Hello All
I have a 1991 Chev Lumina, 3.1 Euro 2 door coupe. It has a wing on the trunk that is in 2 sections, lower bolts to trunk lid and upper was adhered to lower.
Well on a trip through the car wash (winter here) when the dryer was blowing water off the car the upper half of the wing separated from the lower. Well I spotted it happening and I drove out of the wash and ran into the carwash before the next vehicle ran it over. ( It was pretty much like standing behind a jet engine in there!)
It looks like when the car was built the two halves of the wing were put together with an adhesive type tape (I think). Inside edge of the wing facing to the front of the car is thin about 1/4 inch wide. The rear and outside of the wing seems to be about 1/8 x 1/8 sits in a channel tape. The wing itself is white plastic/nylon/??? of some sort inside and painted on top to match the car.
Any suggestion as to what I can use to glue it back together, and stay together?
My pics are not the best and the wing is in the small basement bath, so hard to get photos.
I need to clean it up but don't know what will hold it together best. JB plastic weld has too short work time to cover both sides of the join.

Thanks ron3033

Ron, although I'm not familiar with your particular wing I have seen similar ones on a few cars. I'm wondering if that is a 3M type body molding tape that held it together? If that would be the case you should be able to go to a local autobody shop jobber (supplier) and buy some. Carefully put it back in position and have a helper get everything lined up, once back together I would use some 4 to 6 inch long spring clamps all around and leave it clamped for a few days. I do know guys that have epoxied those back together as well. You are right, you would need a much slower setting epoxy like West System epoxy. You can have about 15 to 18 minutes to position stuff with West. Although that epoxy doesn't require clamping for strength I'd still use the clamps to hold it in position. You could also use a few wood screws from underneath to position it, pull them when hardened, and fill in with more epoxy. Go to their web site and use their dealer locator, I would think there would be some up your way.

DarrelK wrote:Ron, although I'm not familiar with your particular wing I have seen similar ones on a few cars. I'm wondering if that is a 3M type body molding tape that held it together? If that would be the case you should be able to go to a local autobody shop jobber (supplier) and buy some. Carefully put it back in position and have a helper get everything lined up, once back together I would use some 4 to 6 inch long spring clamps all around and leave it clamped for a few days. I do know guys that have epoxied those back together as well. You are right, you would need a much slower setting epoxy like West System epoxy. You can have about 15 to 18 minutes to position stuff with West. Although that epoxy doesn't require clamping for strength I'd still use the clamps to hold it in position. You could also use a few wood screws from underneath to position it, pull them when hardened, and fill in with more epoxy. Go to their web site and use their dealer locator, I would think there would be some up your way.

Thank You Darrel
I was thinking along the same idea as you. It looks like the original was tape when I scrape at it. As you see it needs a lot of cleaning from dirt and possibly black mildew. I wondered about silicone caulking spread carefully to avoid squeeze out??
Also a way to clap it, in addition to regular clamps would be using saran wrap, as it goes around unusual shapes and can be stretched tight.
Will check at auto parts for 3m tape.
Thanks
ron3033

In place of the saran wrap I'd just pick up a 6 inch wide roll of shrink wrap tape at the local hardware. You can fine tune your positioning and get more strength to the clamp by using several wrap points, then do an overall wrap to increase pressure. When we are reassembling composite wood/paper products in our shop we use that combined with those spring clamps that I mentioned before....
I would not recommend silicone caulk for this wing, as their is too much pressure exerted on that area. West System G Flex is a simple 1 to 1 mix epoxy which is specifically designed to bond plastics, it would be worth the piece of mind for reattachment if you don't go the tape route....

Hi Darrel
I am worried that using a two part epoxy would not leave me enough time. I know my photos were not the best, but there is 20 feet of wing edge to bond together. Time to mix, time to spread, time to position (and maybe reposition...if possible by then), clean up any squeeze out, clamp and wrap to hold.
That is why I pondered silicone caulk as it has a longer open time. I did look at 3M tapes
http://3mcollision.com/products/tapes/attachment-tapes
thinking 1/4 and or 3/16 tape........... But I am not sure of thickness. The old tape on the wing seems very thin, as the wing needs to be tight together to look correct. Have you ever used this type tape before? I was at a body shop, they wanted me to bring in, of course that will entail 2 or 3 hours labor and parts cost, which I don't want that kind of bill.

Thanks
Ron

edit PS: I looked at Your Furniture site. Really neat as I like to finish old pieces of furniture that came down through our family. I do not have the professional set up you do, but the sauna was a good place to top coat an old Deilcraft table that had a brass plate attached with a model and serial number printed on it.

The G- Flex gives a 45 minute work time at 72 degrees and more like an hour at 65 or so. It would be plenty of time to move stuff around and work it. And, yes, I have worked with these tapes before but just not a large wing like this. Most of the stuff I've either done or assisted with have been rocker extensions and some body cladding. Stuff is very sticky so getting it to line up right with that much area is not going to be easy.

Hi Darrel
I think you may be correct the G Flex will be the way to go. I did look it up after you told me about it in an earlier post,
I cleaned up the wing surfaces last night. What I scraped out, mostly with a small flat blade screw driver, seemed more to be some sort of black adhesive that spread thin when the wing was assembled. I think the tape might be too thick and not allow correct compression of the wing to correct size or tight fit of parts. Using a liquid type adhesive would entail not getting too much, to avoid squeeze out in undesirable places. So I guess being careful is key.
I went out in the snow and washed the wing parts with spray nine and warm water and brought it in to dry
I may have to order the G flex on line, as it may not be readily available here. How much would you think I may need. There is about 20 feet of wing area that needs joining. I was surprised at how much area to join.
Thank You so much, your advice is appreciated. Nice car in your avatar! I assume yours?

Ron

If I remember right they make an 8.4 ounce plastic boat repair kit which would probably give enough to do it with a little surplus.
Yep, car in the avatar is mine. It's a rear engine mounted supercharged rotary powered fiberglass car produced back in the early 70s to mid 80s.

Fixed with epoxy, letting cure and will reinstall in a few days as it is winter here.