Have you ever bought a car and thought it had a bunch of great stuff in it, till you got it home and found half yhe stuff you thought was good was really crap. I thought the console was good in my car till I noticed some knuckle head drilled a big hole in the back next to the ashtray about the size of a half dollar and stuck an after market cigarette lighter in it. I was a little mad, because other than this it was a perfect console. So I'm thinking.......How do I fix this and make it look right. Years ago, I tryed the bondo, fiberglass, etc and nothing really looked right, especially when there is an imitation grain involved.So the other day, I went on a website and found this stuff called Plast-aid, and watched the 7 minute video on it, it looked pretty good and I ordered it. It comes as a 2 part mix of a very fine powder and an activator and this stuff actually makes plastic, not a glue but an actual tough plastic. So I figured I would try to fix the hole in the console and I wish I had taken pictures because this stuff is incredible. What I did was cleaned the area around the hole, took some stiff modling clay and put it on the grain side of the console,pressing firmly but still keeping the clay above the top edge of the hole. I then mixed the plast-aid and poured it into the hole on the bottom, against the clay. This stuff cures rock hard in about 8 minutes, sandable hard.and it bonds molecularly with the surrounding plastic. So then i removed the clay and the plastic filled in the area beautifly, perfect contour because of the clay.I even figured out how to get the grain back into it. I took a small mix of the plast-aid and spread it very thinly over the area, I had just patched and took some of the modeling clay and took an imprint of the grain from an area on the console lid and pressed it over the plast-aid, I let it set about 4 minutes and I peeled the clay off and I was amazed, the grain was back in the console and it was very prominate, crisp and clean looking and matched the rest of the console pefectly!!I even tryed to scratch it and it wouldn't scratch off.One of the nice things about this stuff is that You can mix a small amount of acrylic paint in it and color it, I used Testers Black acrylic, not Enamel, but acrylic.I mixed a small amount and made a part and I couldn't break it and this was only within 10 minutes. I'm not trying to sound like a infomercial for plast-aid but this stuff is the most incredible stuff I have ever used to fix broken plastic and I wish I had found it 10 years ago. After I fixed the console I moved on to my 71 challenger grill and fixed a spot about 3 inches long that was missing altogether and a crack about 8 inches long in the facia of the grill, and you know something? you cant tell where it was fixed and it's 50 times stronger than it was before, I mixed a little black acrylic in it and fixed the crack and sanded it 10 minutes later and the new plastic blended with the old plastic and I lost the crack, the secret is to "V" notch the crack first but don't go all the way through. Then I fixed a missing tab on the far left hand side of the grill by making a clay mold of the right hand side and turning it over and bonding it to the grill. I now have a perfect grill and no one would know but me where it was fixed.If I can fix a hole in a console the size of a half dollar and put the grain back in it and you can't tell where I fixed it, image how easy it would be to fix all those little stupid spots that people like to ruin, like screw holes for tachs, or cracks in consoles, missing tabs, or even worn grain and this stuff was cheap too it was only 22.00 for a large bottle and the activator and it came with a mixing cup too. Not bad, hey it beats 200.00-300.00 for another console, and if your like me, I couldn't live with someone's lighter modification on my console. Anyway the stuff is available on line just type
www.Plast-aid.com/ and you'll find it. I had good luck with it and I'm keeping some on hand, I'm sure it would work for cracked steeing wheels too and being able to put color in it is a bonus. So hope this helps some of the guys out there that would rather try to fix it than buy a new one. Dave ( Rough 71 RT )
