Plastic Welding?

[malcolm]

The dash top roll in one of my new Renault 4s has a break in the centre. It's from an early car (1965) so new or used replacements are unobtainable and I'm going to have to attempt a repair. An Australian enthusiast informed me that glue doesn't seem to work and plastic welding might be a better solution.

Has anyone tried plastic welding? Heat guns with tiny nozzles are available for around £100, and filler material can be bought for various plastics. How easy is it, and does it work?

It's also been suggested that a soldering iron might be used as a heat source. Anyone tried this cheaper alternative?

Also anyone have any ideas about what type of plastic they might have used between 1961 and 1966? Feels like ordinary ABS, but I've a feeling that's more modern.

 

[migmag]

Have a ride along to your local motor bike suplier.

They use plastic weld for fairing and casings so maybe pick there brains??

Never had out to do with it myself.

 

[Justme]

Or bumper repair specialists/body shop. I guess that the plastics will be different though but will luck can point you in the right direction.

Justme

 

[malcolm]

Good point - when I'm only ever going to do 2 inches of weld there's not a lot of point spending time figuring out how to do it myself.

Trouble with most bodyshops these days is they only know how to replace things, but I'll bet obscure motorcycles fall over a lot.

 

[Bigjoe]

Hi Malcolm,
You could try one of the smart repairers as unless you will use it alot buying the plastic welding equipment can be quite expensive as there are many different base plastice that you need filler rods for,or id you have a scrap dash then cut a few strips off it and use that as filler material

Good luck

Joe

 

[Lippyp]

Is the dash different lhd to rhd? What exactly are you looking for year/colour wise? I could keep an eye out when I'm in France next week (oh and the two after that! ) theres a few garages near my house over there that have the usual stash of rusty tin out the back.

 

[malcolm]

The dash top (the black bit that looks like it has issues) is the same for RHD and LHD. I'd be really grateful for a non-broken one, but this style of dash went out of production around 1966 after just 5 years of production, so it's very unlikely that you'd find one in a scrap yard or behind a garage these days.

If you did happen to find one then I'll be in France in September (Caen and South) and would be tempted to pinch the rest of the bits off the car too.

 

[Lippyp]

I'll keep my eyes peeled, the hot rod project I posted up when I first joined is actually not a yank at all but a 1932 Renault KZ8 apparently so they're still around!