Repairing Plastic Interior Parts of 40-year-old Aircraft

[jls]

I found an old thread in RAH about this and one poster said he had had
moderate success with aeromodeler's light fiberglas and Jet super glue.

He would glue the glass to the back of the broken or cracked plastic,
reinforcing it. Anybody else had any success at this?

And then I found where a member of EAA Chapter 9 in Columbus, OH had used
fiberglas to repair the plastic interior parts on his Cessna 172, but not
enough detail at the website, except for the neat ideas this guy, Wetherald,
had for dyeing and repainting the plastic.
http://www.eaa9.org/special/wetherald_interior.htm

BTW, you can get $3 thousand tied up in interior plastic panels and trim for
an airplane in two shakes of a cat's tail.

As for the carpet and upholstery I took out Airtex, which was excellent
quality but worn and replaced it with Hangar Bay, which though new is poor
quality. If you go to Hangar Bay's website, don't be fooled. The interior
shown there looks much better than it really is. The owner, Jerry
Robinson, shows the fronts of the front seats, so that you are unable to see
his cheap treatment of the rear of the front seats, which have no map
pockets. The carpet, unlike an Airtex carpet, is not bordered or lined,
will unravel, and is generally poor quality. On top of that is is cut
poorly and is a poor fit. Good luck to you if you deal with this guy; you
have my sympathy.

[Nathan Young]

On Sat, 4 Dec 2004 17:25:03 -0500, " jls" >
wrote:

>I found an old thread in RAH about this and one poster said he had had
>moderate success with aeromodeler's light fiberglas and Jet super glue.
>
>He would glue the glass to the back of the broken or cracked plastic,
>reinforcing it. Anybody else had any success at this?

About 1 year ago, there was an article in one of the aviation
magazines on this very subject (repairing broken or cracked interior
plastic). The author refurbished the plastic overlay for an
instrument panel and did a great job - it looked new. If I recall the
author used a plastic to repair the plastic (ie it wasn't just
fiberglass/epoxy or glue).

A google search turned up the following thread which references Sport
Aviation in May, June, or July 2003.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?V6E8261F9

Good luck,
-Nathan

[john smith]

Go to www.redam.com
Select product catalog
Select POLYFIX Thermal Fusion Repair Kits

jls wrote:
> I found an old thread in RAH about this and one poster said he had had
> moderate success with aeromodeler's light fiberglas and Jet super glue.
>
> He would glue the glass to the back of the broken or cracked plastic,
> reinforcing it. Anybody else had any success at this?
>
> And then I found where a member of EAA Chapter 9 in Columbus, OH had used
> fiberglas to repair the plastic interior parts on his Cessna 172, but not
> enough detail at the website, except for the neat ideas this guy, Wetherald,
> had for dyeing and repainting the plastic.
> http://www.eaa9.org/special/wetherald_interior.htm
>
> BTW, you can get $3 thousand tied up in interior plastic panels and trim for
> an airplane in two shakes of a cat's tail.
>
> As for the carpet and upholstery I took out Airtex, which was excellent
> quality but worn and replaced it with Hangar Bay, which though new is poor
> quality. If you go to Hangar Bay's website, don't be fooled. The interior
> shown there looks much better than it really is. The owner, Jerry
> Robinson, shows the fronts of the front seats, so that you are unable to see
> his cheap treatment of the rear of the front seats, which have no map
> pockets. The carpet, unlike an Airtex carpet, is not bordered or lined,
> will unravel, and is generally poor quality. On top of that is is cut
> poorly and is a poor fit. Good luck to you if you deal with this guy; you
> have my sympathy.
>
>

[Steve Sharp]

Nathan Young wrote:

>On Sat, 4 Dec 2004 17:25:03 -0500, " jls" >
>wrote:
>
>
>
>>I found an old thread in RAH about this and one poster said he had had
>>moderate success with aeromodeler's light fiberglas and Jet super glue.
>>
>>He would glue the glass to the back of the broken or cracked plastic,
>>reinforcing it. Anybody else had any success at this?
>>
>>
>
>About 1 year ago, there was an article in one of the aviation
>magazines on this very subject (repairing broken or cracked interior
>plastic). The author refurbished the plastic overlay for an
>instrument panel and did a great job - it looked new. If I recall the
>author used a plastic to repair the plastic (ie it wasn't just
>fiberglass/epoxy or glue).
>
>A google search turned up the following thread which references Sport
>Aviation in May, June, or July 2003.
>http://makeashorterlink.com/?V6E8261F9
>
>Good luck,
>-Nathan
>

Please see Sport Aviation September, 03, ppg 89-94

--
Steve Sharp
N35 59.72
W083 59 37

[FIyer111]

I used to repair/reinforce ABS plastic cowls on my radio controlled planes with
fiberglass cloth and PVC pipe cement. I would line the cowl on the inside with
the glass, then use the dauber in the can of PVC cement to wet through the
cloth. It would dry quickly and seemed to do the trick. I think it would
probably work on plastic interior panels and interior plastic parts.

[jls]

"FIyer111" > wrote in message
...
> I used to repair/reinforce ABS plastic cowls on my radio controlled planes
with
> fiberglass cloth and PVC pipe cement. I would line the cowl on the inside
with
> the glass, then use the dauber in the can of PVC cement to wet through the
> cloth. It would dry quickly and seemed to do the trick. I think it would
> probably work on plastic interior panels and interior plastic parts.

Thanks to Nathan, Steve, John and Flyer for a wealth of helpful information.

[Don Hammer]

Don't know if it is any help or not, but back in the 70's I helped
repair some of this stuff that was cracked. Reinforced it with glass
cloth on the back bonded with acetone (maybe MEK). We took a broken
piece of the same stuff, shaved it and dissolved it in the same
solvent to make a paste to fill the cracks. After it dried , we
sanded it smooth and painted the panel.

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