well, I hit something that was in the road last night with the focus and obliterated my european lip and bumper, I managed to keep most of the peices but now I need to piece them back together and dont want to buy the tool for one use. can anyone help me out?
duct tape
lol sorry I had to, good luck wit search
zip ties.
I have a plastic welder from HF. Actually works pretty good but i had to sacrofice a perfectly good spoon in order to make my “welds” relatively smooth.
man Idk, I have never gotten good results from plastic welding. it always cracks again. Best bet would be to get some panel bond and plastic mesh to fix it right.
aka take it to a body shop.
I’m pretty capable of doing it myself, I had figured I could plastic-weld it back together and then reinforce the back with mesh and fusor…
MechanicalMadness, If you would be willing to let me borrow it I would be GREATLY appreciative. PM me if so.
plastic welding isnt worth it. just V the cracks out, put panel bond on both sides with the mesh on the back. heat it up with a heat gun so it doesnt take 24hrs to cure, sand it down with 220, put some poly on the front bc panel bond doesnt feather too well, sand, primer paint.
post results
If hes got pieces then everything will need to be put together before applying panel bond.
What I would do.
Use soldering iron to mend pieces back together. Doesn’t have to be structurally sound, just to keep everything from moving or falling apart. Then get some fiberglass mesh like used for joining drywall together and some strong adhesive bonding material like 3M 8115. Mesh the backside and spread the 8115 over it. Then let that cure. Once thats structurally sound, sand the front cracks creating like a “V”. Spread some 8115 inbetween the cracks. Then sand, fill, etc to get rready for paint.
I’m pretty sure that’s the way to go. This is how we did the repair on my bumpers (i back into more ish than most females)
- drill a hole where the crack stops
- beveled the edges of the crack to make a v
- melt the stainless steel mesh into the plastic from the back
- cover everything with this stuff called fiberflex (like a really hot melt glue)
- body filler, etc.
Edit: sorry for the dbl post, NYstanger. my bad
I think it would be best to do the gluing all in one step, so the front and back repairs are the same. you can use tape to hold it together while its drying (2" masking tape, I usually used the 3m green kind)
never seen stainless steel mesh. always used the pink plastic/fiber kind roll. it all does the same thing.
all the times I have attempted plastic welding it usually cracks soon after because the heat “tempers” the melted plastic making it brittle.
the mesh looks like a regular window screen material, and you’re right, it all serves the same purpose.
I have used this before at home on my civic. not at work though. lol
I currently have it all taped up, I guess I’ll have to go visit my friends over at Al-Wil auto refinishers for some mesh and bonding agent.
Thanks guys, glad some people with experience in this sort of thing chimed in. this is going to be my first plastic repair endeavor, I’m used to metal and rust patches lol
Use 5 minute epoxy. Works wonders.
I had a job where a women backed her saturn into a Parking Lot Light barrier. Those concrete yellow pyramid looking blocks. It split the rear bumper vertically almost like a slice. I heated the area up a little with a heat gun (It was 20° out that day), put some 5 minute epoxy in the crack, put a piece of wax paper over it, taped over it to hold the contour naturally, let it cure, pulled tape and paper off, polished…DONE.
It has been almost 2 years, 2 years in December, and so far it has held up. You can see a small line where it was cracked.
what brand did you use? and where did you purchase?
mike showed me the pic of your bumper the other day. WTF did you hit man. i crushed a racoon a few weeks ago in the jetta and it didnt even crack.
It is made by Devcon. I bought it at Home Depot.