Repairing a cracked fan shroud................ finally!

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Location
SW Ontario
My Car
1971 Mustang Mach 1, M code, 4 speed.
Cracked fan shrouds are quite common it seems. When I got my car in 08, the shroud was cracked at the top to the left of the label. I had tried a "fix" with a different epoxy glue, but with little real success. Because these are fiber glass, a non-visible repair is hard to achieve. My next approach was to use a trusted plastic glue, JB WELD Plastic Bonder. I've used this product with great success in my prototyping career, so it was first choice to repair my cracked shroud.

Method:  clean the entire repair surface with wax remover. Use a dremel or similar with a 1/8th ball end tool to cut a groove top and bottom of the crack, but not all the way through. I then cut a piece of pine to the exact curve as a form with a notch each end for a pair of small C clamps. With a piece of masking tape on the form so the glue wouldn't stick to it, apply the glue to both sides, clamp it and let it cure for a couple of days. Then carefully sand the excess and smooth it down. To finish it I sort of 'spritzed' low gloss black paint over the entire shroud. The result was quite good, but not perfect, to me anyways.

Okay, moving ahead a couple of years and I did the very thing that gets these cracked in the first place. I was working on the engine timing (talked about that here before) and sure enough, I put by left hand on the top of the shroud and it cracked again damn it!

By this time, I had seen a new product on the market and wondered if it would really work, was it as good as the manufacturer claimed?

It's called Bondic Liquid Plastic Welder. Nothing ventured nothing gained so when it was on sale, (I'm cheap!) I bought a kit. The method is exactly the same except this stuff is INSTANT after the UV light is applied to it.

It's been a few months since I did this repair and I wanted to be sure of it before posting on it. Yes, I make sure I do NOT put any weight on it, it's the perfect place to brace one's self after all. As this area had been "fixed" before I do have a slight flat spot from sanding, but not so bad it looks like crap. There is a slight line visible were the repair is, but more because it is a different material.

To finish it and try to make it look like fiber glass, I spritzed the low-gloss black on it, then spritzed some black wrinkle paint over that. When it dried, the slight wrinkle effect was quite good and acceptable to my poor vision.

The pictures show it cracked and then repaired with Bondic, a USA product by the way!!

My hope is that this may help others as the question has been bought up before.

Geoff.

 
Looks good.  Thanks for sharing.  Wondered about that stuff since I first saw it, glad to know there is another product that works.
Yes indeed. So far I'm impressed and I've used it to fix other stuff as well like one of the trophy's I have for the car. The top finial had broken off and other glues did not hold for long, but the Bondic is holding up well so far.

When I bought my first kit, it was on sale 50% off, so I bought another as it was still cheaper than buying a refill cartridge. I now have a spare UV light as well!!

 
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Thanks for the positive comments.

As for the finish and to be honest, I could have got it a bit better. As always, stuff like this takes a bit of practice. If I were doing again and I hope not, I would use a bit less of the wrinkle paint, but then that's just me, too picky!

As I said, the intent is to offer a shroud repair alternative and a way to repair all sorts of "stuff"

Geoff.

 
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