Morris Minor Owners Club

Oh great! About an hour ago some clown driving a big black Vauxhall backed into my rear bumper while my mog was parked outside the house. It's made a depression about 4 inches long just to the left of the o/s over-rider - the lip of the bumper blade is raised and the steel valance has a raised bump (proud by about 5mm). Until it's daylight I won't be able to check for damage to the bumper mounts.

Does anyone now if these kind of dents can be pulled out easily? Or should I be demanding new parts?

The dent in the blade won't be able to be pulled out. It's quite thick metal & will need to be beaten out. Unfortunately, this will probably damage the chrome.
The steel valance is quite flimsy in comparison, so much so that getting it straight & without kinks is also difficult. If the paint isn't cracked, you might be lucky to get it straight again.
Hopefully the spring action of the bumper assy has protected the body mounts.

Hi Chris - you can get them straight but you'll never get them perfect. The bumper valance will be distorted so you flatten it, it'll be wavy. Even if the bumper chrome blade straightens out it will be damaged - Chrome has very poor elasticity so sooner or later big chunks of chrome will split or jump off and you'll have a rusty mess. The inner strengthener can be bent back straight.

Check the inner wing and boot areas where the bumper iron bolts on, as there areas can be dameaged (especially if these areas were weakened by corrosion)

A new bumper valance (painted) and a new chrome blade already add up to a bit of money.. The other option is to make a cash deal with the guy and wait until you find some decent second hand bits ;-). That way you won't be out of pocket.
If the guy wants to risk his no claims instead of paying cash, then find a nearby specialist to do it all including fitting - there's not much point to DIY on an insurance job.

Rays quite right the Bumper & Valence are around £160:00 + vat and paint so its not going to be cheap.

make sure you get your damage replaced by the person who did it.
so many of my customers came with similar damage to my garage,
thinking that i could sort it out. this used to put me under unnessary stress, and a difficult problem to sort out cheap, cost of parts, paint labour. this only put the pressure on your garage rather then the people that made the damage. i even got one going on now. hes done the same. a routemaster bus has bent his, didnt get bus drivers details, now ive got to sort it out using mine and his money, not L T s. very difficult. espically when stocks of bumper parts have been used up by this sort of situation. theres a lot to a rear bumper, and its all got to fit and sit well.

Thanks everyone for the advice - point taken Brixton Morris. I couldn't see any damage to the inner wing / bumper stop mounting points but I'll have to check carefully from underneath.

The blade is the 35 yr old original and the pitted chrome isn't anything worth saving - however the valance is clearly uneven and that's what annoys me most. The car belonged to a neighbour's friend so that makes the situation more awkward as I don't have the registration as yet.

Well if they didn't leave details, just remind the neighbour that if you don't get details immediately, involving the police will get them a court case and a lot of points on their license for leaving the scene of an accident..
Hopefully then you'll get a fast respnse ;-)

As Brixton said - make sure you follow up with the other party. I had a bent bumper once from a white van undertaking me on a single lane road when I was turning off. I got their details but never sorted it out - When it was too late I then regretted it.

Oh yeah, go for the jugular... I thought 'touch parking' was common in London, sad to hear it happened to a Mog, though...

Definitely go for new parts - the good thing is, it's almost impossible to put the area back to the pre-accident condition. It's surprisingly difficult to authentically recreate rust and pitted chrome using new parts!

Did the bumper touch anything else, and damage that (even just the paint...?) or was the damage only to the bumper? Have a good check around - especially for cracking around the bumper mounts. I had to have a new boot floor when Phyllis was rear-ended because it was distorted.

try and get new parts......
but also get the valance back if you can.
there a little difficult to find, and pass it on to some one.
+ bumper iron, they may use that again though

Don't worry Brixton, I'll make sure the valance and bumper iron stay with me & it should be possible to straighten both - only the blade is too twisted (but the over-riders are fine). Do I take it then that the 'new' steel valances being sold are actually reconditioned originals? Thankfully there is no damage where the bumper mounts merge with the inner wing.

I've finally managed to swap details after threatening to go to the police and file a failure to stop report. I'll be happy to go through the insurance if the other party doesn't come up with an offer as neither party has independant witnesses and my car wasn't occupied. Luckily I have a good photo of the rear bumper taken only 8 days before the 'accident'.

I've finally managed to swap details after threatening to go to the police and file a failure to stop report.

Why do people do that especially when you know who it is, too many just think its an old car another dent / knock wont matter, its so frustarting to have to go in heavy handed.