Need to find new F355 clamshell

If there are no chips missing, super glue, sand, prime and refinish.

 

Ricambi?

 

Exactly. Very easy if it's ABS, as so many interior pieces are. There are ABS specific glues available and the material is quite easy to work with.

 

Easy fix.

 

Robb
i have the bottom piece that i can send you.

 

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Ricambi has both upper and lower portions

 

That break will likely not hold once you reinstall it. It is a very tight fit sometimes getting it in place, then lining up and screwing the top and bottom together, I would bet the chance of it holding together are 10%. I have repaired numerous ones and broken that bad will likely not hold once back in the car.

 

*If* the material is solvent weldable (big IF, but ABS certainly is) and the right "glue" (solvent) is used, the repairs should be roughly as strong as the original material. If there is any room at all on the back to add reinforcements, the piece can actually be a good bit stronger than it was to begin with.

I used to know someone in the plastics business who kept a chunk of 3/4" thick acrylic on his desk that had been solvent welded into an L. He offered anyone who wanted the opportunity to try to break the bond, and many did. The piece finally did break after years of stress... but not at the glue joint.

Achieving maximum strength from a solvent bond takes time. The stuff I'm using to repair the dash vents in my 348 achieves 80% strength after 72 hours and keeps getting slowly better for quite some time after. I haven't looked at the specs on this particular solvent, but I know some bonds are still gaining strength after 6 months. So you can't be in a hurry unless you reinforce from the back, in which case three days of cure time would be plenty.

One really cool thing about solvent glues is the fact that you can use them to repair surface damage as well. There were a couple of minor pry marks on the replacement vent section I got for my 348. They wouldn't have bothered most people, but I mixed up a slurry of ABS chips and solvent and used a toothpick to apply it to the damaged spots. Trimmed it to size and sanded it the next day, now you can't even tell it was damaged.

So yeah, that steering column shroud very likely can be repaired to look as good as new and be stronger than new. Robb, I hope you'll save the pieces for the time when new or good used ones are no longer available. Hopefully someone will eventually start 3D printing such parts, but unless and until that happens there may very well come a time where those broken pieces will be someone's best option to replace a missing or destroyed shroud.

 

Robb
Your very welcome.If you do need the top part send me a message because i do have it ..i just have to find it.lol
Michael