What adhesive for plastic interior van door panel repair?

[ford33]

The interior door panel on my 1998 Chevy van has a few broken panel "hooks". These hooks hold the door panel to the metal door frame. No screws are used to attach the panel to the door frame.

What adhesive is used to bond these parts for a repair?

I have tried super glue and 2-part epoxy and have had no success. The super glue will not hold the parts together well and I can pull them apart with little effort. The epoxy dries hard but easily breaks off from the plastic surface and the parts separate. I have cleaned the parts well prior to gluing and there appears to be sufficient surface area for the bond.

I have thought of a plastic welder but they are a hundred dollars or more for a good one and this is a one-time repair for me. Not really worth the expense.

Any recommendations?

 

[Mike.ASC]

Junk yard is your best bet ...

 

[Yarz]

Could you "weld" them using a soldering iron?

I've heard with some plastics (not sure exactly which ones) you can mix some shavings with a solvent such as acetone, allowing it to melt the shavings and produce a sticky paste, which you may then be able to use as a glue.

Are these hooks visible at all? If not, and you have the room, then you could use some sheet metal and pop rivets to reinforce them.

 

[ford33]

Funny you say that but not a solution.

This panel in the picture is from the junk yard. It is the best one I have found over the years. These hooks are fragile and frequently break off. My one original door panel has only 4 of the 8 hooks still attached. That is when I went to the junk yard and found this one. There are six door panels on the van and most have broken hooks which I need to repair to keep them from rattling.

 

[clubairth]

Have you considered plastic welding?
Lots of ways to reinforce the repair.

Harbor Freight has several.

hthttps://www.harborfreight.com/welding/plastic-welders.htmltp://
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[BPJOOP93]

Screw it

 

[dogdog]

I have no luck with plastic stuff... but you can try crazy glue it in place , drill a hole and use some sort of pin down to re-enforce it, and stuff the cavity with 2 part epoxy and hope for the best.....

 

[jimgood]

Try a hot melt glue gun. Rough up the inside as much as you can and if the hook is hollow as well as the part on the panel, fill it little by little with glue to reinforce it.

 

[dogdog]

Have you considered plastic welding?
Lots of ways to reinforce the repair.

Harbor Freight has several.

hthttps://www.harborfreight.com/welding/plastic-welders.html
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I have both of those items, it doesn't work as advertise.... it gets hot , melts plastics, but it would never be the strength of the original, let alone that small piece hook will fall off faster than just a piece crazy glue together. If you have a larger cracks and surface area , I think the hot staple plastic welding kit from Eastwood is better.... but the OPs hook is dam too small...

 

[The Cobbler]

common problem / all I do is pull the panel, map locations where a screw will hit inner door and use large head self drill screws . mind you, that's a cargo van, maybe your's is not a work truck.

 

[kelpaso1]

Plastic welding is the only way to fix that. Glues and epoxies will not stick to plastic sufficiently.

 

[6PTsocket]

If you look for the recycle triangle on the inside of the panel it undoubtedly will say PP, for polyproplyene. Like polyethelene, teflon and delrin, it is called a low energy plastic and epoxy and cyanoacrylate ( crazy glue) will not work. It is too "slippery". You have a couple of options. Loctite makes a liquid primer that makes the surface accept cyanoacrylate. It is expensive and so is decent glue. I like Loctite 401. The next option is welding. Just using a soldering iron without adding extra material probably will not work well. You can buy Polyproplyene rod and re enforce the broken part with a big fillet. There are soldering gun style tools to melt the plastic and hot air types. Then there is a product called plasifix that does not fuse with the plasic but definitely sticks very well to it. Think hot melt glue on steroids. It can be re enforced with stainless steel mesh. You apply Plastifix, melt the mesh into it and cover with some more plasifix. It can be stronger than a plastic weld and it is not fussy about what kind of plastic it is on. Recently I have seen a direct application glue for polyproplyne but know nothing about it accept it will be expensive. I have a broken panel I am about to try and repair because a new one is almost 100 bucks. I just remembered, there is a tiny Loctite primer and glue kit in big box and hardware stores but it is so tiny, I think it is a waste for all but the smallest jobs. You also have to get the failed glue off the surface and start clean.

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[kelpaso1]

It can be re enforced with stainless steel mesh. You apply Plastifix, melt the mesh into it and cover with some more plasifix. It can be stronger than a plastic weld and it is not fussy about what kind of plastic it is on.
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That is how I fix something like that. I cut pieces of fine SS mesh to span the cracks by 1/2-3/4 inch on either side of the crack and melt it into the plastic. Makes for a fix that is stronger than the original plastic.

 

[6PTsocket]

I have no luck with plastic stuff... but you can try crazy glue it in place , drill a hole and use some sort of pin down to re-enforce it, and stuff the cavity with 2 part epoxy and hope for the best.....

It is probably polyproplene. Epoxy does not work at all and "crazy glue" will nor work without a special primer. There are a whole world of "crazy glues" and unless you use a good industrial one like Loctite 401 the results will still be bad. I have spent a lot of time playing with this stuff and I have the welder the OP did not want to buy.. Plasifix and some metal screen and a spreader tip on a soldering gun are his best bets for getting good results on the cheap. Google: "gluing polyproplyne" Welding is far more common.

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[ford33]

Thanks for the possible solutions.

I checked the instructions on Plastifix and it states it is not suitable for polyproplene - ]"Does NOT work on olefin plastics like polyethylene, polypropylene, TPO, and TEO." Based on that, I am reluctant to purchase a $45 Plastifix kit to repair this panel.

Plastifix works well on PVC which apparently is what many motorcycle fairings are made from but not my door panel.

The solutions appear to be plastic welding or Loctite 401 with a primer.

I think the automakers should use a material that is repairable for their interior panels.

 

[SteveH-CO]

I think the automakers should use a material that is repairable for their interior panels.

They once did, but pressboard with metal clips are long gone ;-). I would use a few screws to retain the door panel, installed as inconspicuously as possible, and paint the screw heads the same color as the panel if it bothers you. I doubt you will find any glue that will be effective over time.

 

[ford33]

I checked the imprinted molded label located on the interior of the panel. Picture attached.

The material may not be polypropylene. I looked for a recycling circle and did not find one. I found a label imprint with the word <ABS> in brackets.

Does this label mean it is ABS plastic? See picture below.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Screw it

Yep. A couple of stainless steel sheet metal screws. Use some finishing cup washers and countersunk/countersunk oval head screws. Or button head.

I have a couple of panels in the back of my van attached that way.

 

[6PTsocket]

Thanks for the possible solutions.

I checked the instructions on Plastifix and it states it is not suitable for polyproplene - ]"Does NOT work on olefin plastics like polyethylene, polypropylene, TPO, and TEO." Based on that, I am reluctant to purchase a $45 Plastifix kit to repair this panel.

Plastifix works well on PVC which apparently is what many motorcycle fairings are made from but not my door panel.

The solutions appear to be plastic welding or Loctite 401 with a primer.

I think the automakers should use a material that is repairable for their interior panels.

Boy, did I mess up. Sorry. I got the names of two products confused. I did not mean to say Plasifix. The product I was describing is Fiberflex. It is a black plastic ribbon until you melt it.

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[6PTsocket]

Boy, did I mess up. Sorry. I got the names of two products confused. I did not mean to say Plasifix. The product I was describing is Fiberflex. It is a black plastic ribbon until you melt it.

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There are welding rods for ABS and Fiberflex works on almost any plastic. Sorry, I mistakenly mentioned Plasifix instead of Fiberflex in my earlier post. If you try and weld with the wrong rod, it just sort of blobs up and won't flow together. If it is ABS it should not be that hard to cement. There are solvent glues for it. Try the local hobby shop. ABS is not one if the "problem plastics".

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[EdT]

Yes that means it's ABS. I have fixed a number of things like that, but not a door panel, so here are some suggestions. Since it is ABS, it can be solvent bonded using the liquid cement used for putting plastic models together. It is basically methylene chloride with some additive and it melts the plastic, and the evaporates over a period of a day or two. I would use that to relocate the parts in their original positions, but the bond will probably not be strong enough to work well by itself. You need some kind of mechanical reinforcement which will vary depending on the physical constraints of each situation. Structural epoxy (JB Weld) can work if you clean, rough-up the surfaces and put something in with it to bridge the crack. Fiberglass, metal mesh, a piece of wood. A couple of wire pins (finish nails) heated an pressed through the parts on either side of the crack and then bedded into the epoxy helps to distribute the forces. Just heat them up and shove them through and cut them off flush after the epoxy hardens. Lots of possibilities, but what you want to end up with is the added material taking the structural loads and the original solvent adhesive used only to position the parts. Watch out that you don't add a reinforcement that will not fit into the holes in the door. It can be done. Good luck with it.

 

[rsanter]

I checked the imprinted molded label located on the interior of the panel. Picture attached.

The material may not be polypropylene. I looked for a recycling circle and did not find one. I found a label imprint with the word <ABS> in brackets.

Does this label mean it is ABS plastic? See picture below.

Would not surprise me if it was ABS. In this case you can use the solvent weld from the hardware store for ABS pipe.
The other issue you have is surface area. When you glue/solvent weld that it will be weak in that area and the epoxy you have used Has not held partly due to low surface area contact.
If you can solvent weld it great, but then I would use scrap plastic from an old door panel to epoxy/solvent weld a patch over the break.
This is the same thing done with a ‘boat patch’ or gusset plate over a weld in a high stress area

Bob

 

[ford33]

Interesting idea's guys. Thanks.

I will use the old door panel to make reinforcement parts to add to the repair areas. I have some ABS cement from a pipe project which I can use to test on one hook.

I also purchased a small tube of Loctite plastic epoxy with primer to use on another hook. Then I can test which adhesive works better.

I will let you know the results.

 

[6PTsocket]

Interesting idea's guys. Thanks.

I will use the old door panel to make reinforcement parts to add to the repair areas. I have some ABS cement from a pipe project which I can use to test on one hook.

I also purchased a small tube of Loctite plastic epoxy with primer to use on another hook. Then I can test which adhesive works better.

I will let you know the results.

The Loctite stuff with primer is most effective on polyproplyene, polethylene, etc. Besides being expensive for the microscopic quantities they give you, it won't do much for ABS. The primer is hexane and the glue is cyanoacrylate (crazy glue), that can be brittle in most formulations. See if the ABS solvent softens a test spot on one of your old panels. If it does, you are in business. Think about the reenforcement suggestions that others have posted.

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[CJ7VFR]

The Eastwood Company sells a product called a 'Hot Stapler" system for fixing plastic, ABS, and other Poly type products.

It works by taking different sized and shaped pieces of thin metal, or the "staples", and using the tool to basically heat up the "staple" and melt it into the broken pieces of plastic, ABS or whatever.

This fuses the broken pieces together, and then you can trim off any excess exposed pieces of the "staple". Then you can use a filler type product to smooth out and fill in any small imperfections where small bits of plastic, ABS or whatever have been lost.

I have seen this thing in action, and it works really good for repairing just this type of broken item as the OP has shown. It also has all good reviews in the website of people who have purchased and used it.

It comes with different "staples" that are shaped to fit different applications, as well as different thickness "staples" for light, medium and heavy usage.

I have even seen videos of people who have one of these tools, and when they ran out of the "staples" they used common metal paperclips to make custom made "staples".

Here is the website and a picture of their tool.

http://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-hot-stapler-plastic-repair-system.html

Jim

 

[kerrynzl]

If you had somewhere to screw it, you have somewhere to glue it!

I just did a full "dash board out" job on aa Aussie Ford Falcon and there were several broken tabs on kick panels and console.

I used dabs of urethane adhesive [Bostik ISR 70-03] and held it in place with masking tape for 24 hours.

It is as good as new [the car doesn't rattle now].
If I ever need to remove the pieces, I simply slide a scraper between the panels.

I've used the same adhesive to glue mirrors onto windshields, repair flip-flops, glue decking to trailers, glue rubber grommets etc

 

[Freeborn John]

I think the automakers should use a material that is repairable for their interior panels.

They once did, but pressboard with metal clips are long gone ;-). I would use a few screws to retain the door panel, installed as inconspicuously as possible, and paint the screw heads the same color as the panel if it bothers you. I doubt you will find any glue that will be effective over time.

I suspect that car makers are more concerned that their plastics are easy to recycle than they are that they're still strong, durable and fit for purpose after 20 years.
Things certainly seem to go 'crack!' if you look sideways at them these days.

 

[ng8264723]

I have a hot stapler. The work extremely well. It was definitely worth the investment. Another thing that works well is panel adhesive

 

[Sine Swept]

I have also heard of people using a soldering iron and something like a small finishing nail to effectively hot weld the panel. If it is not a beauty panel ie out of sight then you can probably go this route.

My own door panels are attached with rivetnuts into the inner door skin, using stainless machine screws and cove nuts on the plastic panel side.

I couldn't even count the times those skins have been off.

 

[ford33]

Update on which adhesive to use to attach the broken "hooks" on the interior door Chevy Express door panels.

The stamp on the door panel indicates ABS plastic. Based on the suggestions presented in this thread I used ABS plastic pipe cement and purple primer to attach the broken hooks. It worked very well.

Previously, I had used super glue and then later Loctite 405 with primer. But just a strong pull on the hook and the parts separated quickly. It did not take much effort. Those adhesives did not work well on ABS plastic as everyone had stated.

When I used the Oatey ABS cement with the purple primer and following Oatey's instructional video on YouTube it held well. I pulled strongly on the hook and it did not separate from the panel. It's strong enough, I believe, to survive installation and future removal of the panels from the truck.

So thanks to all who contributed their knowledge to help me fix the door panels. Total cost of the correct repair was less than $5 for the ABS cement. I already had the purpose primer.

For those who suggested Eastwood stapler repair system, I wish to thank you as well. I never saw this tool prior to the suggestions. I just did not want to spend $125 for a one-time repair. If in the future, i need to repair an expensive item or have many repairs to perform, I will look into this system. It looks a neat way to repair structural plastic items.