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broken plastic repair
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Posted by: JW450R1

has any-one repaired there broken plastic.
i tried on my buddies.heated up and old screw driver and fused the broke plastic together.then melted another peice over top of the cracked area.has any-one ever tried this?.if so does it really hold up to every day run of the mill off road atv use?.......

Posted by: JPhonda

I have done it before on my old fourwheeler. The best thing i found was to take another piece of plastic the same color and melt it with a sodering gun so that it gets in the crack. It doesnt look the best but it does the job. The plastic that i used was a piece of legos they work good if they match the color.

Posted by: ZeroLogic

You can drill holes on each side of the crack and use zip ties.

Posted by: wilkin250r

I have had lots of problems with the zip-tie method.

Really, you can "weld" plastic. I've done it many times. It's not pretty, but neither are zip-ties.

There's a company that actually makes a plastic-welder kit, and gives directions on how to use it. It's really nothing more than a soldering iron with a fancy tip, but I've used it to repair several fender cranks and they have held up MUCH better than zip-ties.

Here is the kit I use. It doesn't regulate tempurature very well, so sometimes it doesn't melt too well, other times it slightly burns and discolors the plastic. But it's cheap, which is a big bonus. There are some better welders, but usually for about $200 or so. Heck, if I wanted to spend $200, I'd just buy new fenders!

A review: http://www.extremegarage.com/reviews/atvpw_review.htm

The actual kit for sale: http://www.urethanesupply.com/storeatv.html

Really, the hardest part is finding out the type of plastic. I believe most stock ATV plastic is a polyethylene. Maier dull plastics were also polyethylene, but the new shiny ones are a polypropylene. You need to use the correct filler material, because polyethylene will not weld to polypropylene.

If all else fails and you don't know what type of plastic it is, just cut some small strips off from an inconspicuous spot. If it's from the same fender, you KNOW it's the same material.

Posted by: 400exXx

quote:
Originally posted by ZeroLogic
You can drill holes on each side of the crack and use zip ties.

the ghetto way

Posted by: tofst4u

I have used a plastic welder many of times. I bought a 1987 Honda Hurricane 1000F for 1000$. It need a lot of work. So instead of buying new plastics, I invested into a plastic welder. It took a little while to get good at it but it uses the same technique as regular welding. I now do a lot of plastic work for local racers.

Posted by: Rip_Tear

I just used a soldering iron, and it worked awsome. Try it on some something else first or a place that won't be seen too much. It takes getting the right temperature not to burn the plastics. My first one wasn't too great, burned and I had crap on the soldering iron, but the stuff I did after just looks clean and could use like a polishing.

Posted by: JW450R1

i've heard about them.do u have any pics of anything u weilded?.

Posted by: Rip_Tear

I'll try and get pics for tomorrow, here is the broken plastic