Can you ’weld’ plastic

[Ben P]

I know technically it wouldnt be welding but heres the deal

My mate has snapped off the plastic mounting brackets on his headlight (dont ask me how he did that!?) and obviously needs to re-attach them.

New headlights are £70 a piece so we were wondering how we could get the brackets back on securely. (Obviously we dont want the headlight falling out at 70mph)

cheers

 

[Ben P]

forgot to mention its a laguna not a clio

 

[Locky]

You can buy some decent adhesives for plastics ... most of them tend to semi melt the plastic to bond it together.I would get in touch with a plastic supplier see what sort of bonding glues they are using...

 

[geordiepaul]

Depends on what sort of plastic its there are two types!! One that will burn when heated and another which will melt. So obviously it would have to be the one that melted!

Cant remember in too much detail it was I while since I left school!

 

[Rasclart]

Yeah

Thermosetting

Thermosoftening

Think thats the two types. You can "Weld" one type I think. But like locky said get some strong adhesive!!

 

[Marc]

Ive tried this sort of thing in the past and if the bracket is going to be load bearing, if you try and weld the plastics together they usually break again as the join will be weak!!

If youre not to bothered on how its gonna look I recommend you use something like 5 minute epoxy (comes in 2 seperate tubes!!). This is probably one of the strongest glues there is. Try abraiding the 2 ends of the broken bracket and then stick some of this stuff on it. It gets quite warm but will be solid after approx 5mins!!!

 

[Ben P]

Cheers

Marc, where can I get this epoxy and any idea how much it costs?

cheers

 

[Robby]

you can get some J D Weld from most accessory shops. This comes in 2 tubes, 1 is the weld and the other is a hardner which set it. Ive used this on many things inc r/c cars plastic parts and it does set solid.