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How Would You "Fix" This?

Tincanalley

Experienced Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2019
Messages
176
Location
Los Angeles, CA
My thought is heating it before manipulating it. I'm afraid it will break more if I try to line the two up and bend back. It is pretty hard plastic and obviously bends a little as seen in pic, but I don't think it will handle trying to go the other way without the heat.
 

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Depending on the plastic (and the age of it as well), a heat-gun may be your best bet. But if the plastic is quite old (and brittle), it could also make things worse. If you go that route, start off with just over 130° and move up if needed.
 
Depending on the plastic (and the age of it as well), a heat-gun may be your best bet. But if the plastic is quite old (and brittle), it could also make things worse. If you go that route, start off with just over 130° and move up if needed.
I got this thing many years ago. I'm thinking some idiot used a screwdriver to try and remove the face. The plastic is about 37 years old and seems a bit hard, but not sure about brittle. I'll start off low and work my way up and see how it goes.
 
I would use heat and a vice to flatten it out as much as possible, then some acetone to get it together. Reinforce with superglue and baking soda.
 
I would cut the distorted section out and discard the damaged material. Then I would use something like brass metal strip about 0.75mm thickness and drill 1.5 mm dia holes and tap 2mm metric threads threads into them. And screw these metal panels into the rear of the defect using countersunk screws on the outer surface. Then after that was done I would fill the defect with 24 hr epoxy resin and plane that down and smooth it later, so that the surface was flat and smooth. Then I would paint over that with dupli-color spray, so the previous defect was invisible. Of course to do this you need to have the materials and the taps and CS screws on hand. I have all these sorts of things in my workshop.

A problem like this is not just cosmetic. I requires a good underlying base repair (like a building's foundation) then the cosmetics overlaid on that.
 
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Heat and MEK (but not at the same time!!!!) will get the plastic moved around and bonded as much as possible. Heat first and then MEK. MEK will melt many plastics, but is nasty to one's health. Real MEK is also getting hard to find just like many chemicals. Do read the warning label and do outdoors. Then Bondo and paint to finish the repair.
 
Likely ABS, heat to shape then a solvent to cement it together then reinforcement with CA and baking soda are your best bet. You can even put a strip of thin metal (brass or even a strip of aluminum from a soda can) behind it once it's reshaped before you use the CA/baking soda. Make sure you heat it from the outside and inside so that the material is evenly softened.
 
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