Body Repair Help Needed

[RedDog59]

I had a front loader "accident" while lifting a brush mower off a trailer with the loader. It seems at a crucial moment I pulled back on the stick instead of pushing forward and the mower slipped above the front grill guard and swung back to gently "kiss" the plastic nose cap on my JD790's hood. Needless to say the plastic couldn't take the pressure.

The nose cap is intact but has a nasty split in the plastic down the center. I don't have any experience repairing that type of material but have seen in the past where people have repaired cracks like that in the plastic fairings on crotch rocket motorcycles. I have the know how to use the glue, etc. with some light aluminum straps behind the cracks but don't know what type of adhesive or glue to use.

Any suggestions rather than the $100 the JD dealer wants for a new one? If I fix it and leave myself open for ridicule by my friends I will never have another accident like that. If I buy a new part..............

Any advice is appreciated.

Jeff

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

what type of adhesive or glue to use.

I'd use this:

Marine Tex, epoxy resin, adhesives, silicone grease, engine treatment, cleaner, repair, bond, fill, seal, fiberglass, aluminum, plastics, Starboard, wood

 

[Soundguy]

if it's a small crevice, get a stick of fiberglass or plastic repair epoxy strip. if it's bigger, get a small fiberglass repair kit.. walmart sells a small kit with fabric and resin..

debride the edges.. sand, back up the split if needed.. apply and form and smooth.. sand, and sand some more to fit contour.. apply glazing putty or skim coat of bondo to fill any fabric mesh grooves, then sand more, prime and paint.


soundguy

 

[Wacky]

Soundguy is right, also if the crack is not all the way across the plastic, drill a 1/8" hole at the end of the crack. Then tape the front (painted) side, take and drill an 1/8" hole on each side of the crack in a stitch pattern to get the resin to flow through and fill the holes. This will act as a stitch and hold better against the viberations. 3M makes a good "panel bonding" glue that is about $32 a tube and takes about 90min to set, could speed up with a heat gun though. Good luck!

 

[Danno1]

.


Use Devcon Plastic Welder. I've used it on many motorcycle parts and other plastic jobs too. You can use ABS, PVC, Kydex, etc as a backer or I've even used aluminum gutter flashing too.

It's avail at Wallyworld, yet made in USA!!!


Oh ya, drill a hole at each end as mentioned in a prev post.


.

 

[buck12]

I have repaired the hood on my JD lawn mower a couple of times. I used a two part plastic glue from walmart. It may have been the plastic welder like Danno suggested. One thing I did was to take the hood off and used an angle grinder to rough up the underside of the hood and glued scrap pieces to the underside. The repairs have lasted for several years.

 

[texasyankee]

I have a JD LX255 mower and a 4300 4WD both of which have plastic hoods. I cannot understand why JD decided to use hoods made fom plastic that degrades or weakens in the sunlight ... or as we have in Texas the HOT sunlight. They then have no mercy when you need to buy a new hood section. A dealer told me that the used plastic because they did not want to have tractors with rusted hoods sitting all over the country ... DOH! (That would be much better than the blue 50 gal plastic barrell I was going to cut in half to use as a hood.)

After a friend suggested fiberglass I have gone wild! Gradually both hoods have received over 3 coats of fiberglass (cloth for reinforcement). I am amazed at the strength and durability. My freinds say why not paint it and I say why spend the money to give JD's inferior parts a good look? The underlying JD green shows through ...

 

[buck12]

I have a JD LX255 mower and a 4300 4WD both of which have plastic hoods. I cannot understand why JD decided to use hoods made fom plastic that degrades or weakens in the sunlight ... or as we have in Texas the HOT sunlight. They then have no mercy when you need to buy a new hood section. A dealer told me that the used plastic because they did not want to have tractors with rusted hoods sitting all over the country ... DOH! (That would be much better than the blue 50 gal plastic barrell I was going to cut in half to use as a hood.)

After a friend suggested fiberglass I have gone wild! Gradually both hoods have received over 3 coats of fiberglass (cloth for reinforcement). I am amazed at the strength and durability. My freinds say why not paint it and I say why spend the money to give JD's inferior parts a good look? The underlying JD green shows through ...

I agree after owning a John Deere mower with a plastic hood one of my requirements when tractor shopping was metal hood and fenders. Many on this forum swear by plastic hoods but my experience has been that I have broken the JD plastic hood twice cutting a 1.5 acre town lot and have yet to crack the hood on my Mahindra tractor which sees some rough conditions. Rust beats cracks any day.

 

[Soundguy]

i like metal better myself. I can solder , braze, and weld metal and then skim coat it and make it look 100% as of new with hand work. plastic? sure it can be stitched and backed.. but at some point.. it's a gonner..

 

[strum456]

All good advice on here BUT:

Step #1 in ANY plastic repair is to identify the type of plastic being repaired. On the inside of the panel, there should be 2 or 3 letters which abriviate the name of the plastic. Example: PP means plolypropaline.

Once you know what you are working with, then you can identify the proper repair materials.

Do people have success just guessing? Sure. Most repair methods are good for a number of different plastics. Some plastics, however have the mold release impregnated into them, and require special repair methods.