OK, I feel like an idiot. I'm humming down the left lane of the expressway at about 65 when the car in front of me suddenly swerves. About a split second later I learn that he's swerving to avoid a 2 foot square cardboard box sitting in the middle of the (left) lane. I swerve too, but manage to clip the box with the right hand side of the lower valence panel that contains the fog lights. Judging from the s___ storm I noticed out the rear view mirrors, the box was full of books. Fortuntely, the guy in the Chevy behind me catches most of it in his grill, windshield, etc. (He actually turned his wipers on.)

So here's my problem. There's a "smudge" (for lack of a better description) from the box in the lower valence. It's actually a whole bunch of small scratches about 6 inches long caused by hitting the box. Any ideas how to get them out? Since this is a textured grey plastic panel, I'm pretty sure buffing is out. Armor All temporarily hides some of the mess, but doesn't solve the problem. Replacing the panel is about $135 and looks like my only option right now. Any bright ideas out there? Thanks!

 

It will be pretty hard to match the textured finish. My guess is, you will need to replace it, or sand the whole thing down and paint it. Bad part is, the painted one will probably get stone chips.

 

Before you buy a new one there is a chance of repairing this and making it look new. Use a heat sourse like a hot hair dryer or propane torch ( beeee careful not to get too hot) and heat the effected area and as the plastic gets soft you may be able to press the raised scratches back into place--------- you could also find something with a similar texture and use that item as a mold while pressing it on the heated plastic. I repaired a long wide scratch on a bed liner once and after I finished it looked perfect even though the scratch originaly was grey on the edges and raised

 

Thanks guys. I had toyed with the idea of a heat gun and some texturing, but I'm a bit worried about re-forming the whole side of the valence. Painting isn't really an option because to do it right, I'd end up removing the whole valence anyway. I'm leaning towards just replacing the darn thing. Since I've got nothing to loose, I'll try some heat first though. Thanks again!