Working on sons 68 S. The plastic headlight bezels are cracked/broken. Anyone ever try repairing these? He doesn't have the cash to replace them yet. Just building his first car.

 

Yes, I used a plastic bonder epoxy from Ace and then regular bondo filler and painted with Rustoleum aluminum/silver paint for plastic, turned out pretty sweet...not mounted yet, but I'm sure they will hold up fine, also I had donors and cut and patched where pcs were missing....hope this helps?
Eric M

 

Q bond works well on all kinds if plastic and other repairs it's a powder used with super glue you can sand drill even retap the repairs
My work has it and I have used it for many repairs from metal to plastic

 

I've done some spectacular plastic repairs using nothing more than some plastic spoons and a soldering iron. Key is always to match your 'rod' to the base. There are several good sources out there on how to identify plastics ... most of them involve cutting a sliver off and burning it. Just make sure the break is clean inside. If it's old, you'll want to use a needle file to get any oxidized plastic out. Works a lot like really poor technique tig welding actually. Once you're done fusing, it's simply standard body work to straighten it up and smooth it out.

 

I believe that the '68 headlight plastic is ABS. Acetone melts it, but slowly. We use ABS wire in the 3d printer at work... I tried joining two pieces of a large 24" prop blade by using acetone as a glue. Worked great. Ck youtube for videos.

Clean the break
brush on acetone
let it get a little mushy
press parts together
fixture/ clamp/ hold
COME BACK LATER, quit playing with it.

Put some strips of the stuff in a container such as bottom of a soda bottle
Add acetone, let it melt and evaporate to a goo
this goo makes really good filler and crack repair buildup material.

Krazy glue is pretty effective also.

 

x2 on QBond

 

Methyl Ethel Keytone (AKA MEK in the paint aisle) also serves this purpose. It's the basis for most plumbing plastic glues. Damn hard to get the stuff here tho.

 

Walmart has MEK!!

 

I have welded a lot of plastics this way as well. Zip ties work well for filler too. They are polymer based and seem to bond well with almost any plastics and can add strength to old and brittle pieces.