Plastic Repair for screw tabs?

[phily]

Anyone have a good way to repair the plastic tabs on the door panels and other things such as the speaker boxes?

See pictures.

 

[white98sh]

Check out this stuff called Q-Bond. Just found out about it a couple months ago... perfect for exactly what you need.

http://www.amazon.com/Bond-Repair-Small-Bonding-Adhesive/dp/B003YI421I

 

[The King]

Check out this stuff called Q-Bond. Just found out about it a couple months ago... perfect for exactly what you need.

http://www.amazon.com/Bond-Repair-Small-Bonding-Adhesive/dp/B003YI421I

I bought some of this and haven't needed to use it much yet. I did experiment with it a bit, and I also think it will work fine for your problem.

 

[phily]

Sounds interesting but how would I use a glue to repair ones where the broken pieces are missing? Apparently the audio guy who worked on my car before I got it was pretty zealous with the screw driver.

 

[white98sh]

It's not exactly a glue. The powder and hardener will attach itself to plastic, so you can form a new tab and then drill a hole in it as needed. You will need to get creative with the forming, maybe use some taped cardboard as a mold so the material will stay until hardened. There's some videos on Youtube showing how to use it.

 

[phily]

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

 

[TomCat]

I saw a demonstration of Q-bond and it looked good so I bought some. I've tried it on a Nissan piece of plastic and the stress that originally cracked the piece also cracked the q-bond. But I would give it a try.
I decribe it as a "powder/filler" and superglue combination.

 

[jwmelvin]

If you want a repair of that tab to be strong, you should drill a small hole into each exposed fracture surface and insert a piece of paperclip (or other wire). You may be able to use a U-shaped piece to bridge the two remaining surfaces. Alternatively (and even better), heat the wire up with a flame and insert into the plastic.

Then fill with Q-bond or an epoxy and drill the hole out once cured. Cut fiberglass can thicken epoxy nicely but for something that small you will have a hard time getting it to look nice. You could use microballoons instead of Q-bond. If you look around a bit you could probably find a black epoxy.

Do you still have the bit that broke off? If so you can put it in place and use epoxy to laminate with a bit of fiberglass cloth.

 

[clean_green]

I broke a tab off of my door panel once and formed a thin strip of stainless steel to the correct contour and used JB stick to adhere that strip to the door panel. I also used JB Stick to repair the broken tab and once I sanded and painted it (actually colored it with a black Sharpie) the fix was invisible :smile:

 

[phily]

Doesn't look pretty, but it should do the trick. Q-Bond repair after.

 

[GraemeD]

I broke a tab off of my door panel once and formed a thin strip of stainless steel to the correct contour and used JB stick to adhere that strip to the door panel. I also used JB Stick to repair the broken tab and once I sanded and painted it (actually colored it with a black Sharpie) the fix was invisible :smile:

This works, just did it. .020" aluminum, JB Quick-weld.

 

[britlude]

have a look here, how i did it.... with the help of play-doh/plasticine/modelling clay

http://www.nsxcb.co.uk/showthread.php?9110-broken-tabs-on-door-panel

the q-bond worked, but proved to be a bit brittle, so 'repair 2.0' involved, as suggested above, adding a wire loop to pin and support