Well, after what I thought was a fairly mild winter in my area, I have noticed my car looking VERY tired this spring. The front end is beat to crap from stones and other flying debris. Now I'm left with a decision to make: do I take the buffer and some heavier compound to the front end, or do I take the bumper to my local shop and just have it repainted. Take a look at the pics below to see my dilemma. All of those little white specks are stone chips in the clearcoat of my baby!

I don't currently own a Porter Cable or any of the supplies, so I'm in for at least $300 on that front, which is about the same price my shop would charge me to repaint the bumper. I'm all about doing things myself, but some of these chips are pretty bad, and the PC just won't take care of them adequately. Another plus of having the bumper painted is I can have them shave the front license plate holes and emblem. I'm just looking for some advice as to whether or not it would be feasible to attack this with the PC, or if the paint is simply beyond its capabilities.

Here's the pics:

The front end from about 6 feet away. Not too bad.



A little closer to the front end. Now you can really see the chips start showing up.



The passenger side of my front bumper. Many of these chips have taken off a coat of color as well.



Sorry the pics are of lower quality. It's really difficult to get my camera to focus that close. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

my first reaction is that this could be repaired by you... until i saw that third pic!!
but i dont think i can really see the front very well or the damage-

can you post up a few more straight on to the front of the car?

 

Sure thing, wanabe. It's dark now, so I'll take some tomorrow after work and post them. If you think the third pic is bad, wait till you see the bumper as a whole! Just a warning, the pics may be considered graphic for wash and wackos!