Plastic welding

I used Plastic welding in boatbuilding in the very late 70's when building an Arun Class Lifeboat. However, it was nothing more that applying ends of rod, like welding rod, to the joins and heating it with a very hot jet of air. It just meted the plastic together!!!

Used on the Electrical Trunking in the Engine Room

Hope that helps

Mike

It's something that requires you to take it to a place that does it.=20 The advantage over bodyfiller is that you won't get cracking when the=20 bumper flexes.

--=20 Conor

I'm really a nice guy. If I had friends, they would tell you.

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It's something that requires you to take it to a place that does it. The advantage over bodyfiller is that you won't get cracking when the bumper flexes.

It's something that requires you to take it to a place that does it. The advantage over bodyfiller is that you won't get cracking when the bumper flexes.

Well I did it!!!!!!

The rods of plastics we used was the same sort and colour of the Electric Cable Trunking. Rather like pencils but a bit longer. You have the advantage if you can sand down and paint. Ours were left as we did them :-(( Bit of knack but we did it.

Mike

To weld plastic sucessfully you need a thermostatically controlled heat gun, and filler rod made from the same type of plastic as your bumper. Its pretty easy if you have the right equipment and consumables, but this is likely to set you back at least £500-600.

Personally rather than trying a DIY job with unsuitable gear, if you need plastic welding, I would suggest you try contacting a specialist in this type of work and getting a price for what you want done.

It'd be easier just to spray the rubbing strips body colour.

I thought of that, but there of a bobbly texture, you can buy the strips smooth and colour coded but I like making life hard and thought if they were filled, levelled rubbed down and resprayed it would like good :-)

probably a lot of grief just to go for making something look good.

Ahhh I see. Not looking to spend that sort of money. Sounds like to cost of pro gear.

What I was thinking of was getting something like this

Saww this while I was ebaying

Got a test bumper to have a go with. I think that heat gun has variable heat settings, so I hopefully won't melt the life out of the bumper.

Going to google some guides and see if it do-able.

Hmmm also to find out what kind of plastic my bumper is made off.

Cheers

You can fix that with a bit of sanding and some priming. All plastic bits need sanding before you can paint them anyway if you want rid of the release compound and to have the paint stick.

IMO things like that *never* look right in the flesh. Go to a VW show and look at any Golf fitted with Audi style recessed handles. On all but the absolute very best cars, you will be able to tell that it's not original and that the lines don't quite match the way they should. Same thing with smoothed tailgates where wiper holes have been blanked off etc.

Saw what, from a distance, looked like a nice MkII Golf t'other day. Very low, massively wide, but not silly sized wheels, smoothed arch extensions and a smoothed tailgate.

Only, when I got closer, I could see the filler cracking and rippling where they'd bodged several tins of it into the tailgate to smooth it off.

Widetrack looks mint (passat suspension bits widens the track a bit).

TO put it in a cost perspective, I had a 2ft long crack in my bumper=20 welded and resprayed in metallic for =A3100 at a bodyshop. The repair was= =20 invisible.

--=20 Conor

I'm really a nice guy. If I had friends, they would tell you.

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If you are very lucky the cheapo Sealey kit might work on something that is made out of quite thin ABS..............if your bumpers are made out of thin ABS it may be worth a try.

I would think the epoxy is a better option though, but you would probably need to get final surface finish with body filler though.

I think Halfords do a repair kit for ABS bumpers that includes a special ABS filler. I think it is effectivly a paste containing ABS particles and an acetone based solvent glue that melts the ABS paste then melts the bumper with the paste. When the solvent evaporates you are left with a chemically bonded plastic repair,

A lot of the guys on MP3car.com have been experimenting on making their own past using acetone from decorators supplies or chandlers and shaving from ABS solvent weldable pipe from DIY. I think if you bumper is PVC rather than ABS, you can use solvent weldable PVC pipe but you need to find Methyl Ethyl Ketone instead of Acetone.

You need to make small flakes/shavings that get disolved in the solvent in a non volatile bottle (a kind of plastic that the solvent won't dissolve). I used a squeazy ketchup bottle from a 99p set of two from ASDA when I was playing with using it.

Both are pretty nasty and you will need either lots of fresh air outside, or breathing aparatus if you are going to be using it for long periods. And both evaporate really quickly so you can't mix more than you need for each job.