Will the door panels melt?

Seriously, I weld bumpers all day with a soldering iron and heat gun, and my drivers door is cracked (again ) and i am wondering if I can "weld" the door with heat. I cannot remove the door to find out, it's too bad to put back on and I do not have any spare parts....

Superglue, fiberglass, and even epoxy didn't work.

I think Nick knows of a product, some kind of a liquid weld, that he swears by.

Tom C.

First thing is determine why the panel is breaking,. I>E it,s not attached properly,. it needs reinforcement behind the break before the plastic compound id applied,. is the panel not attached to the door properly and it,s flexing too much,. you can hide self tappers in behind the carpet down low,. and behind the door handle panel, all contributing to a better stronger panel,.

I'll go find the plastic welding compound stuff i,ve got,. it really works well,. i just used it recently to cover a hole in the fuel rail of an N14 cummins that had worn up against a line,.

clean surgically, shake some powder on,. a few drops of catalyst,. some more powder etc,.
works well,.saved about 2hrs and the cost of the line,.

It becomes permanent in less than an hour,.

i also fixed the end of the cruise control cable where it snaps onto the throttle,body on mommy,s fancy ford,.

Nick

the part# is for the color,. i,ve got white,.. black
damn stuff works really well and i,m always cynical,.
It will take paint real easy too,.would fit in very well with your detail business, repairing interior plastic parts,. using the molding material you can reproduce broken off tabs etc,.



plastex how to video's

Nick

I just repaired a door panel that I thought was totaled. I used MEK and some plastic from another scrap door panel. I took the panel off, and leveled it on the ground face down. Only use MEK OUTSIDE.

Then I used some packing tape to hold it together, by taping from the top to the bottom without taping the door at the crack. I also aligned it front to back with another piece of packing tape, making a cross over the panel. I left the crack exposed.

I made a piece of plastic from another door that was the same length as the crack, and about 2 inches wide. For a curve you can heat and bend a piece of flat plastic, like the part above the door pocket (smooth side toward the door). I used a heat gun and a couple of wood paint stirring sticks to hold, and bend the plastic in a vice. You have to hold the piece in the shape you want it until it cools, or it will spring back, and not hold the shape. Make patches for the different areas, or curvatures. Do not try to make one piece to cover everything if there are irregularities in the shapes. I covered about 80% of the cracks.

Next I used a 1 inch wide cheap brush to put some MEK on the crack from the back side of the door, and made sure it penetrated the crack (do not touch the face of the panel with MEK, or you will mar the surface).

The final step is put MEK on both the panel, and parts you made, then, while they are still wet, join them together. You may have to hold them in contact with each other, but at the same time, do not disturb the alignment of the panel parts. You can brush some more MEK on the edges of the parts you made to make sure the MEK gets between the surfaces. A helper is of great benefit at this point.

It takes about 15 minutes for the MEK to "set" so if you can get some clips of some sort to hold it you won't be as tired. I would not use the door panel for about an hour.

If you do it properly the door panel will be stronger than it was originally. If you get good penetration into the crack, and do not get the MEK on the front, the crack will be almost invisible. One caution, this only works on the lower panel, because the panel is styrene. The upper panel is ABS, and does not respond to MEK. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. MEK is available by the quart at Lowes.

Methyl ethyl ketone?

Yep!

Well, as long as we're talking about plastic...
Does anyone know what substance will glue or bond nylon pieces together?

jimbeau wrote:

Well, as long as we're talking about plastic...
Does anyone know what substance will glue or bond nylon pieces together?

Heat. You may be able to use acetone, but it is not going to give you a good bond. What is nylon and needs fixed. If it is the cable for the antenna, it will not be strong enough.

No, I'm trying to come up with a 'snap-in' fix for unlocking the door like we discussed. Using a couple of nylon stand-offs is one of my genius ideas.

You might try a clamp around the rod. use a screw to make it grip. Sort of like a collar with a slot in it to go over the rod, and a screw through the side with the gap to make it grip. You could use nylon, brass or steel.

jimbeau wrote:

No, I'm trying to come up with a 'snap-in' fix for unlocking the door like we discussed. Using a couple of nylon stand-offs is one of my genius ideas.

go to the web site for plastex and look at the video's,.

Sure glad I found this. Saved the day!

Thanks Nick. Great info.