File this under "no good deed goes unpunished", I loaned my car to my boyfriend who had hurt his leg, his truck didn't have cruise control so I offered him my car to go to Christmas with his family. On his way home there was a 3 car dust up. Fortunately no one was hurt. The third car behind mine hit a truck which was behind my car which, in turn, hit my car. The bumper is cracked/folded and scratched (airbags didn't deploy). I guess there is a second silver lining in this as my rear bumper had been scratched up by other people's incompetent parallel parking (and my getting used to driving a small car parallel parking). It's clear I'll need a new rear bumper. Any suggestions on the new one - as in how to protect it from other's poor parallel parking (I've got it down now, but neighbors don't and where I live parallel parking is the only option). Are there moldings that run the length of the bumper as there are side moldings? All advice is welcome.
How about a sticker on the lower window portion of the hatch reading: [If you can read this, STOP!] Failing that, you can check out this thread: http://www.priuschat.com/forums/has-anyone...que-vt1269.html
The rear bumper appliqué discussed in the above thread protects the top, or horizontal, surface of the bumper from being damaged by objects which are placed in and taken out of the hatch. seeh2o - who has seen a lot of H2O in the LA area this week - is looking for bumper guards which protect the vertical surface of the bumper. I remember reading a discussion and seeing a photo of such an item on PriusChat in the past, but my search for that thread, thus far, has been fruitless.
Oh, ahhh. Sorry 'bout that. I searched for "3M" because I remember reading that they make thick (~5mil?) but very clear protective plastic. I saw this thread and figured that was the right one. If I remember correctly, some people mentioned that a dealer or autoshop can order the material in bulk sheets and cut/apply to fit. Though I have to admit that since the idea did not appeal to me at the time, I was not reading to memorize. Hopefully someone can confirm / correct.
What about using an extra long piece of the body side molding from Dawn Products? Its a color match, self adhesive and you should be able to get a discount from Eddie Bell at Toyota in Cleveland. I do recall seeing some really funky bumper moldings in taxis in NYC. Dont know where to get those.
