r/Cartalk • u/binxchuy • Dec 20 '24
DIY body damage help Hole punched in bumper
What could have caused this hole? Another car or another type of negligence perhaps from my garage valet?
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u/_fuzzybuddy Dec 20 '24
Looks like it was a bolt sticking out of a wall that got bumped/pressed against, or a bullet hole
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u/PurpleKnurple Dec 20 '24
With the almost melted look around it my first thought was bullet hole.
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u/laffer1 Dec 20 '24
I’ve seen bullet holes. That’s a little too messy for one on this side.
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u/Malawi_no Dec 20 '24
Just spitballing here - Could it be from a bullet at the end of it's trajectory, mening it does not have enough energy left to make a clean hole?
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u/Connect_Strategy_585 Dec 21 '24
Bullets are hot for atleast 30 seconds after being shot. Source: me picking up bullet fragments after mag dumping into trash like the founding fathers intended 🦅🦅🦅🦅
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u/Scary-Detail-3206 Dec 21 '24
Could be a ricochet that deformed and slowed down the bullet
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u/cornlip Dec 21 '24
Then it wouldn’t be circular most likely and would be tumbling making a keyhole shape… that and it’s not from a bullet anyway
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u/_fuzzybuddy Dec 20 '24
My thought was similar but I think a bolt could cause enough friction to cause the burn too, I feel a bullet would be cleaner than that too, it’s so messy I feel it has to be something jagged or uneven like the threads on a bolt
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u/Prineak Dec 21 '24
I once lightly tapped a short concrete pillar in a parking lot that the lights were mounted on.
It left a hole that looked exactly like someone shot at my car.
I got pulled over twice after for unrelated things, and both times the cops asked about it and said it looked like a bullet hole.
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u/IdontevenuseReddit_ Dec 21 '24
The amount of you people that think a bullet passing through makes contact long enough to melt a plastic bumper is hilarious.
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u/xChaoticFuryx Dec 21 '24
Do you think he was shot? I dunno, let’s just wait and see if it comes out the otherwise I guess?
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u/YourFriendPutin Dec 22 '24
That’s more melted plastic than I’ve seen on bullet holes in cars at work on plastic, usually people accidentally firing their pistol in our outside of their car or a hunter shooting his truck packing up a gun incorrectly and while I’m not saying it can’t be a bullet hole I almost wanna say it was something else, drills make plastic melt like that but that makes no sense, maybe a lifted truck got too close with a hot exhaust hanger somehow? Regardless of the cause there’s 2 ways to fix it, replace bumper and repaint or try and get someone to make that plastic look uniform again, then paint. Probably cheaper to find a used bumper especially if it’s in the right color and spend the 5 bucks on a puller tool for the old one to keep in shape in case the new one gets dented or damaged worse than this weird ass-hole.
Edit; after second look two things, was the scuff above I there before the hole? And I definitely get the intention of a prolonged exposure to heat like I can’t see anything other than a very hot piece of metal doing that and a bro dozer certainly makes that possible. Any bolt too long on the motor or exhaust that hangs down and is hot might hit the bumper without the bodies making contact
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u/HWCM Dec 20 '24
It's the bolts from a front tag on a car that used nuts to secure the front license plate, like a Volvo. I used to work at Volvo dealership, I've seen this 100 times.
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u/mowegl Dec 20 '24
Yep front car tag. The good thing about plastic bumpers is they are very flexible and will bounce back, but something sharp they cant help.
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u/tractorcrusher Dec 20 '24
If it was for a bullet would it be traveling so fast that it wouldn’t have time to melt the surroundings?
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u/Glockamoli Dec 20 '24
It depends entirely on the plastic, I would think a bumper cover would shatter but it's possible
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u/jrs321aly Dec 21 '24
Bro abs is flexible as fuck. It wouldn't shatter if it was shot.
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u/Glockamoli Dec 21 '24
Shatter isn't the right description but I would expect a more brittle local failure pattern around a bullet entrance than this, thin abs is flexible but the bullet would only be acting on it for an extremely brief amount of time, that's simply not conducive to flexing regardless of the material
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u/jrs321aly Dec 21 '24
U must not shoot a lot or deal with abs a lot... bumpers are thin my guy. Not only are they thin, but they're large. The best way I can describe it is think of a thin piece of rubber. Then drop a ball bearing on it. Then imagine the ball bearing falling through said rubber. The rubber bounces back. Thats what BASICALLY would happen to an absolute bumper if it was shot.
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u/sohfix Dec 20 '24
gsw have burn marks
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u/Salsalito_Turkey Dec 20 '24
Only at point blank range, where the bullet is still surrounded by burning powder.
This isn’t a bullet hole.
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u/serpentman Dec 20 '24
Maybe something reflected the sun like a magnifying glass, creating enough heat to burn a hole. I've heard of this happening with water bottles.
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u/thisismycleanuser Dec 20 '24
I agree. It’s not a bullet hole like others have said. Unless they are using tracer rounds…lol.
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u/goodinyou Dec 20 '24
It's definitely not a bullet hole. Your vallet backed into a piece of rebar or something
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u/stickmansma Dec 21 '24
Looks like a hot piece of metal was pushed through the bumper.
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u/Mxe6721 Dec 21 '24
Exactly what I’m thinking. It doesn’t make sense to be a bullet hole because it would’ve went through more or still had the round in there. But I just see a clean melted hole like a bolt or a stud that was red hot got pushed into it.
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u/SakaWreath Dec 20 '24
Only one ghetto bug bite in a plastic bumper? No leaking fluids? No reputed gas tank? Trunk seal still intact?
You’re lucky.
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u/MjP_realtor Dec 20 '24
Damn not the Porsche! This is sad. This is why you can't have nice things in NY! 🤦🏽♂️
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u/ohjeaa Dec 21 '24
The number of people here whom have said this is a bullet hole is absolutely staggering.
This is not a bullet hole. It just isn't. For many reasons. It isn't.
Anywho, someone/something sure did jam in there hard.
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u/TheWalrus101123 Dec 22 '24
A lot of people are saying bullet hole. It doesn't look like that to me. It's kinda melted and abraded, almost like a drill bit or something .
Edit* and there is the little vertical knick, almost like a drill caught and rode up the material.
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u/binxchuy Dec 20 '24
Bullet hole is probably the last answer I expected 😳
I was street parked in Gowanus and also stopped briefly at a Wegmans.
Neither sounds like a hotbed for gang activity or shootings but I guess I can’t rule it out entirely. Gowanus does have a lot of industrial vehicles driving around though
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u/TyburnCross Dec 20 '24
Might not have been that close. Bullets shot into the air can go a longgggg way
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Dec 20 '24
See if there’s any shops or businesses near where you parked with cctv and if they’ll let you check
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u/Polmanning86 Dec 21 '24
I’ve got one of those. It’s from a fender bender. Someone tapped your car, likely the impact from the license plate screws that stick out
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u/Mxe6721 Dec 21 '24
Well it definitely doesn’t look like a bullet hole. It looks as if a red hot bolt or stud was pressed up against it until it melted through? Idk that is an odd one. Just to melt a hole and then leave nothing behind. No traces of anything that could’ve caused it? That’s very strange
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u/Spare-Student9487 Dec 20 '24
I don’t know it looks like a bullet hole because it seems that something hot went in and melted some of the plastic but also there’s a scratch at the left of the hole a bit longer than the hole, I doubt a bullet would do that. Maybe your car was marked to be stollen 🤷🏻♂️
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u/JoeyJoeJoeSenior Dec 20 '24
Marked to be stolen?? What?? With a hole??? What kind of conspiracy nonsense is this?
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u/Outrageous-Rope-8707 Dec 20 '24
Marked to be stolen is hilarious. “Hey man, I’m gonna steal this car, but before I do, I’m gonna mark a big fucking hole in the bumper first”
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u/DadWatchesWrestling Dec 20 '24
I mean, you could damage it, follow it, then pick it up at the bodyshop that's empty at night, as opposed to the house
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u/snugglebandit Dec 20 '24
Uh they said stollen not stolen. Maybe it's a hole for raisins or candied fruit.
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u/binxchuy Dec 20 '24
Replying with more info as my original message text was deleted after I added photos.
Live in Brooklyn, car is garage parked by valet attendants. Went out for dinner the night before and street parked. Didn’t notice the hole until the next morning and so not sure when it happened.
The damage is odd..like a hard slam from rebar or other very hard material. Any ideas what could have caused this?
Vehicle is a 2018 Porsche Cayenne
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u/crooneu35 Dec 20 '24
I feel like this could have just been someone vandalizing it and stabbed the bumper with something round. I’m in Central NJ and I’ve seen it happen to people’s cars plenty of times, especially with nicer cars like a Porsche. Some jealous dickheads I usually assume.
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u/Outrageous-Rope-8707 Dec 20 '24
I have a very similar hole, just lower on the bumper. I assumed it was a bullet that ricocheted off the ground
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u/Reditlurkeractual Dec 20 '24
Sorry that was me I go around with a soldering iron poking holes into stuff
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u/MagellanicCosmos Dec 20 '24
it's from the bolts that holds someone's license plate on, they shunted your car, put a hole in it and drove away.
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u/ep193 Dec 20 '24
It’s rebar from one of those concrete parking stop blocks.
Rebar gets hot and goes into plastic like butter. You can see the plastic is pulled out when you pulled away from curb.
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u/biggranny000 Dec 21 '24
Could be damage from the sun that was magnified from something, and then it slowly started to melt your bumper.
Or a vandal used something hot and sharp.
Or a valet backed into rebar or something, but unlikely because that plastic is burned.
That is not a bullet hole.
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u/Impossible-Sleep-658 Dec 22 '24
I smoked a bowl… & I’m just here to trip off all the forensic experts…
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u/Basic_Flight3645 Dec 22 '24
That is from the exhaust heating the bumper bracket, it melted a hole. If your check engine light is on the computer may know why?
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u/Hum_Munz5060 Dec 22 '24
A pointy object, doesn’t look like another car bump since there’s no other marks, I once bumped a hydrant bolt left a hole and marks surrounding it. It’s an easy fix since is just plastic.
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u/flyingwombat21 Dec 20 '24
looks like a bullet hole.
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u/serpentman Dec 20 '24
Plastic is melted. What ever went in was hot.
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u/Hood_Mobbin Dec 20 '24
A bullet would be moving to fast for the heat aspect to come in play. It wouldn't be melted from a bullet as there's not enough time or heat in a fraction of a second to melt it.
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u/serpentman Dec 20 '24
True. Was thinking maybe someone left a cigarette or a cigar in the bumper for too long.
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u/wasilvers Dec 20 '24
Not true, the separation of the parts would cause heat enough to melt.
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u/Glockamoli Dec 20 '24
Typically it just punches through, it would need to be a very particular plastic to deform like that if it's even possible at all
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u/Hood_Mobbin Dec 21 '24
I agree with you that if you rip a piece of plastic it's going to have heat in it because of friction. But I do not believe that even if the bullet is traveling somewhere around 1100 ft per second that it's going to create that kind of heat during the separation even with the heat of the bullet. I think that if it was a bullet the hole would be a lot cleaner because of the speed of it and that it's going through plastic. I've shot enough plastic with a BB gun and some 22 in my life to know that it leaves a pretty clean hole unless that plastic is extremely old and brittle.
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u/bigeats1 Dec 21 '24
As a competitive shooter, the fuck it does. This looks nothing like a bullet hole. At all.
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u/didibop67 Dec 20 '24
Had a similar hole in my car. It was from some hitch . It went in and pulled out. Caught on camera but Sedgwick won't release video for target.
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u/Maximum-Quiet-9380 Dec 20 '24
Someone’s black powder powered hole puncher punched a hole in your bumper.
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u/Choccy_Milkers Dec 20 '24
That doesn't look anything like a bullet hole, theres way too much metled plastic. It looks more like something hot was pressed against it for a bit.