What Type of Plastic are Door Armrest Bases?
- Thread starter Killer6
- Start date
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What car
what year
what trim level
Repos or OEM!
Most likely the plastic on repos is different that the OEM pieces.
what year
what trim level
Repos or OEM!
Most likely the plastic on repos is different that the OEM pieces.
Styrene plastic, what type I don’t know. If your fixing a crack, testors model cement should work. Wouldn’t hurt to reinforce it with metal wire melted into the plastic after you glue it back together.
OE, '70 Valiant specifically, don't believe trim level matters on those. I'd read "opinions" of ABS etc., & the parts strike Me as styrene, but there were enough types possible that I want a "know" answer. I know the grilles in that era are styrene....but being molded in so many colors & a somewhat stressed component, I wasn't sure what Mopar chose to mold them out of.
Now to get a fresh tube of testors, I used to get bum ones decades ago when I built models.
Its acrylic plastic , Use solvent cement and a syringe. Put a thin piece on the back of the crack. This cement is very thin and one drop on the end of the crack it will travel the distance. I use this on all plastics including model kits and all automotive plastic parts. Use on these show cabinets with no glue trace. and very strong
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What do You use to apply it, hypo bottle or syringe for best control?
Depends on how steady you are. I have both for different size applications.
MDchanic
Connoisseur d'Junque
I mean this as an addition to OldManMoPar's excellent advice, and not to imply that there is anything wrong with it, as he clearly knows what he is talking about, but I was just working on my original '64 armrest base, which had one hole ripped out of it.
First, it definitely feels like polystyrene, but I am not any kind of expert.
Second, it definitely softens with lacquer thinner like polystyrene.
Third, depending on what you are actually fixing, and how much is visible (the inside of your armrest base will never be seen again by human eyes), you may want to make a visual repair as he recommends above, and then make a structural repair on the back side, using epoxy putty, with or without embedded wire or window screen, to be sure it holds.
In my own case, I used those dumb "wood repair" plates, about 1/6" thick, cut and drilled to size, to act as sort of giant washers to distribute the screws' clamping force across the plastic shelf, epoxied them in place with viscous epoxy, then reinforced the webbing with epoxy putty, hopefully providing enough strength to slam the door shut against the nice, new, stiff weatherstipping.
Good luck!
- Eric
First, it definitely feels like polystyrene, but I am not any kind of expert.
Second, it definitely softens with lacquer thinner like polystyrene.
Third, depending on what you are actually fixing, and how much is visible (the inside of your armrest base will never be seen again by human eyes), you may want to make a visual repair as he recommends above, and then make a structural repair on the back side, using epoxy putty, with or without embedded wire or window screen, to be sure it holds.
In my own case, I used those dumb "wood repair" plates, about 1/6" thick, cut and drilled to size, to act as sort of giant washers to distribute the screws' clamping force across the plastic shelf, epoxied them in place with viscous epoxy, then reinforced the webbing with epoxy putty, hopefully providing enough strength to slam the door shut against the nice, new, stiff weatherstipping.
Good luck!
- Eric
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