Any - Repairing plastic | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

Sat 14 Jun 2025 20:45

Any - Repairing plastic - Halmerend

Not really a motoring question so forgive me if not appropriate. Has anyone had any success using plastic type repair products to mend a broken hinge or joint? If so could you recommend one please. I need something that will take a screw and some stress and wondered if anyone had used a suitable product to repair plastic on a car. Thanks.

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Sat 14 Jun 2025 21:01

Any - Repairing plastic - badbusdriver

Difficult to say without knowing more precisely what you want to repair, because surely a hinge replacement would be better than trying to repair a hinge using plastic?. If the repair you speak of is what the hinge is attached to, that is a different scenario and the first product which springs to mind is Davids Isopon P40. This is a glassfibre reinforced filler paste which I've used many times in the past and is VERY strong.

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Sat 14 Jun 2025 21:08

Any - Repairing plastic - Halmerend

Thanks for this. It’s the lid on a big Keter storage box. Left the lid up and the hinge has been ripped out of the fixings under the lid leaving them beyond repair. Only other option is to try to source a new lid.

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Sat 14 Jun 2025 22:11

Any - Repairing plastic - Adampr

Personally, I'd be reinforcing it with a bit of wood or some penny washers (impossible to know which without seeing) rather than trying to repair the plastic.

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Sat 14 Jun 2025 22:17

Any - Repairing plastic - elekie&a/c doctor

Think I’d go with the wood idea to strengthen the hinge support. Drill straight through the timber and plastic side panel of the box and then use nuts and bolts to secure the whole thing.

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Sun 15 Jun 2025 08:34

Any - Repairing plastic - Chris M

Rather than wood, I use something like this:

www.screwfix.com/p/essentials-mending-plates-silve...e

Lots of different sizes available.

Repaired one of our wheelie bin lid hinges with these and some suitable nuts and bolts. Still working around a decade on.

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Sun 15 Jun 2025 08:48

Any - Repairing plastic - John F

I've repaired and glued together all sorts of things with a fibreglass kit consisting of a tin of resin, a sachet of hardener, a few sheets of fibreglass material and a bag of filler powder to make a paste of whatever degree of thickness is necessary. Oh, and some nitrile gloves - it's a devil to get off your hands! In the past, car mechanics always had a good supply to repair the rusty old car panels of yore.

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Sun 15 Jun 2025 12:22

Any - Repairing plastic - catsdad

I have never successfully glued plastics where they get stressed. I did however fix the completely broken hinge on our wheelie bin about ten years ago with plates and nuts and bolts as mentioned above. It’s still going strong.

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Sun 15 Jun 2025 14:49

Any - Repairing plastic - Halmerend

Well I had a look this morning and never realised that the lid is reversible. So moved all the fittings around and it’s sorted. Thanks anyway, I’m sure it’ll come in handy sometime soon.

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Wed 18 Jun 2025 08:35

Any - Repairing plastic - edlithgow

Thermoplastics can sometimes be stitch-welded with stainless steel or copper wire and a soldering iron. You form the tie wire into a wiggly shape spanning a crack and then melt it in with a soldering iron.

Baking soda can be used as a filler and then solidified with cyanoacrylate super glue, which wicks in. I used this to repair a toilet seat anchor point, subject to quite a lot of leverage, and was surprised when it worked.

These fixes can be better than buying fancy epoxides or polyester fillers which are quite likely to have gone off before you need then again

Edited by edlithgow on 18/06/2025 at 08:40

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Thu 19 Jun 2025 04:43

Any - Repairing plastic - edlithgow

If you did need a high tech solution, this article discusses some of those currently available.

www.practical-sailor.com/boat-maintenance/diy-proj...s

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Thu 19 Jun 2025 14:06

Any - Repairing plastic - Halmerend

Thank you, much appreciated and will come in useful at some time I’m sure.

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