2G Plastic welding bumper repair

[Justin DuBois]

I'm looking for ideas to repair a torn seam on a backup bumper cover. Has anyone tried to fix vs replace a bumper cover?

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

Have any pictures of the damage? I have a "spoon" tip for a soldering iron that I run at low heat for plastic welding. I've had good luck with smaller repairs but if the damage is serious you may want a better bumper cover.

 

[jesse12345]

If its cracked where the bolts hold the bumper on that may be a tough one. I know you can heat up the metal mesh they sell in the kits and then just press it on so it holds whatever is cracked together again. The kit I bought comes with that and whatever else a guy would need. You can also try fiberglass which doesn't sound great but I have it holding my sideskirts to the front caps and it's held up just fine. Just a couple thoughts.

 

[Justin DuBois]

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[BLACK'98DSM]

That is a long separation. I "weld" plastic oil pump gears and camshafts for powersports equipment constantly. That would take some effort though and some putty as well. Not that you couldn't do it but you'd sacrifice strength long term. One curb will ruin it again.

 

[Justin DuBois]

I feel like I want to try - I'll see what the body shop can try

 

[Adam]

My talon had a decent crack and chunk missing on the lower front when I got it. I used a cheap fiberglass repair kit and it's been holding up now going on 5 years. However mine has the bottom brace helping with strength.
There's some pretty good adhesives now days though. I know I've seen some that say they're designed for flexible situations and plastic.
I'd say whatever you do, plan on it being temporary, even if it's a long term temporary. Unless you decide to actually bolt in some kind of small brace/bracket on the end. One of those quick release kits could help and definitely make sure you've got your splash guards to help with support.

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[miliman13]

I have same issue and I am currently addressing this issue with this tool it has multiple weld on supports with different angles

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[Justin DuBois]

I have same issue and I am currently addressing this issue with this tool it has multiple weld on supports with different angles

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Are there wires that help with a 90 deg edge?

 

[chrysler kid]

Are there wires that help with a 90 deg edge?

They are basically paper clips that get hot and melt themselves in the bumper. Some of the attachments shown could be bent into a 90 degree angle.

I would tape the bumper externally into the shape you want it to be, then use the repair kits on the back side.

There are several different methods you can use, there are epoxy based urethane repair kits, or urethane welder kits. I’ve also seen people use a soldering iron to heat up and melt zip ties into cracks, basically the melted zip tie is the plastic resin.

I think if you want to do a certain level of detail, there are a few ways to have a “bumper quick release kit”. There are a few guys on Facebook that make really fancy looking ones with a push button, or the auto parts stores have ones that use big rubber bands and you put a big screw in the bumper and external fender

The absolute laziest way I can think of repairing your bumper, is creating a metal bracket that mounts to the bumper corner light internally, that bracket would then go up and mount to the fender. So that is to say; I’d cut up an old license plate into an L bracket shape that holds up the bumper from the internal curve of the side marker light indention in the bumper

 

[m_0ney_pit]

I have been trying the loctite plastics bonding system on a few different things like styrene, polypropylene headphones , and the 2ga eclipse polyurethane door caps that always crack and adhesion is great on all these materials. It has a heptane pen activator and a tube of glue got it at home depot for a few bucks. The polyurethane foaming amber gorilla glue peeled right off the 2ga door caps to fix a crack and this loctite holds it pretty well.

 

[jed344]

I will add my 2 cent's. I have been doing body work 20 year's and am part owner of a body shop.

We personally will not repair a bumper that has a rip to a edge as we feel iffy that it will last. That being said when we do repair one we use a nitrogen plastic welder.
Most body shop's do also have this as it is the best way to repair a rip in a plastic bumper. The tool sort of is like brazing honestly.

First we run some tests to find what kind of filler rod is needed for this plastic bumper. Then the machine is hooked to shop air and heats up. The damage is stripped to raw plastic and ground to a V like for a normal weld. The wand then still using just shop air now that is VERY hot is applied to the area till the plastic gets shiny and hot. Then we flip a valve and the hot air being produced is nitrogen mix. Then we melt the filler rod into the seam. Last step is to use a normal hot iron per say tool. We use that to smear it to a smooth surface. This type of repair is not a mesh, or wire holding it. The bumper is literally fused back together with the correct plastic make up filler rod. Like a normal weld.

We have the staple plastic repair tool and they do have there place but nothing is better then a nitrogen plastic welded repair. They can and do hold to seam's we just wont on customer or insurance job's but i have used it on personal stuff that has held. That damage will be one where if the shop did attempt it there is no guarantee it would last and it is tore to the edge and also is tore from where a 90 deg angle is.

I would contact local body shop's and see if one that had a nitrogen welder would be willing to attempt it and even if so they will say there is no guarantee it will hold forever.

I have always replaced dsm bumper's myself when they are damaged but they are getting harder to get now sadly. I used to get 2g front bumper for $94 cost but those days ended years ago sadly. Memory say's the plastic type these bumper's factory are where a major pain to try to plastic weld. The replacement keystone kapa one's where different plastic makeup then vs factory.

 

[miliman13]

So it’s possible to make 90’s yes but as mentioned you have to get creative

Also

It’s usually this seller + more I assume
Who stock the bumper I think a lill over 100 shipped is purdy good

Pardon Our Interruption...

I may be mistaken but the more we buy the more they make ? ..?

 

[jed344]

So it’s possible to make 90’s yes but as mentioned you have to get creative

Also

It’s usually this seller + more I assume
Who stock the bumper I think a lill over 100 shipped is purdy good

Pardon Our Interruption...

I may be mistaken but the more we buy the more they make ? ..?

Yes but there is not enough volume. The replacement bumper's came from keystone aka LKQ. They stopped making them some year's back but some people still sell them as they likely have inventory from before. The one's with the triangle indent for logo where the keystone value line bumper. This is the lower quality one as the KAPA line was the higher and they did not come with any indent. Just was smooth. Just Mitsubishi oem had the correct perfect 3 diamond cut out. Sadly there is no possible way we could generate enough volume to get them remade at this moment i think. The last 2GB i restored few year's back we paid $250 for a bumper off ebay that when it came was 100% keystone tag number's to a tee what i used to get for $94. Seller must have had one laying around and now that is what it was sold for to us.

Lot's of other stuff is very hard to find now too. I also used to get front windshield's for $107 but those either stopped or they greatly lowered the amount being made. This last car too we finally found 2 a glass place had 12 hour's away and we purchased both they had. I had to find 2 used good fender's for this car. Just 5 year's before in 2018 i redid mine and a second car and i was able to get some NOS ( new old stock) fender's for around $75 a piece. These where covered in dust but where never used and even that was gone by time i did this car few years later.

Unless someone is making this stuff again all the plastic and sheet metal part's come from Taiwan. When i could still get them they where the same as on ebay accept better quality as keystone reject one's is what made it there. Now day's it's likely just old stock random place's have as i 100% can not order them anymore from keystone and even my great salvage yard/part searcher companies cant find NOS much anymore.

I could go on a rant but TLDR most car's that become collectable and value goes up in time do end up getting new options again for parts. Mopar muscle car's that we do went threw the dark time in 90's like this. Once the car's sadly expensive and the owner's then have money and are willing to pay then companies will remake part's but the part's are not cheap as they cannot make money off volume. These car's and parts are in that gap where they are getting harder and more costly to acquire and quality part's are hard and costly to find.

I wish this was not the case but sadly i think it is.

 

[Justin DuBois]

Yes but there is not enough volume. The replacement bumper's came from keystone aka LKQ. They stopped making them some year's back but some people still sell them as they likely have inventory from before. The one's with the triangle indent for logo where the keystone value line bumper. This is the lower quality one as the KAPA line was the higher and they did not come with any indent. Just was smooth. Just Mitsubishi oem had the correct perfect 3 diamond cut out. Sadly there is no possible way we could generate enough volume to get them remade at this moment i think. The last 2GB i restored few year's back we paid $250 for a bumper off ebay that when it came was 100% keystone tag number's to a tee what i used to get for $94. Seller must have had one laying around and now that is what it was sold for to us.

Lot's of other stuff is very hard to find now too. I also used to get front windshield's for $107 but those either stopped or they greatly lowered the amount being made. This last car too we finally found 2 a glass place had 12 hour's away and we purchased both they had. I had to find 2 used good fender's for this car. Just 5 year's before in 2018 i redid mine and a second car and i was able to get some NOS ( new old stock) fender's for around $75 a piece. These where covered in dust but where never used and even that was gone by time i did this car few years later.

Unless someone is making this stuff again all the plastic and sheet metal part's come from Taiwan. When i could still get them they where the same as on ebay accept better quality as keystone reject one's is what made it there. Now day's it's likely just old stock random place's have as i 100% can not order them anymore from keystone and even my great salvage yard/part searcher companies cant find NOS much anymore.

I could go on a rant but TLDR most car's that become collectable and value goes up in time do end up getting new options again for parts. Mopar muscle car's that we do went threw the dark time in 90's like this. Once the car's sadly expensive and the owner's then have money and are willing to pay then companies will remake part's but the part's are not cheap as they cannot make money off volume. These car's and parts are in that gap where they are getting harder and more costly to acquire and quality part's are hard and costly to find.

I wish this was not the case but sadly i think it is.

The 2Ga bumper I found 3 years ago was made in Taiwan, but unfortunately there are no distributors with stock. The 2Gb bumper was available, but who knows for how long. I ended up buying all the 2Gb parts to switch over, but only because the 2Ga bumper was no longer avaliable.

 

[FIBA M - EC17PSE]

Your best thing is to buy a plastic welding kit. Clean up the entire split and get it free from dirt and grime. Use the metal pin type parts to hold it in place. (You will need to get creative as normslly they work on flats or small curves)

Once held in place how you want it, melt it all inside and outside and once fully cool you will need to shave it all down to shape. You may need to do it a few times if the plastic did not sink into the gaps. Just think of it like welding. Weather it holds along the crack I dont know. Maybe a bonding agent to glue it together and then sand it down

 

[CrackedDSM]

Stupid idea, could you not use a wire mesh(like a "grille" material), bend it to the natural angle and then use something like plastic body filler or some kind of "Flexible" filler to solidify it?

I'm thinking how you repair larger dry-wall holes. Metal mesh, cover it with whatever the hell they call that stuff, then sand/paint?

 

[chrysler kid]

I would just keep an eye out on your local Facebook marketplace ads for a part out, I’ve even found that my local Junk yards still list cars on craigslist in the auto parts section

 

[Justin DuBois]

I have same issue and I am currently addressing this issue with this tool it has multiple weld on supports with different angles

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https://www.harborfreight.com/hot-stapler-kit-70770.html

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Amazon Plastic Welder comes with all of this. I repaired (not recommending) a brand new $200 battery that was in our Infiniti I30 when it was involved in an accident. So far so good, but not recommended. That was 4 months ago. I wasn't about to toss a brand new battery without TRYING.
Comes with clips, a smoothing/melting head, extra plastic in various colors etc. I used the mesh on the edge of my battery and melted it into the case then filled it with black plastic from the kit.
Just FYI. Good luck

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