The Official H-Body Internet Community

I think it's the right name for the part, the piece of body work that houses the headlights and grill anyway...I'm looking for suggestions for ways to repair the mounting tabs on the header panel that have become brittle with age and have broken off. I have two or three that are completely broken off and was thinking to shape some thin body panel metal into a bracket and glue it to the underside of the panel with some construction grade glue or contact cement. Any other suggestions?

Rick

Rick I have to fix a piece of my bumper on my DD truck, and this * is what I was told to use by a few different people. I haven't used this product yet, but I have repaired other plastic parts with mixed results. I have melted them together with a soldering iron, I have glued them with all kinds of glues, but the one thing I do have to say is that the best lasting repairs were the ones that I reinforced with a piece of cloth, I have used mainly cotton for its absorption properties (sucks up the glue) but recently it was suggested to me to use nylon (like a spring wind breaker) as that material is quite strong on it's own. I have used contact cement on rigid parts, but I would use some flexible glue for this. I am thinking the supplied epoxy, or maybe some polyurethane caulking(?) for this, I am sure you can find some broken $#!+ to practice on. Harry *(http://3mcollision.com/3m-automix-ez-sa ... 05895.html)

Thanks Harry, thats sounds like a great idea. The broken tabs are long gone now, any suggestions for plastic sources(scrap or new) to use?

Rick

Rick I have to admit that I don't know what material that header panel/facia is made of. Is that a hard one (fiberglass/SMS) or flexible (urethane)? I have never even looked close at one of those, I am ashamed of my lack of H-Body knowledge base in this area, my interest was V8Vega, until the hatchback Monza (Spyder nose for the easiest description) was revelled back in late '74 I always thought of those as "Old Man Cars (says the old man). I would think a trip to the wreckers should produce some suitable material if it is urethane, and Canadian Tire for fiberglass you could create a mould out of just about any material you can work with, some paneling out of the neighbours basement Reno' cut to shape cover edge with electrical tape spray with some "Pledge" or "Pam" apply goop, wait for it to go green (semi hard, not fully cured) and pry off, leave some cloth exposed for attachment to the other side and F'glass it on. That other solution I posted is for the flexible noses only, it states clearly "no fiberglass/SMS" This will never be good as new but our options are limited so do the best you/we can. Keep us posted. Harry

I ditched mine after a few years ( new in 1980 - replaced in 1988) for a 77 Quad headlight front end and hood, the plastic just didnt hold up in NY winters.

I would try epoxy, I just fixed my fiberglass cowl and urethane bumper on my Jbody with it.

I use this stuff : http://www.pcepoxy.com/our-products/PC-Catalog.pdf

Doug in P.R.