The car is a means of increased danger. Every day there is a risk of getting into an accident. And not necessarily it will happen because of your fault: perhaps, in one of the parking lots, a neighboring car will hit you, or someone will not keep the distance. Often in such cases, the plastic bumper is damaged. It is he who first takes over the impact of a multiton machine. How to straighten a plastic bumper? About this and not only - later in our article.
Types of deformation
To date, there are several types of damage to the bumpers:
- Slight. These are external chips, cuts or, in the worst case, dents.
- Significant, which is accompanied by a rupture of the structure, a break and cracks.
When repairing the bumper from plastic, it is necessary to make the welding of new material on the old one. The final success depends on the technology of welding, the number of layers of new plastic and subsequent grinding. To produce a qualitative recovery with a significant deformation, a considerable set of tools is required. There are cases when the repair of the bumper from plastic price is higher than for the new product in the collection. Therefore, before performing such an operation, it is necessary to correctly assess the scale of the damage and make a decision - to change the whole element or restore the old one.
How long will it take?
Repair of the bumper from plastic is performed in one light day, except for significant deformations in the form of cracks and breaks. To restore such an element, several layers of new plastic for welding are required. This is a more costly exercise, rather than removing the scratch on the plastic bumper. Minor deformations can be restored in 3-4 hours.
How to repair
This operation should be done without haste, especially if there are a large number of dents in the structure. The bumper plastic is preheated. For this purpose, use a building hair dryer or a thermo-gun. The next step is straightening the dents. After the bumper is allowed to cool down. Next, putty. It allows you to smooth out any existing irregularities that were previously. Even the best quality dent adjustment requires subsequent puttying. After its application, the composition cools down for 20-30 minutes. Next, it is ground using fine-grained sandpaper. Then the plastic element is prepared for priming - thoroughly degreased and dyed. The final stage will be applying a layer of varnish and further polishing. After that, the restored element will again be fit for operation.
Repair with considerable deformations - gluing and painting
If the structure is made of fiberglass, it is straightened by gluing - cold forming. In this case, a special polyurethane adhesive is used. His choice should be taken very carefully, because a substandard product does not guarantee a long-lasting strength of such a design. The gluing is done in several stages. The first is preparation. Before applying the composition, the surface of the deformed bumper is thoroughly degreased. To do this, you can use any solvent, gasoline, white spirit. If there are chips and cracks on the surface, they should be carefully sanded with sandpaper. This is necessary for better adhesion of the adhesive to the plastic. It is worth remembering that the repair of the bumper made of plastic on this technology is performed from the inside. After applying the adhesive, it is necessary to wait for it to completely solidify. Further on the outer part of the structure is put a putty from fiberglass - the so-called "epoxy". Perhaps, each of us came across it. The glue is mixed with the hardener and dipped in a characteristic "burlap". Further all this design is put on the place of the formed crack. The epoxy resin dries within 1 hour (depending on the amount of hardener used). Further all rough ends are leveled by means of a skin. After the bumper has a proper shape, you can proceed to its priming and painting. Apply it with a spray gun at a distance of 30 centimeters. Otherwise, the accumulation of a large volume of paint will cause the formation of streaks, which is not the best way to affect the final result.
Thermal welding
This method of recovery is used if the bumper is made using the technology of hot plastic molding. Thanks to heat sealing, it is possible to effectively remove not only chips, but also large cracks and even holes. To do this, use plastic (similar composition as the bumper itself) and welding equipment. The bumper is placed on a flat surface - the torn parts get attached to each other and heat welding is performed on the inside. The plastic used as a "substrate" must be of good quality - the strength of the repaired structure depends on its structure. After welding, the outer surface passes through three standard steps - puttying, priming and painting. How much does it cost to repair a bumper made of plastic? The price of this service starts at a mark of 5 thousand rubles. It includes soldering, puttying and local painting.
Laminating
If there was a dent in the plastic bumper, followed by a crack, the restoration is done by laminating. This technology is often used on cars of Korean origin, where polyester resins are used to make bumpers . It consists in joining the chips from two sides with their further gluing together. This is done on the inside, as in all other cases. To make the structure as durable as possible, it is reinforced with a special net. Then put a layer of putty and color. By the way, this technology is used when it is necessary to restore a lost piece of bumper. On the site of this "hole" a grid is formed, which will repeat the contours of the plant element. The finished surface is covered with putty and cleaned. At the same time, such mandatory aspects as degreasing and priming are observed. The latter serves as a kind of "substrate" for the primary layer of paint. If the repair of the bumper made of high-quality plastic, the product will withstand the high pressure cleaning. However, after painting, the layer should be dried for 2-3 days, that is, do not wash the area with water.
Conclusion
So, we found out what technologies are used to repair the damaged bumper of the car. The process is very complex and always ends with full or local painting. Therefore, to produce it yourself, you must have at least a compressor with a spray gun.