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06-03-2023, 10:56 PM | #1 |
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Repairing Center Vent Tabs?
How do you repair plastic weld? The two top tabs of the center vent are plastic welded onto it's housing. As you can see in my pictures, two of the rear plastic welds are missing/broken. Half of one of the front is broken. The other front one is cracked. All the used ones on eBay are in similar condition...so I'm assuming that someone had attempted this repair at some point? I would greatly appreciate any ideas on how to approach this repair? Thanks.
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06-03-2023, 11:12 PM | #2 |
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Use some coarse sandpaper and rough up the metal and plastic all around the metal. Apply a healthy layer of JB weld over it, place a piece of window screen over it for even more reinforcement, just make sure it's not so tall it prevents the vent from being inserted into the dash. I love JB weld and put that $hit on everything, lol...
Last edited by pungo; 06-04-2023 at 12:41 AM.. |
06-03-2023, 11:26 PM | #3 |
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Which JB weld do you recommend? Apparently, there are lots of variations. Thanks.
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06-04-2023, 12:39 AM | #5 |
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JB weld it with C clamps to hold it all together till it dries
https://www.homedepot.com/p/J-B-Weld...65-s/100189012
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06-04-2023, 12:51 AM | #6 | |
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I've never used the plastic bonder version, though I'm sure it'd work just as well if not better for your application. |
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06-04-2023, 07:31 PM | #8 |
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Although it's not crazy expensive, but I'm not about to drop over $250 on a new vent and throw away one that is perfectly functional other than those plastic welds that are on their last legs. If I can salvage it, I will.
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06-04-2023, 07:44 PM | #9 |
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Is it feasible to use a small rivet in those locations?
Possibly take a look inside the duct end of the vent and see if there would be interference of a short rivet hanging down that might hit the vanes when they are turned to direct flow.
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Last edited by Steeler; 06-04-2023 at 07:55 PM.. |
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06-04-2023, 10:54 PM | #10 |
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I would assumed that it's possible to use a small rivet, but it more work than JB Weld
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06-05-2023, 05:25 AM | #11 |
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4 holes and 4 rivets. Yup more work.
My mechanical background is avert to anything other than mechanical connection. Although todays adhesives are remarkable. Good luck with repair.
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06-05-2023, 07:50 AM | #12 |
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I just did this to repair to fix a small rattle not too long ago. I used a dremmel tool to grind and drill through the front plastic welds holding the metal tabs in place and just replaced with small screws to hold it down. Works pretty well since I can still remove it from the center dash. Here’s the specific screws I used below. Hope this helps.
https://a.co/d/a3Bf9Xo |
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06-05-2023, 09:02 AM | #13 | |
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06-07-2023, 12:30 AM | #14 |
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Found a couple of small screws in my stash and decided to use the idea from @MVRS - dremel grinded down the rear plastic stubs and screwed down the rear of the tabs. The screws does protrude into the vent a tiny bit, but not enough to interfere with airflow. Then went to town with JB Weld - I don't think those tabs are going anywhere! You think I might have gone a bit overboard with those JB Weld?
Also, re-foam the rear of the vents as the original has disintegrate into crumbs. Again, Thanks everyone for your inputs/suggestions!
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Last edited by XMetal; 06-07-2023 at 12:38 AM.. |
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06-07-2023, 11:31 AM | #15 |
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Looks like it'll hold fine, can never use too much JB Weld. Personally, I would have omitted the drilling plus screw and instead, apply a healthy dose of JB Weld.
I don't know how you pushed the tabs down to remove the vent, but slipping an old credit card or similar into each clip makes it very easy to remove the vent with low risk of damage. |
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