When I bought my car in 1997 (an '88 with 6300 miles on it!) the only blemish on it was a 4" scratch on the front bumper. It was deep, but didn't go all the way to metal.
About 2 years ago I replaced the "stongard" clear plastic film I had installed because it was yellowing. While I had the old film off, and before I had new film applied I took my car to my favorite paint guy and had him fix the scratch.
Then I had new 3M film applied to the front of the car including the bumper.
The film the guy installed was defective so I had him pull it to do it again. In the process he pulled up the clear coat my paint guy had put down.
Which turned an annoying 4"scratch into a awful looking big blemish on my perfect car.
My "smile" could use replacing so I ordered a new one about a year ago with the intent of pulling the bumper, getting it completely repainted and replacing all the rubber in the process. It took me until today to actually get to this project.
The bumper is now off and I will be taking it in to get painted this week. When it's done I'll put it all back together. For now here are pictures of the disassembly in the hopes they might help others. I found a bunch of threads on smile replacement/bumper removal but none had very good pictures...
First the original scratch.
Yes, I've put myself through all this trouble just for _that_.
Here's what it looked like after the clearcoat pulled up (taken today):
Now for pics of the bumper removal process...