how to repair ABS plastic bumper - Exterior Forum

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how to repair ABS plastic bumper
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 12:38 PM
im tryin to fix a friends bumper thats got a huge V-shaped crack in it and it also has a space for the exhaust that was cut out too far and wants it built back up and cut to fit.

hes tellin me that fiberglass will work fine and im tellin him it will fall off in a week, anyone else know what we can use to fix this project?


Kill list:03 eclipse, 06 GTO, 04 Mach 1 Mustang



Re: how to repair ABS plastic bumper
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 4:08 PM
Fiberglass to fix what you're talking about is a bad idea, you were right there.

Otherwise... it would greatly help to see what' you're talking about as far as how bad it is goes... see if you can get some pics




Re: how to repair ABS plastic bumper
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 7:18 PM
crack



and here he want the arch smaller to match his exhaust


i dont know what elst to use to do this, any ideas


Kill list:03 eclipse, 06 GTO, 04 Mach 1 Mustang


Re: how to repair ABS plastic bumper
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 7:39 PM
that does not look fixable, I would say Fusor products for ABS molding and repair but that just looks a bit big
Re: how to repair ABS plastic bumper
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 8:22 PM
Hard to tell from the pics, but from what I can see Lord Fusor products may be your best bet. clicky





Re: how to repair ABS plastic bumper
Friday, June 22, 2007 10:23 AM
Epoxy?


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2000 Cavalier Coupe, 138k miles, 2.2 Auto, Silver (alive)
1999 Cavalier Sedan, 237k miles, 2.2 Auto, White (dead)
Re: how to repair ABS plastic bumper
Friday, June 22, 2007 4:34 PM
for abs stuff i have gotten lucky using asoldering iron and mlting back together and if i can use some ohe materil and melt it in there..ie plastic welding....works or me anyways..phil
Re: how to repair ABS plastic bumper
Friday, June 22, 2007 5:00 PM
i'm a collision tech. the fix is difficult and normally it would be more cost effective to buy a new bumper. but it is fixable none to less.

first you need some kind of flexible plastic repair epoxy like fusor , and 3m makes some too. some adhesion promoter. wax and grease remover, drywall tape, masking tape, and sand paper and basic air tools.

for the crack...

find the end of the crack, and drill a hole, this will stop it form splitting further. clean the plastic w/ wax and grease remover(both sides). now tape the outside of the bumper to hold the crack together. now in the back side grind the plastic w/ 50 grit sanding disc. apply a layer of plastic repair, a layer of drywall tape and another layer of plastic repair. let dry. flip over grind the outside the same way but feather the edges w/ 180 before applying the plastic repair. sand smooth. the front may take several coats to get smooth.


for the other part...

take a piece of plastic wrap, and lay on a flat surface, apply a generous amount of plastic repair, layer with dry wall tape, and repeat twice. let dry. you should now have a sheet of plastic after dry, cut out the desired shape. and use the same process used to fix the crack to connect the piece of plastic. put tape on the outside to hold in place, grind, plastic repair drywall tape, plastic repair, let dry. flip over, grind, sand plastic repair, sand

now the bumper should be ready for primer.
Re: how to repair ABS plastic bumper
Friday, June 22, 2007 7:40 PM
FRITZ5385 wrote:i'm a collision tech. the fix is difficult and normally it would be more cost effective to buy a new bumper. but it is fixable none to less.

first you need some kind of flexible plastic repair epoxy like fusor , and 3m makes some too. some adhesion promoter. wax and grease remover, drywall tape, masking tape, and sand paper and basic air tools.

for the crack...

find the end of the crack, and drill a hole, this will stop it form splitting further. clean the plastic w/ wax and grease remover(both sides). now tape the outside of the bumper to hold the crack together. now in the back side grind the plastic w/ 50 grit sanding disc. apply a layer of plastic repair, a layer of drywall tape and another layer of plastic repair. let dry. flip over grind the outside the same way but feather the edges w/ 180 before applying the plastic repair. sand smooth. the front may take several coats to get smooth.


for the other part...

take a piece of plastic wrap, and lay on a flat surface, apply a generous amount of plastic repair, layer with dry wall tape, and repeat twice. let dry. you should now have a sheet of plastic after dry, cut out the desired shape. and use the same process used to fix the crack to connect the piece of plastic. put tape on the outside to hold in place, grind, plastic repair drywall tape, plastic repair, let dry. flip over, grind, sand plastic repair, sand

now the bumper should be ready for primer.



How long have you been a collision tech? Fusor isn't going to hold that crack together long term. I had a crack like that in my streetfire front (when I still had my Sunfire, I did auto body/paint for 5+ years), I used Fusor once, 3M once... neither held. I even went so far as to make metal brackets for the "underside" of the bumper (i.e. the part not visible from the outside), recessed rivets through (so I could fill them in so it wasn't noticeable from the front)... that held up for about 3 or 4 months before it gave out as well... and yes I do know what I'm doing.

That large gap you can't just "fill in" and expect it to hold up long term either. Not knockin ya... just saying.



TO THE OP: Honestly, this isn't something you can fix without having experience working with this sort of stuff on a regular basis. The best bet for fixing that is plastic welding... but even that is no guarantee.

That's the only plus to fiberglass... MUCH easier to fix... but not as durable.




Re: how to repair ABS plastic bumper
Saturday, June 23, 2007 6:29 AM
ive been a collision tech for about 5 years now, i even have a collision repair degree. but i do agree with you that it might not last. thats why normally we just buy new ones. and expeirience is a plus.

here is the universal repair procedure

http://www.i-car.com/pdf/upcr/procedures/pr/pr11.pdf
Re: how to repair ABS plastic bumper
Saturday, June 23, 2007 6:31 AM
sry the link dont work, you have to copy, paste it

Re: how to repair ABS plastic bumper
Saturday, June 23, 2007 10:07 AM
FRITZ5385 wrote:ive been a collision tech for about 5 years now, i even have a collision repair degree. but i do agree with you that it might not last. thats why normally we just buy new ones. and expeirience is a plus.

here is the universal repair procedure

http://www.i-car.com/pdf/upcr/procedures/pr/pr11.pdf


That's cool. There's not many collision/auto body/paint techs in here lol. In my 5 1/2 years on the org, I've seen many people SAY they were, but ended up only just starting school for repair and not have a clue what they're talking about lol. Do you do painting too, or just collision? I know MOST people in auto body just do one or the other. I never had a degree, I learned everything I know from a guy who seen my artwork and asked me if I ever thought about airbrushing, gave me his card and told me to come down to his shop and he'd teach me everything he knew. He'd been in the business for almost 30 years. I liked painting more than auto body lol.

But yeah... with a crack that big and such, I really don't think there's anything that can be done to hold that together long term.




Re: how to repair ABS plastic bumper
Saturday, June 23, 2007 2:18 PM
plastic weld.i think that will hold up. thats what i have always done when a car came into the body shop



Re: how to repair ABS plastic bumper
Saturday, June 23, 2007 2:49 PM
just throw it away. Your going to waste a lot of time and money fixing it only to have it break again.



Re: how to repair ABS plastic bumper
Sunday, June 24, 2007 8:19 PM
the lemur
Yesterday 2:49 PM

just throw it away. Your going to waste a lot of time and money fixing it only to have it break again.

________________________________________________________________________________

the answer: try to buy another one (used or new)

<<< less $>>>


Sunfir3_El_Niņo
Re: how to repair ABS plastic bumper
Thursday, June 28, 2007 6:34 AM
thanx for all the help im gonna try a combination of things, ive told him its not gonna work but he still insists it will, ill melt some of it and try the fusor and the drywall tape method and see what hapens im not goin too much into this, just gonna do the crack, im might fiberglass the exhaust part and when it falls off in a week i can say told you so...


Kill list:03 eclipse, 06 GTO, 04 Mach 1 Mustang


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