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Headlight Tab Repair

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Old 01-13-2011, 12:42 PM
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Default Headlight Tab Repair

Looking for best way to fix NB broken headlight tabs, read about plastic welding, sounds too expensive. I've tried jb weld without much success, read about Lord Fusor line of products seen here:

http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/lord...aspx?pagenum=1

What have you guys used?
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Old 01-13-2011, 12:51 PM
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Take high heat soldering iron with a crappy tip on it. Slowly solder both pieces together... tada! you just plastic welded yourself.
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Old 01-13-2011, 03:22 PM
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Buy a bottle of this stuff called "Tanax 7R" at your local hobby story. It's a brush-on plastic weld that will chemically "melt" the plastic back together. The problem is, almost nothing will be as strong as the initial molded plastic.
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Old 01-13-2011, 04:18 PM
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1- Insert metal pins into one half of the joint leave 1/4" or so sticking out.
2- Mark and drill mating holes in the other half of the join.
3- Use adhesive of choice or soldering iron.
4- ???
5- Profit.
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Old 01-13-2011, 05:00 PM
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Mighty Putty
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Old 01-14-2011, 01:30 PM
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Take high heat soldering iron with a crappy tip on it. Slowly solder both pieces together...
Soldering iron isn't a bad idea, but'll probably look like hell, I might try it.

"Tanax 7R"
Mighty Putty
Have you guys actually used these products on headlight tabs? One issue I've read is a lot of adhesives don't work well on polypropylene (PP), which is what the housings are made of, wanted someone with first hand experience using one of these products on PP and having it work.
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Old 01-14-2011, 01:32 PM
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Originally Posted by BarbyCar
1- Insert metal pins into one half of the joint leave 1/4" or so sticking out.
2- Mark and drill mating holes in the other half of the join.
3- Use adhesive of choice or soldering iron.
4- ???
5- Profit.
The tabs are pretty thin, would have to be very small pins, might be worth a try though.
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Old 01-14-2011, 02:27 PM
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I have wrapped Mighty Putty around NB headlight tabs, broken cooling fan arms where they attach to the shroud, and many other places where you can make a full circle around the parts you want to hold together. A little flat black paint afterward helps to hide the repair.
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Old 01-14-2011, 03:31 PM
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I used Tenax on various plastics, but I can't tell you which ones. I did a tab repair on a NB headlight with JB and was able to hold the entire light up by the tab after I left it untouched for 2 days. Time to go combo and use some plastic weld and then smother the cracks with some kind of 2-part epoxy lol
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Old 01-14-2011, 03:37 PM
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Epoxy Steel - moldable, sandable, and paintable. Like clay that hardens in 5 minutes.
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