Plastic repair

A good while back I caught the air dam of my car on one of those standalone curbs that's supposed to tell you when you're all the way in a parking space. Anyway, when I backed out, it ripped the air dam slightly. But it's all one unit with the front bumper, which means that it's really expensive to replace.

So I'm looking to fix it myself. I was initially thinking that I could excise the piece of plastic at the nexus of the rip that keeps it the two pieces from lying in the same plane and then screw or bolt on a patch to hold it steady. But then I thought that it might make sense to ask here.

Any ideas?

If you are comfortable with the look of that repair, it should work fine.

Have you gone to a body shop for an estimate. Repairs without buying a new bumper cover are possible. Depends on the damage. You might find it affordable.

BTW: I had to replace a bumper cover recently. The cover part was about $700us.

They do make repair kits for just this purpose. It comes with a kind of glue to put it back together and a flexible filler to make it smooth again.

These guys have it:

http://store.diyhut.com/carbure.html

I'm not sure I like the look of the kit.

Auto parts stores should have it.

The fact of the matter is that all of the damage is "underneath". That is, on the part of the plastic that faces the road. I wouldn't really care so much about it now besides the fact that one side of it hangs down a little and scrapes on speedbumps, steep driveway entrances, etc. So a repair, regardless of the method, would look better than it does now, as you can see it hanging down a little. Maybe I should take a picture.

Somehoe I don't think that that stuff would hold a rip together.

It would help: I was going to suggest something you find over here (the Land of Lotus, ie. plastic, Cars). It's possible to use a plastic welder which gives good results on non-splintered plastic panels - even through paint. Your description here I am having trouble visualising.

Sorry about the terrible image quality, but you should be able to get the idea of what I'm talking about.

Looking straight at the front of the car:


Looking from ground level up to the rip:

Plumber's tape and pop rivets?
No quick glue job will hold that.

Yep, I agree. You need to use some form of backing material and rivet it.

Yup, my suggestion was going to be a small sheet of flat nylon/plastic (or stainless steel) on the backside, with four strategically placed pop rivets.

Cheers

Quote:
Yep, I agree. You need to use some form of backing material and rivet it.

Yep, my service manual has a big section of repairing collision damage. A rip like that can be repaired. The process is a lot like what is done for fiberglass repair. It just uses adhesives in place of resins. The particular adhesives depends on the specific plastic and may involve primers.