Drip Rail Repair

[Snake45]

I'm working on rescuing an original AMT '66 Impala Promo. The lower half of the drip rail on the left side A-pillar was almost nonexistant. It started out as an extremely thin sliver of plastic, like flash, and by the time I'd finished polishing the body, even this had disappeared entirely. I worked out the following repair method, which seems to have worked pretty well.

1. Lay several layers of masking tape on a cutting surface (some use glass but I like sheet styrene, just since I've got a buttload of it). Build up the tape layers until the stack is as tall as your drip rail needs to be (probably somewhere around 4-8 laybers). Lay a straightedge on this and cut a couple strips about 1/8” wide (dimension not critical). You MUST have a clean, straight, pristene edge for this—don't even think of trying to use the edge the masking tape came off the roll with. It will be raggedy and dusty.

2. Carefully lay these strips as “dams” where you want to build up your drip rail. Press in place firmly.

3. Fill the gap between the tape dams with superglue GEL. I strongly recomment Loctite brand—ask for it by name. It is the best superglue gel I've ever used, much better than generic stuff. Fill the gap to where it just overflows the tape. Having some SG gel on top of the tape is fine, it's actuallly desirable.

4. Let cure at least 24 hours. This stuff does not set up instantly, it takes a while.

5. When dry, DO NOT try to remove the tape dams. Instead, with a file (or a sanding block and at least fresh #280 grit paper), file the SG gel down until you are exactly flush with the top of the tape dams.

6. At this point you can remove the tape dams and marvel at how good your work looks. You will probably have to do a slight amount of cleanup on the front and rear edges of the new drip rail with a small, fine file. Some smoothing of the “face” of the rail might be needed, too.

7. Ready to go!

[Nazz]

Great tip Snake. I will have to try this when I need to repair a drip rail.

Thanks

[Chariots of Fire]

Thanks for that tip!  I use Locktite on all my projects.  Just seems to be a better product.  And I've had some driprails to repair before as well but used a different method.

[alan barton]

Nice one Snake.  I've got some projects that will need exactly that type of repair, or even fabrication from scratch when I think about it.  Great tip!.

Cheers

Alan

 

[Kris Morgan]

Great tip.

[hedotwo]

These are the repairs I like to do too, so a great tip!

Thanks!

[carrucha]

Good tip!  Thanks!

[ChrisBcritter]

Very very good idea - I bet you could do it with Bondic as well.

[Snake45]

3 hours ago, ChrisBcritter said:

Very very good idea - I bet you could do it with Bondic as well.

I don't know how well Bondic bonds with the styrene. The SG gel is on there to stay. 

[ChrisBcritter]

So far, it bonds quite well if the surface is roughed up a bit.

[redneckrigger]

Great tip!!! Thanks!