I broke it.

[dodge man]

I knew it was a just a matter of time but I broke the front plastic fenders on my BX2350. I was pushing brush and nosed into a small stump. There is a small crack in the front, which I can live with, but I also broke the ears off where it screws down on the front. It looks like with some metal straps I may be able to rig it to stay. Has anbody tried anything like this when the front tabs break off.

 

[Craig Clayton]

All is not lost I did a post about welding of plastic fenders.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/welding/188291-plastic-fender-repair.html
All you need is a 250 watt soldering gun.
Craig Clayton

 

[radioman]

I cracked my side panel on the bonnet, just epoxied it. I dont think it will hold up in the cold weather if it hit again.

IF your tabs are broken off but nothing else, then I guess metal is the way to go.

 

[Craig Clayton]

Just to give you an idea on how easy it is to remelt plastic and repair items I did the following. We had just received a new shiny plastic recycle box and the truck handlers manager to or the wing plow cracked it in the first week. I took the cutting tip on my 250 watt solder gun and fused it back in 10 minutes which would be less time than it would have been to go to the township office for another new one.
Craig Clayton

 

[dodge man]

The problem is the tabs the hold the fenders on broke off on both sides and I lost at least one of them, maybe both.

 

[Craig Clayton]

Find some other fender type plastic that looks like the same grade as what you lost. Cars probably use the same grade for their fairings. You can also cut strips out of the ribbing to use as welding / melting material. I smoothed out a hole in a lincoln car that was punched in the lower skirt.
Craig Clayton

 

[David s Von Gieserbrechta]

Is this what you are referring to? I didn't break these but knew that I would sometime when it was -30c and the plastic got brittle so I did some preventative repairs. Being a retired pattern maker that has done his fair share of injection mold tooling I know where the weak spots are and Kubotas choice of plastic is to say the very least "sad". In this case I used 3/32" sheet tool steel stock to reinforce the underside of the tabs.

First I played a fine tip Acetylene torch over the plastic to blister it just a bit and give the epoxy something to bite into (without this step the epoxy will simply peel off) and then washed the parts down with MEK to cut any wax on the parts and to soften the plastic up just a tad. Then using pressure blocks, some saran wrap and clamps to keep the steel in place while the epoxy cured It was about done. Epoxy doesn't like to much pressure so use only enough to keep the parts in place. I also put in five pop rivets just to make sure but don't have pics of those and it's -29c out there now with a high wind so I'm not going outside to take any.

I did both sides and still have to do the slides where the sides fit into the rear cowling as those are also sure to break. I will make a post as soon as I mill the aluminum for those bits.

 

[David s Von Gieserbrechta]

Not to step on any toes, but simply welding the plastic without reinforcing it in some way is somewhat pointless as this is a very weak point in design and will simply break in the exact same spot the next time that it is stressed and no amount of welding weak points together will change that.