[s-cars] Re: Headlight Repair

[Yen, Eugene]

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Taka,
  My upper headlight mounts were broken when I bought my UrS6.  I found that
all of the plastic adhesives wouldn't hold, as there isn't enough area on
the broken surface to form a strong bond.  What I ended up doing is
"splinting" the broken mount with a strip of aluminum from a soda can.
Here's some crude ASCII art to describe the repair:

   ____________
ooooooo//ooooooooo

The aluminum strip is the "_______" on top, and the "oooo//oooo" are the
broken pieces of the headlight mount.


 Here's the procedure:

1.  Get some of that Loctite glue for plastics-- I think it's called
"Plastic Bond" or something like that. It's a two-part package: a tube of
Krazy glue, and a bottle of some kind of solvent that preps plastic
surfaces.

2.  Get an empty soda can (or, to fit in with the recent discussions on this
board, a BEER can), and cut a strip out of it.  The strip should be as wide
as the headlight mount, and approximately 1" long.

3.  Bend the aluminum strip to fit the curves on the headlight mount.

4.  Sand the top surfaces of the pieces of the headlight mount with some
220-grit sandpaper, followed by some 400-grit.

5.  Sand the aluminum strip with the 400-grit paper.  You want to remove all
paint and coatings, leaving only bare aluminum.

6.  Take the Loctite surface prep and paint it onto the sanded surface of
the headlight mount.

7.  Apply a thin layer of the Krazy glue to the aluminum strip and the
plastic surface that you just prepped.

8.  Take the broken pieces of the headlight mount and butt them together.
Place the aluminum strip on top of them, and hold all pieces together until
the glue sets.

9.  This next step is for clumsy people like me only:  You've just glued
your headlight to your thumb, so carefully take a knife blade and pry your
thumb off of the aluminum strip.  Ideally, you will remove all of the skin
off of your thumb, leaving a perfect thumbprint.  This, BTW, is probably the
cheapest way to personalize your S-car.  Far cheaper than those polished
aluminum valve covers, Samco hoses, Big Reds, etc.

This seems to work well-- both top mounts on my driver's-side headlight are
"splinted" in this fashion, and they're still holding after 10 months and
almost 10,000 miles.

Regards,
Eugene

'95.5 S6
Bone stock, except for 17" wheels and "Pepsi Stage 1+" headlight mount
upgrade.




TM wrote:

>Has anyone successfully repaired the upper headlight
>mounts for eurolights?
>
>I know this sounds like a question specific to my 200q,
>but I know that the UrS headlamps use the same stupid
>design- if you're not careful, it's easy to snap off the
>cantilevered plastic top mounts of the headlamps.
>
>I need to find an epoxy adhesive or something similar
>that can bond this plastic, as well as a suitable chunk
>of plastic that I can bond to the top of the headlamp in
>order to use the OEM headlamp mount screw to hold it in place.
>
>Any suggestions as to how to best accomplish this?
>
>I went to the FLAPS and the best I could find was 3M plastic
>trim adhesive- the epoxies I've found all specifically said
>they don't work with polyethylene or polypropylene plastics,
>one of which I believe the headlamp housing to be, unless it's
>some sort of glass-impregnated nylon composite.
>
>Taka
>


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