Repairing broken grille with pluming pipe

I did some experimenting and found that black ABS pipe can be welded to the first gen ABS grilles. (I don't know if 2nd gen grilles are made of ABS) I used a soldering gun for the welding and my heat gun to do the shaping. There are plenty of websites and videos on welding plastic with this approach. With some trimming, sanding and body filler it should look good. I figured I would give it a try after having no luck finding a replacement grille.

Attachment 21433

Attachment 21434

Attachment 21432

Attachment 21435

Attachment 21436

harbor freight has a plastic welder that is setup to allow you to feed the plastic into the welding area - its a soldering iron with a holder grafted onto it for the plastic welding rod. I have a used grille I was going to sell, but it has one lower mount snapped off, and needs 2 cross bars fixed - they are in place, but need glued or welded together. I didn't think the 1st gen grilles were ABS...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pennyman1

harbor freight has a plastic welder that is setup to allow you to feed the plastic into the welding area - its a soldering iron with a holder grafted onto it for the plastic welding rod. I have a used grille I was going to sell, but it has one lower mount snapped off, and needs 2 cross bars fixed - they are in place, but need glued or welded together. I didn't think the 1st gen grilles were ABS...

---

My grille is from a 1986 and definitely ABS. I like plastic welders for thicker and larger materials, but on thinner more intricate projects I like the soldering iron.

Attachment 21443

The ABS pipe welded very nicely into the grille, I had no issues at all of the plastics separating at all while sanding.

Attachment 21444

Outstanding :clap: