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?