Guys. These L/R interior plastics are so brittle, it seems like things break with the slightest tap of the foot or even just looking them cross-ways!

A good way I've found to make good, strong repairs, especially for cracks is to take a small modeler's paint brush, 'wet' the edges of the cracked or broken part several times with lacquer thinner (do it a few times), let the lacquer thinner 'flash off' for a minute, then apply a small amount of crazy glue and hold together (clamp/tape, whatever) for a few minutes. Let it cure completely for a couple hours. The solvent 'softens' the edges you want to glue together and seems to form somewhat of a chemical bond, rather than a topical bond, which are never as strong of a repair. PVC cleaner is an even more aggressive solvent and that work too.

I spent part of last evening repairing the black plastic sill piece that holds the carpet down at the rear door, which was cracked and broken when I got the vehicle and has only gotten worse since. Nice and strong now. This strategy works great and really makes a strong bond. Give it a try. I just use the cheap Chinese crazy glue (don't use the 'gel', it doesn't work very well for this) that you can buy a bunch in a pack for a couple dollars, that you can find at Walgreens, Harbor Freight and other places like that. I've use the better 'Locktite' stuff, and it's ok, but I don't know that actually holds any better than the cheap stuff.

I came up with this idea years ago when our kid broke some beloved toy at a critical joint where a lot of stress was applied. It was either throw it away, spend a bunch of time trying to find another one ....or head out to the garage and see if I could fix it pretty easy. The repair needed to be stronger than a normal bond because the stress in that area was really high for as light as it was built ...just like most toys. Anyway I did as described above and figured maybe it would last a day, maybe two at best. Well, it held so well, they played with that toy for a couple years on/off, plus all the rough handling kids give stuff when they're not playing with their things. The handle eventually did break again ....but not at the repaired joint ...next to it! I fixed it again the same way and it was good. That was a long time ago and it was long since been garage-saled, but anyway, I've fixed a lot of hard plastics this way ever since and it is a great way to get a stronger-than-typical glue joint. Some plastics it won't work on, but harder plastics it works great.

For some types of breaks where even more strength is needed, you can cut up a couple strands of fiberglass into tiny hairs and work them into the backside of the crazy glue. Some really large repairs it's useful to crazy-glue like above, then come back afterwards, "V" out the backside of the crack with a cut-off tool, then apply epoxy and work fiberglass hairs into the epoxy.

Or just buy a new part is another option. Sometimes that's the best option. But if it's just a small crack on something that isn't critical... I just try to fix it.

Hope it helps.

Anybody else have ideas to share?

 

Check out posts 390 & 391 here. '95 Classic - Page 20 - Defender Source
Joel uses a hot stapler to put the pieces back together and fills in the rest with bondo and then refinishes.
That hot stapler seems to be the best way to do it.

 

Another product I've used quite a bit is called Q-Bond. It is basically a powder that is applied to a damaged area then a drop or two of a "super-glue" is added - a little smoke and 1-2 seconds later it's hard! It can be sanded, drilled, etc. The powder can be shaped by adding a masking tape "form" - I've repaired rifle stocks with this stuff! Works great to build up pieces that are missing or to reinforce back side of visible repairs. Just one more tool in the box! Russ

 

Hmm, that's interesting to know. I'll check it out..

Thanks

 

I have a plastic panel that needs repairing and needs to be strong, bookmarked the Q-Bond site. Thanks Russ.

 

The plastic is most often ABS, but some could be polyethylene. For most of the ABS panels, it seems like ABS cement would work well. This is a solvent cement that chemically melts or dissolves the plastic so it will flow into the bonding area. Plastic welding also works, especially on polyethylene. You melt the part and a piece of donor plastic. Welding (meaning melting) ABS also works. The problem with cyanoacrylite (super glue) is it has low flexibility, so the part will be even more brittle than it was to begin with. It will just break again. For the really flexible vinyl parts, there's HH-66.

I have good results with SEM interior coatings. On the other hand, I've had just as good results with Krylon plastic paint which costs less but comes in fewer colors. I like the matte, low-gloss ones. SEM, but not Krylon works on carpet too, but I have not used it there, just on hard plastic and vinyl.