Sunday, April 4, 2010

Ive been welding......plastic welding, that is. The bumper had some cracks in it, and big scratches.
I forgot to get a 'before' picture, this is a really bad close up from another pic. The crack is about 2" to the left of the visible screwhead.

Posted Image

The material seems to melt pretty easily, so I heated it with a blowtorch, until it was liquid on the surface. I cut "filler rods" from the back side, with a pocketknife. Then I melted it into place. It took about three tries before I was happy with it. I had to be gentle with the plastic so as not to burn it. I re-textured it by patting with a dry cloth while still soft. Then I blended the new areas in with fine sandpaper.
The end result:

Posted Image

Not perfect, but much better. It is really hard to do a cosmetically perfect job without the benefit of a plastic mold. Also the color is a bit lighter than the rest, but I may paint the whole thing anyway.

No comments:

Post a Comment