Bumps, scrapes and dings on your car bumper are inevitable. If your bumper is looking worse for the wear, you might as well try fixing some of the scratches on your own. If your car has fiberglass bumpers, you can use a fiberglass patch kit to easily fix small defects in your bumper. This article explains what comes in a typical fiberglass patch kit, what else you need for the job, and how to apply a patch.

Fiberglass Kits 

Many people think that a fiberglass patch kit already includes every single item they will need to repair their bumper. However, this is simply not the case. Most patch kits include the fiberglass cloth, resin, liquid hardener, a mixing tray and mixing stick.  In addition to this, you will also need autobody sandpaper, painters tape, cutting scissors, latex gloves and a plastic putty knife.

Applying the Patch

Make sure you have all these items before you begin your patch job. You first need to prepare the area that you're going to patch. In order for the fiberglass resin to stick well to the car surface, you need to lightly sand. The sanding is actually meant to slightly rough up the existing paint so the resin will stick better to it. If the paint is too smooth and glossy, the resin will have a harder time bonding. Nonetheless, you want to use extra fine autobody sandpaper because you don't want to oversand the paint and scratch it all off.

Basically, you want to sand an area that is the exact size of the fiberglass cloth you're going to cut. You want your cloth to be adequately bigger than the actual hole your patching. For instance, if your hole is 1" in diameter, try cutting a 4" x 4" piece of cloth for adequate coverage. Use the painters tape to place the cloth over hole.

At this point you can mix the resin and the liquid hardener together. Once these two elements are mixed together, the driver he quickly, so make sure you are ready to begin. As you spread the resin over the cloth, peel the tape away once there is enough resin to hold the cloth in place. Most likely, you will have to apply two coats of resin to get full coverage of the cloth. The fiberglass resin will dry smooth and shiny. Depending on the sheen of your bumper, you can either send it down to match or just leave it as it is.

For more informaiton, contact auto shops like Budget Transmission Center.