Straightening 87 front spoiler

PaulD

PaulD

Paul Davock
It appears that replacement 87 front spoilers are exceedingly rare, and mine is warped and looks like this:

87 spoiler.jpg


The brown hardboard template at the bottom is the shape of a new front grill that it will attach to.

I have many questions:

What have people done to straighten it out? I know of one post describing clamping it and pouring boiling water over it. I do not have something big enough to catch the runoff, and it is not realistic to do it outside in freezing temperatures.

I am thinking of using a heat gun. Has anyone had good results with free handing the bend where I can over bend it to get a true shape as happens with sheet metal, or is it a better idea to make a wood form to press it into to achieve the desired shape? Or as above, clamp it into shape and then heat it? In your experiences, does it have a plastic memory where the warp returns as it cools, or over time?

I do not think using a torch is a good idea.

The spoiler has a small crack in the center of the bottom lip as well as two cuts. I have tried acetone as a solvent, it is obviously not a PVC material. Anyone with success in gluing it? I will use epoxy as a last resort. I could try plastic welding if I knew what material to use. Or is it a hard rubber material?

I welcome all experiences, ideas and suggestions.

Paul
 
Last edited:
As in it's non-existent? :D

I recall that others have attempted to heat and straighten front spoilers and bumper trim. But I believe it usually reverts back to being warped eventually. I also recall someone made metal brackets to help hold it in the correct position. That seems like a better approach.
 
Dr.Jeff said:
As in it's non-existent? :D

I recall that others have attempted to heat and straighten front spoilers and bumper trim. But I believe it usually reverts back to being warped eventually. I also recall someone made metal brackets to help hold it in the correct position. That seems like a better approach.
Click to expand...

Midwest Bayless told me that on rare occasions one shows up, and once 4 new old stock ones came in. None for the foreseeable future though.

Right after posting, I started wondering about an aluminum structure on the back side to hold it in shape. It immediately became complex, If I heat and bend aluminum angle, it will take a year to regain its stiffness.
 
I laid mine out in the sun and it worked very well, but that's not viable this time of year.
 
The part is likely polypropylene, it might be polyethylene but it is unlikely. The melting points for both of these materials is about 266°F so you don’t want to overheat it as you will lose the molded in texture and part structure.

A heat gun is a good tool for applying heat to the part and can be localized and diffused.

I would make a buck, which you are partway to from your grill template, to heat the part on and clamp it to the buck to get it to relax and then set into preferred configuration as it cools. Playing the heat gun across the surface to bring it up to a localized ‘plastic’ temperature, which is just about 212°F, will allow you to reform it with some pressure/clamping being careful not to burnish the part and lose the texture.

There are plastic welding materials you can use to patch this. One way is to get some of the material (from the back of the elephant ears for example) and using soldering gun heat the chips you can garner and the material to weld in the material to fill the areas you are missing. Then carve the surface flat and touch up the texture with the soldering iron.

www.creativemechanisms.com

Everything You Need To Know About Polypropylene (PP) Plastic

Polypropylene (PP) is a thermoplastic “addition polymer” used for consumer products, ropes, automotive parts, and special devices like living hinges.
www.creativemechanisms.com
 
Dr.Jeff said:
As in it's non-existent? :D

I recall that others have attempted to heat and straighten front spoilers and bumper trim. But I believe it usually reverts back to being warped eventually. I also recall someone made metal brackets to help hold it in the correct position. That seems like a better approach.
Click to expand...
Apparently I happened to see your post before you had finished it. So I only saw the first sentence and no pics. ;)

Karl's input is excellent. I'll be very interested to hear how a heated and straightened part works out. In my prior experiments with other plastic objects they never seem to hold the new shape long before reverting back to the memory "warped" form. But every plastic has different characteristics so hopefully it will work better here.

This reminds me of an experience I had with a new front air dam. It was molded in the type of plastic they use on factory bumper covers (PU?). That stuff has a lot of oils imbedded the material so it is difficult to paint it without peeling. Therefore I had a professional paint shop do it. The paint came out great. But to help cure it they placed the air dam under some heat lamps (a common practice at body shops). However it was sitting on one of those folding work stands (made from metal tubes) and the heat caused the material to deform where it was sitting on those tubes. They tried to straighten it back out but wasn't successful. :mad:
 
PaulD said:
It appears that replacement 87 front spoilers are exceedingly rare, and mine is warped and looks like this:


The spoiler has a small crack in the center of the bottom lip as well as two cuts. I have tried acetone as a solvent, it is obviously not a PVC material. Anyone with success in gluing it? I will use epoxy as a last resort. I could try plastic welding if I knew what material to use. Or is it a hard rubber material?

I welcome all experiences, ideas and suggestions.

Paul
Click to expand...
I was the boiling water and clamp guy, and after a year + is has not reverted back. Also, the p.o. on my car had the spoiler drag on the ground for some time and wearing off a huge section of the corner. I ended up making a template for the missing section, cutting it out of a plastic cutting board and epoxying it on with pc7. I sanded it down and painted it and it looks great, and also after a year + its been rock solid.
 

Attachments

  • Spoiler.jpg
    Spoiler.jpg
    148.1 KB · Views: 69
This thread may also help. The extra support took a lot of the warp out of mine.

Front Grille Tabs

I really like most of the things Fiat and Bertone did regarding the X1/9. I even like the way they stuffed the master cylinders into the pedal box for a bigger trunk space. But those flimsy plastic tabs the front spoiler mounts to have got to be one of the silliest things on the car. When I...
xwebforums.com
 
Dishy said:
This thread may also help. The extra support took a lot of the warp out of mine.

Front Grille Tabs

I really like most of the things Fiat and Bertone did regarding the X1/9. I even like the way they stuffed the master cylinders into the pedal box for a bigger trunk space. But those flimsy plastic tabs the front spoiler mounts to have got to be one of the silliest things on the car. When I...
xwebforums.com
Click to expand...
YES! That is a great thread. I did this too. Simple and rock solid.
 
I did the Front Grille Tabs thread because I had no tabs left at all on my car. The prior owner had run over something BAD which broke the spoiler at the 90 bend on the driver side in addition to other damage to the rad and support. He "fixed" it by bolting the spoiler to the bottom rung of the grille, haha. Nice. It's all straight and proper now.

The spoiler was badly warped AND in two pieces when I took it off. I used the heat gun trick to get it back into a more or less accurate shape. I drilled holes into the fracture surface and stuffed clothes hanger wire (roughed up with vice grips) slathered with JBWeld into said holes. Both the heat gun and JBWeld worked great. If your cracked area is too thin just use smaller wires and more holes. Small wire in a hole is super strong. I use that trick on a lot of plastic parts. For extra strength drill the holes at slight angles to one another so they "lock" one another from moving.

The 79-88 spoiler part tends to creep into whatever shape it's supported in over time so proper attachment is key to them holding their proper shape.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top