3rd gen hideaway grille repair?

[Charger1973]

I bought a decent set of hideaway grilles, but in shipping one ended up with a little damage.  I decided to keep them anyway since I got them for a good price but was wondering how would you go about fixing something like this?  Two of the mounting tabs are broken but I still have the peices.  There is also a ding on that edge and a small crack on the lower left corner.  The other thing is that they have some light pitting that needs to be fixed to make it look nice again.  Is there anything I can do with these myself or would I be best to just take them to a shop?  Can they even fix the broken tabs?

[71charger_fan]

I too have a couple of concealed headlamp grilles that were damaged the same way due to careless packing by a  seller. I'd also like to know if these are repairable or if they're just junk.

[Nacho-RT74]

I have repaired plastic tabs on several parts of my car melted the edges of both broken areas with a welder/solder and joining for a while the plastic is melted. once they match, then use the welder/solder to melt together and mix both plastic pieces and even give them a good finish. After that, some epoxy glue over the surfaces and sand it like it was "bondo".

Never will get the same strong than a solid one piece casted plastic part, but better than just use epoxy or crazy glue.

I still never have done this but you can also after the first matched melted plastic pieces make with a dremel some groove between both plastic pieces, insert some heavy wire and once and again melt platic over this insert, or just fill it with epoxy glue... maybe will get better strong piece.

Or maybe after this melted job, make some small holes with a drill and then seam it with wires and then cover them with epoxy...

just some ideas. I ave done just the melting job.

On matched area you could also melt another platic piece coming from somewhere over the area repaired area and mix every thing together like you were solding wires with tin

[71charger_fan]

Nacho, these grilles are cast metal, not plastic.

[Nacho-RT74]

ooooops...sorry LOL...

here in Venezuela weren't available so I never have seen someone in person I thought was plastic.

Ok so the any welding shop it should be able to weld. It must be aluminium aleation, so need some guy with argon welder.

[plum500]

http://durafix.com/

[Charged]

JB Weld is what I planned on, when I get to that point in my restoration on this car. I to have a broken fin on the grill. ('71 concealed headlamp).

[BROCK]

This is a weldable part!

[1972Rallye]

Folks... These are pot metal cast parts.  Pot metal is generally zinc with a bunch of other low melting point metals added in like magnesium, lead, aluminum, tin, copper, etc. Welding can be done in some cases, but most welders will not attempt it because of the impurity of the material used.  Minor cracks and broken tabs can be repaired with JB Weld with great success.  Bends can be heated (VERY carefully and slowly) with a common propane torch and lightly tapped back into place with a rubber mallet.  If you heat an area too much, the "metal" can collapse and give you sink marks and other nasty issues (I learned this the hard way).  JB weld is a great filler for these boo-boo areas as well...

Go slowly and carefully... 

[Charger74SE]

Would silver solder stick to pot metal parts.  I fixed a cracked door glass anti-rattle clip with it but the clip was made of steel.

[plum500]

I'm about to attempt a repair on my '71 R/T taillight bezel as soon as I get my Durafix that I ordered. I'll post pics if all goes well. If the stuff works half as good as the video on their site, I will be pleased.

I would say you get more than collapse marks though -- I did a grill surround and found the grill pot metal melts instantly once it gets to temp. I actually found a speedy repair was the trick. I also attached some eyelets to hideaway grill pieces, but, the rods I was using at the time were not Durafix, just some generic rods from a local shop.

I'm hoping the Durafix will go easier and not require as much heat as these other rods I purchased a while back - and not risk turning my pieces into a silver pool.    Stuff looks like it flows well too - and certainly seems to be strong...

[AKcharger]

Darn, I just restored (amateur job of course) my hide aways, wish i would have done a step-by-step. Well in any event here's some tips:
- The chrome is TOUGH, provided it is not completely pitted some 000 steel wool should do wonders. I thought the chrome on my was shot but it buffed out nice, and I'm not done yet!
- Try to grind away all the little pitting "flowers" those are what looks bad the little depressions are not toticeable
- SEMI-FLAT black paint!
- As for the broken tabs I had 2. I went to Lowes and in the nut and bolt dept bought 2 "spacers" I roughened up the outside to make for good adhesion and JB welded them to the grill surround.  I had to make a jig of sorts out of rags and stuff to get the right angle but it was easy enough.
They really don't have much of a load on them so I don't expect any problems but at the same time I didn't want the two good ones to take all the stress, I'm happy with the way it came out