Speedo unit mounting screws

[NicBeeee]

Hi,

Although the elephant tape is doing its job I would prefer to use the proper method of screwing the speedo unit onto the mounting of the dash console, however I have only 2 of the 4 threads left as the other two have cracked and crumbled, has anyone used a material succesfuly that can be applied to enable re drilling and tapping of the holes,

Cheers
Nic

[Oldiebut goodie]

I should think that they are all suffering with the degradation of the plastic at the rear of the clocks - I know mine is and I am turning a blind eye to it until some future time when I can be bothered to think about what to do about it.(or am forced into it by total disintegration)

[NicBeeee]

I have been turning a blind eye to it for some time to, unfortunately my blind eye is looking down at a desk full of bits and bobs that dont work properly anyway, odometer that keeps popping out, anologue clock thats stopped, a couple of bulbs that have gone, mountings for the oil/battery/indicator block have also crumbled. Still the needles look good with the orange nail varnish on and its raining outside so cant do much else,, Oh and I have also discovered the oil warning bulb was disconnected

[NicBeeee]

I have a plan, cut out the crumbled corners with dremmel, buy a plastic enclosure with the same size lid screws for a couple of quid, cut out the good corners from the enclosure and araldite them to the removed corners on the console, never know it might just work

[Oldiebut goodie]

I doubt that araldite will adhere properly - the best is a solvent adhesive but I don't know which one will work on that plastic. Polyurethane adhesive/sealant like Sikaflex/Soudaflex and the others may work but haven't tried it. I have used hard plastic solvent adhesive successfully on plastic laptop cases, other plastics repairs have been successful with plumbers solvent weld for waste pipes.

[itchyfeet]

toughened acrylic adhesives stick to plastics but can be expensive

[NicBeeee]

Thanks for the tips, I can see a lots of experiments going on, I have got a box full of materials at hand, plastic pipe solvent, araldite, quick steel etc etc so I will see how things pan out, the dash console is knackered anyway so I have nothing to lose

[Mocki]

That last one I repaired I used high temp hot glue .....
It worked, although the corners I glued to it didn't quite work out, the glue did it job

[silverbullet]

The instrument housings are ABS, so you need a proper ABS solvent cement. You can get it from plumber's merchants but watch out for universal PVC/ABS glue, it's not the same IME and doesn't melt the ABS sufficiently to get a good bond.
I suppose that eventually Classic will re-make them and they'll be 300+Euro each, but we're all in the same boat.

[NicBeeee]

Ta for the info, I have got some flopast solvent cement somewhere, not sure if it is just ABS or PVC too, will have to check later, recyled an old plastic box with the correctly spaced threaded inserts in, looking to get this done before the end of next week so will let you know how things panned out, I would hate to think how much a new one would cost if available.

Cheers
Nic

[NicBeeee]

Little update, had a few experiments and the most successful was the quick steel I had laying about after engine rebuild, I made formers out of cardboard to go around the damaged corners, made a plywood template with the fixing holes for the speedo clock, salvaged some of these
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M3-M4-M5-M6-M ... 415b86f3d8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

from an old box, laid the template with inserts attached over the piece to be repaired, filled gaps and around inserts with quick steel, left to harden for a couple of days, filed and sanded to finish, seems to set rock hard and gives a good fix to the plastic, sorry no pics at the mo but will post some of the finished article in a couple of days but all looks good so far

[trebormint]

I just drilled new holes near to where the lugs were and secured with self tapping screws. Simple!