Next I tackled the issues with the bodykit. The right side skirt and the front spoiler required attention. The corner of the side skirt had broken off at the fixing point.
M-tech parts are made of polyurethane and they are not weldable so I had to go with gluing. After some googling I found the 3M 55045 bumper repair glue. It's a two-component very fast curing polyurethane glue that's made for repairing plastic car parts. You can shape missing pieces entirely out of glue and after curing it behaves as plastic so it's flexible and you can sand and drill it.
The glue requires a 3M-specific glue gun but luckily we already have it at work due to some other plastic gluing projects. On the video they also use a special plastic film to aid shaping the glue but that was so outrageously expensve that I decided to try baking paper instead and it worked just fine. Main point is that glue should not stick to the material. The glue is pretty expensive. Around 50 bucks for 50 ml of glue + 15 bucks for the primer (at least in Finland). Of course you also need a suitable de-greaser. I used the 3M one since we already have it at work but any suitable solvent that doesn't soften the plastic should be fine.
First I sanded off any paint on the area, tapered the edges and drilled a couple of holes to aid adhesion. Then I put a piece of baking paper under the part and squirted (is that the correct word? - Probably not) some glue on it. Then I folded the baking paper on the glue, got it well spread on the part and formed it flat. After curing I sanded the glue to right thickness and shaped it as the missing corner.
The glue is confidence-inspiring. You can grab the new corner and bend it very forcefully this way and that and it feels as it's become one with the plastic. Next I tackled the front valance. It has been repaired before and one of the repaired areas between the foglight and the brake cooling duct had cracked open again. I sanded off any previous glue and filler.
Most likely the cracking had been because the plastic was not int he correct shape. It had deformed quite a bit and the recess had just been filled with a thick layer of filler. I took a hot air gun, heated up the plastic and tried to form it back in correct shape the best I could.
My original intention was to repair just this one spot but after having a close look at the repairs I decided to sand them all out and redo everything. Actually there were quite a few repairs on the valance.
I used fiberglass net to reinforce the cracks I repaired.
There was so much to repair that I had to buy another tube of glue. I learned a lot in the process and I'm sure there's still a lot to learn but I'm pretty happy with the repairs. At least they feel a lot more solid than the previous ones. Still I can't shake the feeling that this valance is nearing the end of it's life. There are so many repairs on it. I'll need to take care and not bump it into anything to keep it in one piece.
Here's a couple of notes on the use of the glue in case someone else is facing the same task:
- The glue hardens very fast so you need quite a few mixing spouts or alternatively you need to prepare everything really well to move quickly from one area to another before the glue hardens in the spout. You should always extrude the half-hardened glue onto a piece of cardboard and continue using the glue once fresh glue flows freely again.
- The glue develops quite a bit of heat when curing and it may feel like the glued area has no structural integrity when the plastic and the glue soften because of the heat but it will solidify when cooling down.
- When spreading the glue on a flat surface, bubbles form easily. You might want to try just squirting a large bead of glue on the middle of the area to be repaired and then spreading it out with baking paper or alternatively try to squirt as even thin layer as possible. Squirting a bit here and there leaves bubbles even if it's easy to spread and flatten the glue under baking paper.
- The glue doesn't stick as well to already cured glue as it does to plastic. So you should try to get the area filled at once. Adding a thing layer of fresh glue on top of old glue seams to work especially bad.
M-tech parts are made of polyurethane and they are not weldable so I had to go with gluing. After some googling I found the 3M 55045 bumper repair glue. It's a two-component very fast curing polyurethane glue that's made for repairing plastic car parts. You can shape missing pieces entirely out of glue and after curing it behaves as plastic so it's flexible and you can sand and drill it.
The glue requires a 3M-specific glue gun but luckily we already have it at work due to some other plastic gluing projects. On the video they also use a special plastic film to aid shaping the glue but that was so outrageously expensve that I decided to try baking paper instead and it worked just fine. Main point is that glue should not stick to the material. The glue is pretty expensive. Around 50 bucks for 50 ml of glue + 15 bucks for the primer (at least in Finland). Of course you also need a suitable de-greaser. I used the 3M one since we already have it at work but any suitable solvent that doesn't soften the plastic should be fine.
First I sanded off any paint on the area, tapered the edges and drilled a couple of holes to aid adhesion. Then I put a piece of baking paper under the part and squirted (is that the correct word? - Probably not) some glue on it. Then I folded the baking paper on the glue, got it well spread on the part and formed it flat. After curing I sanded the glue to right thickness and shaped it as the missing corner.
The glue is confidence-inspiring. You can grab the new corner and bend it very forcefully this way and that and it feels as it's become one with the plastic. Next I tackled the front valance. It has been repaired before and one of the repaired areas between the foglight and the brake cooling duct had cracked open again. I sanded off any previous glue and filler.
Most likely the cracking had been because the plastic was not int he correct shape. It had deformed quite a bit and the recess had just been filled with a thick layer of filler. I took a hot air gun, heated up the plastic and tried to form it back in correct shape the best I could.
My original intention was to repair just this one spot but after having a close look at the repairs I decided to sand them all out and redo everything. Actually there were quite a few repairs on the valance.
I used fiberglass net to reinforce the cracks I repaired.
There was so much to repair that I had to buy another tube of glue. I learned a lot in the process and I'm sure there's still a lot to learn but I'm pretty happy with the repairs. At least they feel a lot more solid than the previous ones. Still I can't shake the feeling that this valance is nearing the end of it's life. There are so many repairs on it. I'll need to take care and not bump it into anything to keep it in one piece.
Here's a couple of notes on the use of the glue in case someone else is facing the same task:
- The glue hardens very fast so you need quite a few mixing spouts or alternatively you need to prepare everything really well to move quickly from one area to another before the glue hardens in the spout. You should always extrude the half-hardened glue onto a piece of cardboard and continue using the glue once fresh glue flows freely again.
- The glue develops quite a bit of heat when curing and it may feel like the glued area has no structural integrity when the plastic and the glue soften because of the heat but it will solidify when cooling down.
- When spreading the glue on a flat surface, bubbles form easily. You might want to try just squirting a large bead of glue on the middle of the area to be repaired and then spreading it out with baking paper or alternatively try to squirt as even thin layer as possible. Squirting a bit here and there leaves bubbles even if it's easy to spread and flatten the glue under baking paper.
- The glue doesn't stick as well to already cured glue as it does to plastic. So you should try to get the area filled at once. Adding a thing layer of fresh glue on top of old glue seams to work especially bad.
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