[jklaz]

South Carolina doesn't have well lit highways for the most part (and terrible roads). I didn't see the piece of tread until it was too late. Was about 2' wide and maybe 8" tall. Went straight under my car.

From what I can tell, the only damage is around the front bumper. The damage from this incident seems to be:
A - Crack in the bumper
B - Scuff in the bumper
C - Places where the paint was hit and its bumpy
D - The front side that took the brunt of the hit with large marks on it
E - Cracked shroud behind the bumper from where it hit underneath I assume

Would you try to DIY the worst of it? Ignore it? Get it fixed? I plan to get some different body shop quotes but this just happened last night so figured I'd get some opinions here. Apologies for the bugs I am on rural roads and the highway a lot. I washed the part of the bumper with the crack just to get better pics.

[overcoil]

ignore it.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by jklaz

I didn't see the piece of tread until it was too late. Was about 2' wide and maybe 8" tall. Went straight under my car.

Would you try to DIY the worst of it? Ignore it? Get it fixed? I plan to get some different body shop quotes but this just happened last night so figured I'd get some opinions here.

I had the exact same thing happen last year on an Illinois interstate. The piece of rubber looked huge by the time I got a good look at it, which was too late to do anything but hit it.

Below are photos of what it did to my car. There was no front damage and no damage to the underside of the car. As you can see, it did take out the rear valence. I think it would have been more deformed or even (maybe) ripped off the car, but it was wrapped in PPF and I think that kept it on the car.

I chose to have it replaced, and I'd do the same if I had your damage. But...I keep my car looking like new, and that's not always practical or something lots of owners want to do.

Looking at your photos, I'm guessing a good body shop can make a lot of your damage be less visible enough that it wouldn't be a big deal to live with and wouldn't hurt resale value too much, either.

Good luck with it, and let us know what you decide to do.