We ended the semester this year with plastic repair. I asked one of my students’s to write a short paper with his opinions of plastic repair and of the plastic repair course for this blog. Below is the student’s response.
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By Jon Abrahamsen
Although plastics repair seemed like one of are shorter classes I still feel that I have learned a lot in the class. I would not say plastic repair is my favorite subject so far, because I really enjoyed working with metal and repairing dents. I was actually really surprised by how well the adhesive repairs work; they can effectively repair some very major gouges and tears. The patch repair is a really cool thing that makes plastic repairs a lot more useful and can save many bumper covers from being replaced. In my opinion plastic repairs may not be the best choice, but I believe a shop can be very profitable in the field by repairing instead of replacing plastic parts.
Plastic welding is kind of an iffy type of repair. I actually did not really mind doing it. But, it is rather time consuming. One of the most time consuming aspects of plastic welding is identifying the type of plastic. On our bumper cover we even had the code for the plastic but the rod that was suggested was not the rod that stuck to are bumper cover the best. It took us about an hour of testing rods to determine which one worked the best. The welding only took about 45 minutes to an hour to complete, but it probably took us that long because we had such a large gash in our bumper cover. If someone had a lot of experience in plastics repair and could identify the plastics by experience and can cut down the repair time quite a bit, plastic welding could actually be very profitable.
Adhesives, in my opinion are the preferred method for plastic repair. Not only is it cost effective and a rather simple technique, many different repairs can be done at the same time, unlike plastic welding. Plastic welding requires the tech to focus all of their attention on the one thing they are repairing. The tech can start one repair with an adhesive; while they are waiting for that to dry they can start another repair. Also I feel that adhesive is a stronger repair then welding and will hold better under punishment.
I personally prefer adhesive repair over plastic welding. Although, I do not think that plastic welding is as bad as it is made out to be. The world is going to plastic. I believe that in 10 years we will have almost entirely plastic vehicles. So all repair methods should be explored. Skills in plastic repair may end up being more crucial then we might expect with all of the plastic parts being made.
I would like commend Jon for taking the time to share his experience of plastic repair with us.
Collision Repair Tip
A heat inductor works great for removing seam sealers and body side moldings.
~Donnie Smith
A woman named Mary Anderson patented the windshield wiper in 1905.
Quote
Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.
~Lou Holtz
Question
What year was the first driver’s side air bag installed to a vehicle?
Anonymous says
January 8, 2009 at 4:57 pmAirbags Introduced
In 1971, the Ford car company built an experimental airbag fleet. General Motors tested airbags on the 1973 model Chevrolet automobile that were only sold for government use. The 1973 Oldsmobile Toronado was the first car with a passenger air bag intended for sale to the public. General Motors later offered an option to the general public of driver side airbags in full-sized Oldsmobile’s and Buick’s in 1975 and 1976 respectively. Cadillacs were available with driver and passenger airbags options during those same years. Early airbags system had design issues resulting in fatalities caused solely by the airbags.
Airbags were offered once again as an option on the 1984 Ford Tempo automobile. By 1988, Chrysler became the first company to offer air bag restraint systems as standard equipment. In 1994, TRW began production of the first gas-inflated airbag. They are now mandatory in all cars since 1998.
Anonymous says
January 8, 2009 at 5:36 pmVery informational! Thanks for your input. Donnie
Anonymous says
April 9, 2009 at 6:15 amCommenting on plastic repair, Its really amazing to me how plastic is actually repaired. Using the mesh like material to support the plastic from the backside then repairing the top side like using body filler on a metal part.
AN
Jacob says
November 29, 2010 at 2:11 pmI agree a lot with this article. We just started plastic repair in our shop and it’s pretty easy to catch on. Plastic repair can be very simple and very “cost saving” over buying a new bumper cover. Got to know your plastics and how to find what type of plastic it is. I’ve not tried plastic welding myself but I can already tell it’s not gonna be bad. The adhesive repair is pretty neat, before I took this class I always wondered how they filled in holes in plastic.