage. If it ain't my doing I sure don't want to pay. I had a 1wk old Summit and caught a deer with the right head light - always the new car.... K_C_

 

my mom has that kind of damage on her honda accord, made the same type of paint peal and crack. After repainting the bumper it was seriously never the same quality.

i also had a mustang with that some kind of cracked bumper damage and the paint eventually kept on pealing out as time progressed.. its weird.. i never found out what to do to fix that kind of damage

 

OP: I would go with the JDP bumper. It seems it is of good quality judging from the remarks from customers from this forum.

Offtopic: Ugh...I hate that saying, "That's why they call'em bumpers." Maybe "back in the day" when bumpers were not painted. I see lots of rear bumpers of decent cars covered with tiny little scuffs and blemishes. I can only guess it was the driver's fault for constantly touching other bumpers when parallel parking that causes this. But either way, I try to not park behind these cars.

 

If you get the bumper repainted professionally, you have to insist that the body shop use a special 'flex' material additive - I believe it contains polyurethane. This avoids the cracking phenomenon.

 

Only real bumpers are chromed_

The guy that used to say that was also the coach. We all knew he would rather have been doing anything else. K_C

 

Jeez- nasty damage. Sorry this happened to you. I wonder if the mesh screen mod would have helped or hurt more. I almost hit a dog tonight on the way to work- a collie, which is a big dog. The fucker meandered right into the road up ahead in a very dark part of the road. Going 50mph, I was lucky to spot him early enough to hard brake and swurve, Luckily no on comming cars. And the thing just casually walked away as if nothing had happened. Probably 15 years old, deaf and blind. I would have smashed up my fit something good on that dog. Made me think of this thread. Figures. Much as you try, it's really all luck to avoiding this crap. This week, the BIRDS have been insane too. I know it's just a matter of time before one or more of them smacks into me. Anyway, the Fit handled nicely in a panic stop through all this.

Dan

 

i ran over a good 50 inch opossum the other week. he went right under the front of the bumper and caused no damage. i even heard him scraping under the car. when i checked for damage, all i found was hair on the undertray. he managed to scurry off somewhere, to both our astonishment, and is probably off praising honda engineering.

low profile critters FTW

 

I would get another oem bumper or the MUgen.The JDP is nice but being cf it will be history if you hit anything.

 

You could do something like this and just cover it up.



Using a flat black grade vinyl you can get from probably any sign shop. Shouldn't cost more than $10, you would just have to sand down the broken area so it doesn't stick out.