How To Repair A Bumper Cover

How to repair plastic bumper covers.
Learn tips on how to repair and bail plastic bumpers.

I have been asked many times how to repair a plastic bumper cover. So I made this short article and kept it simple without all the fancy long plastic names that manufacturers like to use.

I had the opportunity to meet Dick Jacobs, he was the founder of Duramix, the plastic adhesive repair company which was bought out by 3M a few years dorsum.

Dick was one of us, a very uncomplicated focused homo, constantly thinking near what innovation he could come up upwards with for the Duramix production line and spoke in very unproblematic terms but extremely thorough.

1 twenty-four hours nosotros picked him up at the airdrome, we got in the auto and I asked him a technical question. Nosotros drove in heavy traffic for about 45 minutes, had dinner for nearly 2 hours and so collection him to the hotel which was he was staying at. He got off the automobile and wrapped upward the answer to my question well-nigh micro-spheres in SMC panels.

Anybody in the motorcar that solar day got a very educational crash course about polymers, plastics, micro-spheres and SMC limerick. The other lesson is never ask a technical question to an engineer unless you lot take a lot of time and annotation pads.

I am going to bear witness you a simple method of repairing plastic panels and TPO bumpers.

ane. In that location are only 4 types of plastic you should know nigh in the automotive industry.

1. TPO - Sands in chunks, melts like butter with loftier speed grinders, feels like wax and gets stringy when hot.
2. Thermo-Set - Flexible or Rigid, sands powdery, does non melt with loftier speed grinders and easy to repair.
3. SMC- Canvass molded Compound - New Corvettes take it and looks like fiberglass with white powder. Nosotros will comprehend SMC in another article.
4. Poly propylene - RV H2o Tanks, Dirt Bike Fenders - Not recommended for repairing or painting.

two. Whatsoever Plastic Repair system yous choose will contain these components.

1. A cleaning agent
2. Adhesion Promoter
3. A mixing gun applicator
4. Agglutinative/Cloth for the construction repair
5. Mixing Tips
6. Flexible contouring plastic and backing re-enforcement fabric
7. Finishing Past/Putty

3. Lets talk about TPO Plastic. This is the near hard plastic in the market to repair. It contains iii% to five% wax based mold release within the textile. So that's the problem, how practise we go agglutinative or paint to stick to mold release? Many shop owners and technicians today volition just rather not affect information technology and throw the bumper abroad. TPO is repairable, but you have to take two precautions without exception. If you can fix TPO bumpers, y'all can ready the thermo set up the same way, if you are not sure which of the 2 you have on hand, treat it similar TPO. If you don't know what TPO stands for, it does not matter because with my system you don't take to know. Repair it like this and you volition be fine.

1. After you lot sand the repair surface area follow these cleaning steps, they are the cardinal in repairing plastic bumpers successfully. Use a gray or white scuff pad and scrub the repair expanse of the bumper or plastic panel with the cleaning amanuensis offset, a simple wipe is non going to work. It may work sometimes merely may neglect in others. Neon Bumpers may require two or three cleaning steps. The main reason bumper repairs neglect is by non doing this stride thoroughly. How practise yous know the plastic is clean? I use the h2o test. If the water beads up like a freshly waxed car or simply disappears off the plastic, clean it again, then attempt the process once more until the water stays there wet for a while.

   Do non apply sanding paste on raw plastic. Sanding paste is non part of the plastic repair arrangement mentioned higher up nor solvent based wax and grease removers. These products volition contaminate the plastic. You will have mold release freshly activated by wax and grease remover solvents. That's non good. Always apply the cleaning agent the manufacturer recommends.

   

2. For this instance I am going to utilize a bumper that has a 9" x i/four" ripped pigsty shaped like a letter " L "  right in the center of the  corner. This seems to be a very common repair in the auto body industry.
   1. I use a pocket-sized angle air grinder with a 2" 36 grit disc to sand off the rugged edges of the damage until it is all smoothen and shaped similar a basin or a river. This fashion the structure adhesive has more than surface area to take hold of. The edges flow downward at an angle for 1/two". Some people refer to information technology as  "bevel sand the edges" . Practice not use the V groove method because this is too narrow for the adhesive to grab. Flick the 5 groove but spread out over a good surface area like a bowl.
   2. Optional Stride. Drill 1/8" holes in the surface area grooves about 1" apart, This will allow structural textile to period through the holes and make an H re-enforced repair with the holes acting as rebar fillings.
   3. Back sand the front and dorsum with 80 grit sand paper.
3. Clean the repair again, once the panel is clean, you have 30 minutes to use your materials. Practise not wait longer than that because the mold release will start to emerge to the surface of the bumper. The faster y'all go on it later on the cleaning the better your repair will be.
4. Use Adhesion Promoter on both sides and look at least 10 minutes or what ever the manufacturer recommends.
5. Purge the two part cartridge before placing the mixing tip on. After placing the tip, purge about 2 inches of textile on a cardboard and make sure the cloth looks all ane color.

6. Employ structural repair material to a backing re-enforcement slice, enough to cover at least 1 inch around the back side of the repair. Use the backing cloth slice to the back side of the bumper and the let the material ooze out through the holes and groove, and so gun some more material while it is still moisture and place a contouring plastic on the top and spread it out using a spreader or your hand to match the contour of the bumper edges.

7. Await one 60 minutes, and so sand with low RPM speed.

8. Finish off with a Plastic Finishing Putty or filler.

This guide is generic in content and we recommend you follow the manufacturers instructions. Each manufacturer may incorporate dissimilar recommendations in order for their product to perform the all-time.

Product Lines nosotros deport for Plastic Repair

Source: https://www.autobodysupply.net/articles.asp?id=135

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