I have a question for you guys with body shop paint / repair experience....

I have a OEM front lip spoiler that my Infinity dealer replaced on someones car and was going to throw away. It has a split about an inch long in the middle of the front. Other than that...it is in great shape.

Do you think it could be repaired & painted???

Is it worth the trouble or just throw it out and get a new one????

Thanks!

 

From my understanding... and I've played around with the lip install for various members. The lip is not fiberglass and it's urethane... so you CAN repair it, but I don't think it'll hold well over time and the paint might spider/crease.

I'd figure you'd try to repair it with bondo (or even fiberglass)... but you need a way for the bondo to stay on the lip... (you'd have to prep the area). Bondo/fiberglass is brittle, and on a flexible material... you'd get an idea for what would happen. Prep/paint/etc might cost some $$... and considering the OEM lip is to be had for < $300 painted... or you can get a used on... I'd say not fix it.

It's up to you how much work you want to put into it and take a chance.

Hope this helps.

 

Once urethane or OEM ABS plastic tears... its game over. Only fiberglass can be repaired with that kind of damage. I'd sell it on Ebay to some shmuck that thinks he can fix it

 

Thanks for the responses guys......

Soneone said find a shop that repairs motorcycle fairings....that they could use heat to weld/fuse/ melt it back together...????

 

plastic weld it

 

The weld method works great on hard plastics such as ABS, acrylic, styrol, PVC, FRP, and poly-corbonate, but it won't work on polypropylene or polyethylene.

Most bike fairings are made out of hard plastic (ABS & FRP), so the weld method works like a charm on them....

The OEM lip is not classified as one of the above hard plastics so I don't know how much luck you'll have with trying to plastic weld it together (chemically), but heck it's worth a shot. Eastwood supply sells a plastic repair kit for $35 (available in white, black or clear) which I have used to repair broken hard plastic components and it worked great. Forms and bonds like new again! You might want to also give the plastic welding iron eastwood sells ($60) a shot. It might be a better alternative, but once again, don't know how it will hold up on an OEM lip...

If you didn't pay anything for it, IMO it's worth a shot at repairing it. As long as you don't smack it up into a curb or parking stop, the OEM lip really doesnt flex that much (once installed), so even if you can get something to hold it together (close up the crack) I think you'll be fine...