(T) ARGH!! I Scraped It!! and whats that funny bit for?

Hi everyone...

I SCRAPED my bumper last night, cant believe it, I was reversing and a low wall was beside the passenger front wheel, i clipped the corner of the wall at very low speed and scraped about a four inch scrape into the bumper just at the front of the wheel arch, now the bumper is fiberglass or plastic isnt it? What should i do, i mean it isnt a major rip, but it looks unsightly and i dont fancy replacing the whole bumper, but will a good body shop be able to do anything to it?

Also, whats the funny knob in the centre of the top of the dashboard right in the middle of the two windscreen airvents for? Cos mine broke off when i was cleaning the inside of windscreen and dissappeared down into the airvent... im freaked over it, but so far i havent heard it getting ground up by anything, but it must be gone into the airvent... An unlucky week for my stilo i think.

My crappy local garage broke my "little knob" off the top of my dash when they were investigating a problem. I was informed it is to do with temperature regulation for cars with climate control (not A/C). Just buy another one and they snap into place quite easily. (I did it myself because they wanted to get the car into the workshop to do it)!

As for the scrape, I would be very suprised if a decent body shop can't do anything with it. Get some quotes. And the bumper is apparently plastic by the way.

Chips Away or some one like that, will sort you out for about twenty to thirty quid mate, broke the littel think between the air vents ages ago, it appeared to be just a pointless piece of plastic so i didnt bother replacing it, no problems caused that could be directly related to it not bein there.

I thought the little knob was for the climate control, being a sunshine sensor or something! I know the Ulysse has something similar on it as well, although not so prominent.

yeah, but the knob dissappeared into the vent under the windowscreen... i havent seen (or heard) it yet though and cant get my head in over the vent to see into it... will try using an old dentist mirror later to see into the vents, maybe i can get it out with a tweezers.

Im afraid to go to a bodyshop incase they get the color matches wrong, but ill be damned if ill let Fiat Ireland fleece me for the same job.

had mine done twice know, some little sh*t on a bike rode into my car first time and took it to dealer and the match was a bit dubious and it was pretty expensive, second time i took it to a specialist body shop that deals in dents and small spray jobs and they got the colour better and it only took them half a day to do it compared to fiats three days for a smaller job...

to be honest, the little body shops can do better jobs than dealers. I had a small part of an Ibiza resprayed at a local body shop as i pinged it and you couldnt tell anything was ever there. When someone ran into the back of it and it went to an insurance approved repair place (a mercedes and TVR dealer) the paint was laughable. it didnt quite match and had a different texture. soon sent that back

When I bought my Stilo it had a scrape on exactly the same place - they got "Plastic Surgeon" to do it - fantastic job i must say!

As for the knob at the front (no pun there about FIAT drivers!), it is a blanking plug for vehicles without the dual-zone climate control. If the car has it, the plug is not fitted, and the solar-sensor is placed there to detect the amount of sunlight entering the cabin, so it can adjust the climate controls accordingly.

Hope that helps.

i scrape my undercariage every day on a little bump all for a 1" drop. its crap only put low profiles on for christ sake..

makes you feel sick all the bumps and scrapes dont it? rubber cars are the only solution! lol

I bet the scrape on my Stilo is worse. I dont think anyone can beat my scrape. Im not proud of it.

http://www.fiatforum.com/attachment....tachmentid=370

ive got a 4 inch scratch on my rear bumper ,god knows how it got there ,its just below the boot door ,the paint dosent apear to be scratched off ,its more like the glossy finish,would abit of polish perhaps rub it out or is there anything else i can use ,dont wanna spend two much

Lucky you, now you can switch light bulbs without all the hazzle.

/Dan