repairing abs hood

[lwb140]

ive got a pretty descent 340/s abs hood it has a crack right up the middle of it about a foot long other than that its pretty nice id like to repair it and paint it to hang on the wall or something ,maybe make a piece of furniture out of it for my wife will fberglass bond to the back side if it or will it make a mess , what about a glue of some kind ??? any ideas thanks wade

[400brian]

I repaired a short crack in the ABS hood on my sled a few years ago, seems to be holding up so far.

It was an inch or so long, and started right at the leading edge of the front.

I glued another 1/8" thick patch of plastic to the back side with a contact type adhesive, and clamped it until cured.

[ICCSF 108]

Body shops repair all kinds of plastics now days, back in 71-72 the Chaparrals had a plastic hood & Chap had a tube of plastic ( just like the tubes of silicone now come in ) that you could use to repair the hoods with, but it worked best if you attached a piece of aluminum on the back side of the crack for support first, but I haven't been able to find that stuff since..

Me

[WinnipegStPaul9]

If you could see the before and after pictures of Bob Enns #53 hood you wouldn't believe what can be done.

[Kurts]

Don't use fibreglass. Take it to a autobody supply store and get the correct stuff for it. Norton and Fusor, but make plastic repair resins.

[ski]

Rez-N-Bond is what professionals use for ABS. It is very toxic but actually melts the plastic together then dries. So if you got a crack the best way to repair is to get a piece of flatstock ABS and bond over the crack from the backside with the plastic piece and clamp it good and this is almost indestructible when done properly. Another option is to butt joint if you have some way to hold the joint together overnite. Then back it up with a plastic strip. I don't know if Rez-N-Bond is available to the average consumer. As always clean and sand before gluing where possible. On show side sand around crack and bondo and finish.

[JDMIKE8100]

The hood may be able to be plastic welded.
Try to find someone in your area that can do it.You need to know the type of plastic you have.
Had my 1969 Charger grill done many years ago and it worked very well.

[JD_Sledder68]

I have a plastic welder (airless) that I use for repairing autobody parts. It will repair most plastics (especially old Mopar musclecar grilles!), but ABS is where it reaches it's limits. Although it *is* possible to weld the ABS back together, it is best repaired with plastic repair 2-part epoxy designed for ABS plastic (poly-olefin style). The problem with welding ABS is that the temperature on the welder has to be extremely precise or it will boil the olefin's (basically oil) out of the plastic. Once this happens the weld joint will fail, if it even holds at all to begin with.

I use SEM brand epoxy repair kits for ABS and other hard to repair plastics.
http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/sem-pro ... 15348.aspx

Clean the area real well with prep-sol and use a dual action sander to remove the paint down to the bare plastic and also rough up the plastic. Bevel the cracked area real well on both sides of the crack and pack the epoxy adhesive into the seam. It sets hard enough to sand in about 5 minutes in warm temps.

[lwb140]

thx for the info wade

[JD_Sledder68]

I have repaired a lot of Charger, Challenger, Cuda and Dart/Duster grilles with this airless plastic welder. Those old Mopar grilles are very easy to weld this way.