In construction traffic a couple of evenings ago, the car behind me edged forward a bit too much and nudged my rear bumper. It was very slow, so the cars barely made contact, but the point where they did make contact left a roughly dime-sized chip in the paint of my bumper (it's like new cars have a target on them or something >.<).

So, my question is, how difficult is it to repair the paint job on these? Would it be possible for the dealer (who has a collision repair center) to repair a dime sized chip, or would it require repainting the whole bumper? Either way will technically work for me, since the bump wasn't my fault and the other party is paying, but I'd prefer if it was repairable both from the convenience standpoint (I wouldn't be without the car as long), and because I don't want to screw over the other guy over such a tiny slip.

I had a similar thing happen to my front end a month ago...and it turned out to be a $1400 repair as upon further inspection my headlight was cracked. My bumper had to be replaced even though it looked like a really big scuff...the impact broke the mounting tabs.

It's your call...if you take it to a bodyshop, they will take the bumper off and repaint the whole thing for about $300. If you ask the dealer to do a touch up, they may charge up to $100. Or you could get some touch up paint yourself and do it for under $25.

They should be able to touch it up, especially if it is only dime-sized.

My wife got a couple nasty scratches on the hood of her 05 Civic LX from rocks on the highway and we got a kit from these guys:

http://www.paintscratch.com

and it worked beautifully and matched well. Not noticeable at all now with a good wax job.

'08 HCHII Silver (Arrived July 10th!)
'05 Honda Civic 7th Gen LX (Wife's DD)
'98 VW Jetta TDI

It all depends on what you want it to look like in the end. You could fill the chip with touch-up paint and it would probably look fine. You could even sand/compound/polish and get a better result. Still, you will see it, especially if it a metallic color.

The only way to get an invisible result is to sand and respray the entire bumper cover.

I would go for #1 and move on. It's just going to get bumped again by some other dummy.