In detail: do-it-yourself tail light repair from a real master for the site my.housecope.com.
The rear light has split and now there is a problem - how to restore it, collect it to a heap? In principle, it is quite possible to do this with your own hands, there are several ways. First, collect and save all the pieces.
The easiest way to restore your taillight is to buy a new one. I'm kidding, of course, but if it's a lantern from a Zhiguli car, which costs 20-30 UAH. , then it's really better not to bother, but to buy a new one. The glue will cost almost the same.
But, if the car is imported, or even domestic, of a new model, then the lantern can be glued with special adhesives. The challenge is to glue the taillight virtually invisibly.
"Dichloroethane" is a very good glue for such purposes, but it has one drawback, it does not glue all types of plastic. For example, he dissolves and glues old domestic lanterns. And in this way you can restore the lantern from any number of pieces, virtually without seams. When, after 12-20 hours, the glue has gained its strength, the lantern can be polished a little, and you're done.
If "Dichloroethane" does not dissolve the fragments of the lantern, you can make glue based on "Dichloroethane" by throwing a piece of a Russian lantern of red or another color into it. When the plastic dissolves, it is already possible to glue the imported lantern with this glue. This glue is also good because it fills the pores.
Other transparent adhesives can be used. One of them is Super Glue. But, the disadvantage of "Super glue" - it is fragile and leaves a white mark (plaque), although almost imperceptible.
We glue it like this: we connect the fragments, they usually find their place well, we bring the tube to the middle of the crack, preferably from the inside, and slightly press the tube. The glue will flow itself along the crack, like a capillary, it is good for such cases when filling is not required. Next, you need to hold the parts for several minutes until the glue sets. After complete drying, it is also advisable to sand the taillight with very fine sandpaper, grain size 1000-1500 or 2000 and polish it with 3M polish No. 2, it will be as good as new.
Video (click to play).
There is a better glue, called "Cosmoplast" or "Cosmoplast", it glues any plastic very well. It is widely used by advertisers in the manufacture of various advertising signs from plastic. It is sold in small tubes (30-50 ml). The basis of "Cosmoplast" is ethyl cyanoacrylate, it is one step higher than all existing "Super glues".
Another glue of about the same quality is Cosmofen 12. They can firmly glue the pieces within 5-10 seconds. It also has good fluidity and is transparent.
There is also a two-component adhesive - "Epoxyplastic SCT". They can also glue the lantern. It is sold in two syringes, glues the plastic and remains transparent.
But what if some piece of the lantern is missing, well, it flew away somewhere? It doesn't matter, you need to pick up a piece of plastic of about the same color, cut out the missing piece from it and glue it in. It is better to do this after all the fragments of the lantern have been glued together. If somewhere there is a gap, a pothole, you need to dissolve a piece of glass in dichloroethane and fill in the voids.
The organic glass of the lantern also dissolves, in addition to dichloroethane, in methylene chloride, tetrachloroethane, chloroform, pyridine and metacresol.
The technology for restoring the rear light, as you can see, is not complicated and you can do everything yourself.
It happens that not all optics for a car can be found on store shelves, so knowledge about headlight repair will never be superfluous.
The housing of the headlights or lanterns is repaired by hot-air welding.For these purposes, use a special hair dryer-soldering iron, which is "powered" by the air of the compressor. With the help of a hair dryer, the pieces of the body are returned to their place and attached. Cracked or broken headlights usually have to be repaired, so there may not be enough debris. In this case, spare parts for headlights that have been repaired before will come in handy.
The seam should be welded both from the outside and from the inside in order to provide the headlights with the necessary strength. Before starting work, you should find out from which plastic the case was made. It could be ABC plastic or polypropylene. If it is ABC plastic, then it can be repaired using the "cold welding" method, but polypropylene can only be welded. Please also note that these materials cannot be combined! If you weld one to the other, you get a very fragile connection.
It happens that the glass in the headlight is completely destroyed, and it is not possible to replace it with a new one. In this case, plexiglass comes to the rescue. Before starting this work, it is necessary to reproduce the shape of the damaged glass. The lost parts at this stage are replaced by plasticine. As a result, a template form should appear on your desk. It is on it that a plaster matrix is made. Then you should cut out a piece of plexiglass of the desired size. Typically, a headlamp requires clear glass up to 6 mm thick, and for sidelights or fog lamps, no more than 5 mm.
Next, you need to take tracing paper and draw the inner drawing of the old glass. To measure everything very accurately, use a caliper. Taking a template, the drawing is reproduced on plexiglass using a milling machine. This allows you to keep the luminous flux almost at the same level and achieve a minimum error.
After the actions taken, both the gypsum matrix and plexiglass are packed in a vacuum heat-resistant bag. The next stage will cause difficulties for many, but it only seems. You should find a special machine or workshop that will allow you to use this device to heat the envelope until the plexiglass softens. At the same time, the compressor helps create a vacuum in the glass. As a result, the outside air pressure gives the glass the shape of gypsum. Note that these steps only help to make the front part of the headlight, but the "sides" are made separately and attached later.
Broken pieces of lantern caps or cracks are sealed with glue, which is called molecular. You can replace it with dichloroethane. If the cap is destroyed all or a significant part of the lantern, then the missing elements will have to be made of the same plexiglass of a suitable color. After everything is glued, the seams are treated with a hardener. Handle the adhesive with care as it can cause burns if it comes into contact with the skin.
Irregularities in the seams on the headlamp are removed with a file, processed with sandpaper and polished with GOI paste and a felt disc. It will not work to completely eliminate the seams, but they will not affect the quality of light.
If you need to fit the plexiglass to the old cap, then the material is heated with a hairdryer, and the shape is hand-molded. Caps of complex shapes are driven through a vacuum press. The cap is glued to the body of the lantern with a polyurethane sealant.
The new headlights of your car will be stronger than the “native” ones, because they will withstand even a stone blow. The only thing is that this material can become cloudy or scratched. Let's take into account the fact that fog lights can crack due to snow or cold rain, but low temperatures are not terrible for plexiglass.
