my plastic hugger has cracked around two mounting points.One bit ha scome off, the other about to do so... I reckon its either fatigue cracks or my dealer overtightened the mounting nuts last year after replacing my rear brake hose , as its only after then that the cracks appeared ...but how do I prove such ?
Its an ermax hugger, color coded, so I was wondering if there is anything which would glue the bits back on.? A new one is at least £80 + painting...
The pieces are not small, about 30mm across, so I can get a decent amount of glue onto them.
any ideas ?
cheers
Try a local automotive paint/bodyshop suppliers and ask for 'Q BOND' it is a plastic bonding agent and works very well (been using it for years now).
Another product if you can get hold of it is called 'MM' it is produced by a company called 'SOL-X' and is a trade only product that is sold to garages & bodyshops only (not sure if you are in the motor trade or know anyone that is?)
One thing I will say is it may need reinforcing where you have repaired it, when plastic suffers fatigue/stress fractures they normaly just keep on going to there surrounding areas, ideally you would drill a small hole at the end of each crack & this will stop it continuing.
You will have an easyer time trying to prove global warming is due to hot air from talk show host's than trying to prove cracked plastics were caused by a shop.
I have had a few things where i have been sure they were caused by over/under tight bolts, the normal reply is you should recheck the bolts yourself.
I have just repaired the mounts on the tail piece where it bolts to the frame, 1 had a slight crack and the other side had come away compleatly. used a semi ridged dual bond resin i got from toolstaion. seems to be holding well although its only been 750 miles over this weekend so early days.
normaly i have used glass fiber on the inside to reinforce plastics. not good looking but adds a lot of strength.
Also a few body repair places will offer plastics repair, but i find they tend to be about half the cost of a new item. worth looking in to though, maybe deefer could give you an idea on cost i know he used to or maybe still dose repairs.
mine was the same last year i shaped 2 x bits of plastic & araldited them underneath the split lugs ,and re-driiled the holes through still ok after a couple of thousand miles
thanks. I had a word with a mate who is a professional paint sprayer and he reckons it will always be weak after a repair. I found a unpainted new hugger on ebay for £33...so am looking at that option as my mate will spray it for free.
I will hang onto the old one and see if it a repair is possible. TBH I like a hugger for its weather protection while touring , as much as the looks...so I do need to get a "working" one back on asap.