Does anyone know what material my 1990 Sprite Alpine Front panel is made of ? Or what's the best way of telling?
I need to repair this crack,
I read somewhere that if Acetone melts the plastic it's ABS ?
Any other way I can tell or does anyone know for definate what material it is as I want to repair it with the correct materials. I was originally going to use fibreglass but I have doubts it won't bond properly.
Cheers,
Matt.
Also, I should of added I think this was the main cause of my water ingress in the front corner of my van.
If you check inside the front locker, the back side of ABS is smooth and GRP has the rough finish. True if its ABS fibreglass will not bond,but a paste made up from acetone and some scrap ABS will......
Any caravan repair shop near you will probably give you some pieces from scrap front panels, failing that look on tinternet for HIPS, high impact polystyrene sheet, its practically the same stuff.....
Look on the right hand side of the wizards link,CLICK on the fix it club..then look for..Jims front end repair.He will tell you how to fix a crack.....Wizards site
Quote: Originally posted by jeff juke on 20/3/2012
Look on the right hand side of the wizards link,CLICK on the fix it club..then look for..Jims front end repair.He will tell you how to fix a crack.....Wizards site
Post last edited on 20/03/2012 20:59:41
Brilliant, Thanks Jeff. I just hope I can do as good a job as he did, That definately looks like the right way to do it.
cortina matt,i just repaired some cracks on the front panel of my van, i used aluminium mesh and plenty of abs cement on the back,let it go off and cut a v shaped groove on the front crack with a dremmel tool and put abs cement into the v proud ,let it go off again, sand down flush and fill with davids bumper repair filler. just got to find the right paint now but the repair is solid and only cost a few quid. hope this helps.
------------- dont get ripped off,buy a damp meter
Sounds like a good repair, Thanks for the advice. When you say ABS cement, did you make this yourself from Acetone and ABS sheet or can you buy the cement ?
dril a hole either side of the crack first to stop it spreading....I saw Ed China do this once on Wheeler Dealers while making a repair to a plastic bumper. I remember at the time thinking..What a good idea that is.
I got hold of some Acetone earlier in the week and I've been to my van today to test it on the front panel, at first I thought it was no good as I was a bit shy with the Acetone and by the time I had touched the plastic the Acetone had evaporated so did nothing. I then tried a bit more and the plastic reacted with it, It went sticky right away so I guess it must be ABS then.
Looks like it's game on for my repair. I'm going to order a sheet of 2mm ABS to do it.
hi cortinamatt sorry for the late reply, i used polypipe abs cement you can buy from any plumbers merchant,and aluminium mesh from halfords and ive also used an acetone mix with some old white lego bricks (they have to be genuine lego) they both go off rock solid and fuse into the surrounding plastic. its just that i found the polypipe abs cement easier to work with.
------------- dont get ripped off,buy a damp meter
Thanks lotty for the reply. I think I know the stuff you mean, I've seen it in the screwfix catalogue. I'm going to have a go at making some though as I've got the plastic sheet and Acetone now so we'll see how it goes!
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Topic: Front panel repair 1990 Sprite
