today really sucked reason 1 (front license removal)

[LikeNew02]

I had an hour before I had to leave home for an interview, so I decided to remove my front license plate frame.

I drilled through the center of the driver side rivit, and then pulled a little. Then I wanted to cry. I didn't remove the rivit correctly and made a nasty hole in the bumper. I was able to remove the next one correctly, however I still have one nasty hole.

I think that I read that you can order painted bumper hole covers for $25. I might do this, or put the license plate frame back on the hide the ugly hole.

I have included pictures of my mistake so that others hopefully don't do the same. The trick is to remove the entire head of the rivit before you do any pulling on the frame.

Then I leave for my interview (feeling p*ssed off at myself) only to have another problem in the parking lot of the company that I am interviewing with.

See post "today really sucked reason 2" to read about my second problem

 

[pepperman]

Get the bumper hole covers if you don't need the front license plate frame.

 

[bigdog1279]

yeah or get a knew lisven pate frame instaled

 

[gijoe]

you know if you have some touch up paint and a kragen auto parts or advance auto you can fix that for about 2 bucks. I took off my front license plate went down and bought some black plastic plugs cleaned up the holes with a razor blade, painted the heads of the plugs with touch up paint, then inserted them. Put another coat on the plugs and finished. Took 10 minutes at the most and little to know money. The problem I found with the plugs on the interent is they want you to drill out the holes on your bumper bigger. I did'nt want to do that so I did my own. Just an idea.

 

[Beamer]

Ah, just do what I did, smash into a silverado and get a new bumper and chrome lol. That is the only good thing about my lil' 10 mph accident, all parts that were replaced had something wrong w/ them anyway(hood- bump, bumper-two plate holes and scratched chrome, pass. fender-dent, light-moisture crap). Car looks lots better.

 

[DLS8K]

Ah, just do what I did, smash into a silverado and get a new bumper and chrome lol. That is the only good thing about my lil' 10 mph accident, all parts that were replaced had something wrong w/ them anyway(hood- bump, bumper-two plate holes and scratched chrome, pass. fender-dent, light-moisture crap). Car looks lots better.

I think I might try that later.........raise my premiums and tarnish my driving record while im at it. :joke

As for the best fix..........I would simply take the car to a body shop and have them fill the holes and paint it...........shouldn't be more than $100. That is what I would do. I don't know which would be worse......having a few little holes or two plugs sticking out of your bumper. Hell, if you're going to do the plugs, you might as well save some money and get some generic black ones and paint them with touchup paint. I'll tell you what I would think if someone had plugs in the front of their car.......it would go as follows, "hey, why do you have plugs in your front bumper" to which they would reply, "oh, they are covering up some holes" to which I would reply, "oh.....did you know those are more noticable?" Though, you seem like the type of guy who cares about how the front end of your car looks.

I am planning on getting my bumper repainted next spring and then getting the clear rock guard put on it (only on the bumper). For a total of 250 and no rock chips on the bumper, I think it is a deal. I have seen cars with the rock guard on the front part of the hood and it doesn't look that good.........there is always that line there. The other thing I was considering was getting a bra for the front end and only using it during road trips (back home, etc). As long as you take care of the bra, it won't scratch your paint. My dad uses it on his mustang for road trips and as long as the bra is clean and the paint is clean, he is fine......no scratches.

 

[JPsBored]

thats to bad,, taking my front license frame off was pretty simple don't knwo why u were drilling anythin.

replaced it with a crome frame that is alot more flush and a better look with the grille.

would look even better if i lifted it, so there was no bottom over hang,, but didn't want to drill new holes, so i used stock holes and lifted frame high as could go.