Engine cover repair / restoration

All things body, interior, paint, windows, tops... you know.
Post Reply
User avatar
Haf-e
United States of America
Posts: 822
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2011 5:25 pm
Location: Mount Vernon WA USA

Engine cover repair / restoration

Post by Haf-e »

So my engine cover has seen better days - Always figured I would buy a replacement for it as it had about 10 cracks of varying size and severity. There was even a piece about 2" x 1" missing on one of the edges. There were several repairs already done on it when I got the truck nearly 18 years ago - and - the cheap Duplicolor spray on bed liner coating was flaking off on about 1/2 of it.

I figured I would give repairing it a try - not much too loose if it turned out poorly. I tried to figure out what kind of material the cover was made from - but that was unsuccessful.

So I heard about the "Q-Bond" material (one this forum I think) and figured I would give it a try. I tried to create a V in the crack with an abrasive bit on a die grinder - but the plastic just melted and stuck to the bit. I then thought of a worn out countersink bit - put that in the die grinder and it worked great.

Once the V was made and all foreign material removed, I put the powder in the crack and leveled it with my finger - compressing it slightly to be sure it was filling the entire void - I then dripped the low viscosity super glue liquid on to the powder - which produces a small trace of smoke/vapor and heats up - and it 10 seconds it is hard and very well fused to the plastic of the cover. I repeated this process to fill all of the cracks - putting the cover in all orientations to allow the powder to be level when poured into the crack so any excess glue didn't run off. I even made the missing piece by using masking tape as a dam to hold the powder in place until I put the liquid on it.

The repaired cracks are very solid and nearly undetectable once sanded down - other than the loss of the original textured surface. I ended up using one and one-half boxes of the Q-bond - used both the black and gray material.

So I am very satisfied with the repair - time will tell on how long it lasts - but I would recommend Q-bond highly for this repair.

Next I am going to coat the cover with "Monstaliner" using a rough roller to attempt to recreate the original texture which is missing on much of my cover after scraping and sanding off the old bed liner coating.

Let me know if anyone wants to see some photos before or after I coat it.
Haf-e

1971 Pinzgauer 710M

Image
Disc Brake Conversion Kits for 710 and 712 Pinzgauers
www.klugewerks.com
User avatar
TechMOGogy
Canada
Posts: 2831
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2012 11:39 am
Location: Ontario, Canada

Re: Engine cover repair / restoration

Post by TechMOGogy »

Yes - post the photos as I would love to see it before, after and after painting it.
I used Q-Bond to fix some plastic parts on one of my G's.
Both rear bumper corners were busted and dented from impacts by PO
I used a heat gun to remove the dents and then Q-Bond to repair all the cracks.
Lots of sanding, paint and they are like new!
Took about 1 hour each side but saved me about $500!!
Before:
Image

Image

After:
Image
72 Pathfinder | 75 710M 2.7i | 96 350GDT Worker
Post Reply