Just filled up my Alfa 156 and the filler flap parted company from it's hinge as I opened it. The filler flap is painted dark blue and I thought would be made of plastic , but wait a mo the break on the hinge stalk is bright white and the surfaces of the break look like ceramic but it does not feel heavy enough ! Any ideas what this would be made of and what would be a good glue to repair it .Epoxy or superglue ?? TIA Ed
It just fell off!
Jun 04, 2006
13 Replies
No clue about it, but it was nice to hear about bits falling off an Alfa. That's a long tradition being held up.
Warwick
Colour and failure mode suggest Aluminium!
Cheers Dan.
Not aluminium dude, looks like. say a broken plate.
glue it back with mitre fix (from screwfix) it is the 9th wonder
Aluminium, when fatigue failing is going to open a micro-crack as it goes. Over time that will become oxidised and appear white ceramic-y, then finally it will just snap off.
Be interesting to find out what it is, i cant see it being ceramic (they are usually brittle, not ideal for use on cars which vibrate a lot, especially not in such a cheap and flimsy location).
I'd say dont bother trying to glue it, things like that never hold.
J
Say no more. ;) Ok try giving the exposed crack a light sanding, as Dan says it sounds like it could be an Aluminium or Aluminium alloy part, not what I would have expected really. I'd say your best bet would be to replace the entire part (I'm guessing it's out of warranty?) direct from Alfa it's probably £150+ but you could look around the local breakers or online salvage companies for a damaged 156. Or if it is Aluminium you could get it welded back on (TIG really isn't as hard as is made out) but I wouldn't be happy doing it where it is so you would need to get the thing off the car anyway.
It most likely is some form of plastic. I've never yet seen any sort of repair last on fuel filler flaps, so a scrappy is probably your best bet.
Solution therefore is to drop it and listen to the sound. Personally I can tell a plastic petrol filler cap - it's an alfa so it will probably be metal - and they only use two metals on them - pre-rusty steel and aluminium ;-) (sadly they seem to have now got the hang of which to use for which part and they seem to be pretty good - pity about the old cars/pile of oxide)
Cheers Dan.
Lol, good investigations - smell of emulsion paint. Give me a while to think, im fairly good with smells but that one is strange!
Maybe it's made of that dry emulsion that you get left with in the bottom of a tin that you held on to for touching up scrapes? ;)
Epoxy-vinyl or PVC? Emulsion paint is vinyl emulsion is it not?
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