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Plastic welding and rivet guns


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My arch liner has a nice split in it from where that dog hit the bumper so can I weld it together, if so how and what's the cheapest way as it's not something I will need to do often?

 

Also I need a rivet gun for modding my front grille so needs to be for plastic unless they can do metal as well. What's the best kit to get?

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try solvent welding

 

just buy a pot of solvent from your local DIY shop

 

rivet guns use rivets which are generally metal

not sure i have seen plastic ones

 

rivets will work on plastics as well as metals, may need to put some washers on, depending on the application

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Not heard of solvent welding I will google that...

 

The rivets on my grille were plastic as I broke them off but I'm not sure if the guns do these and metal. Can you recommend a gun? There a loads on ebay but I'm weary of very cheap tools now as I find they last once or twice and then break! So I want something half decent so it will last a while....was thinking of going for a Draper one?

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My arch liner has a nice split in it from where that dog hit the bumper so can I weld it together, if so how and what's the cheapest way as it's not something I will need to do often?

 

Try a soldering iron with plastic tie wraps as the filler rod (colour of the tie wrap to suit the colour of plastic you're welding). It's quite easy and you can build up the reverse side to strengthen the joint. Size of iron and wrap will depend on the thickness of the material you're welding, small iron for thin obviously.

 

If it's out of sight you could stitch it together with small tie wraps. Seen it done many times on rally and circuit cars.

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Not heard of solvent welding I will google that...

 

The rivets on my grille were plastic as I broke them off but I'm not sure if the guns do these and metal. Can you recommend a gun? There a loads on ebay but I'm weary of very cheap tools now as I find they last once or twice and then break! So I want something half decent so it will last a while....was thinking of going for a Draper one?

 

draper is a good reasonable make, should be fine

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My arch liner has a nice split in it from where that dog hit the bumper so can I weld it together, if so how and what's the cheapest way as it's not something I will need to do often?

 

Try a soldering iron with plastic tie wraps as the filler rod (colour of the tie wrap to suit the colour of plastic you're welding). It's quite easy and you can build up the reverse side to strengthen the joint. Size of iron and wrap will depend on the thickness of the material you're welding, small iron for thin obviously.

 

If it's out of sight you could stitch it together with small tie wraps. Seen it done many times on rally and circuit cars.

 

Thanks might give that a try. The split is around 8" long and I can put the 2 halves together, just need something to stop them separating.

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Is the arch liner plastic or that fabric stuff? If it's plastic you could try superglue, if it doesn't work no harm done as you won't see where it's been. If you can get to the back you could put something like araldite there along the crack then just something to stop it sticking against the metal behind it while it dries. A metal rivet should do the job on the grill and a spot of black paint if it's exposed to hide the metal colour.

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Try a soldering iron with plastic tie wraps as the filler rod (colour of the tie wrap to suit the colour of plastic you're welding). It's quite easy and you can build up the reverse side to strengthen the joint. Size of iron and wrap will depend on the thickness of the material you're welding, small iron for thin obviously.

 

 

There you go:

 

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Thanks for the links guys I will take a look...

 

Is the arch liner plastic or that fabric stuff? If it's plastic you could try superglue, if it doesn't work no harm done as you won't see where it's been. If you can get to the back you could put something like araldite there along the crack then just something to stop it sticking against the metal behind it while it dries. A metal rivet should do the job on the grill and a spot of black paint if it's exposed to hide the metal colour.

 

Just plastic...I thought of superglue but when I clean my arches I can see it splitting again so want something that is stronger. It doesn't take long to remove so I can put something on the back of it.

 

I'm wondering if the rivets on the grille were metal now but maybe they were so corroded that's why they broke easily leading me to think they were plastic :crying_anim:

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