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Tag: hot staples

Seems to be holding up – for now.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on Seems to be holding up – for now.

Did a bit of additional driving about town yesterday, and my bumper repairs are holding strong, for now. Do I put a lot of faith in those plastic welds? No, not really. But if I can limp into late spring, and then think about swapping out for a new bumper, I’ll consider this fix a win. All about making due. The car is old, and we do need to trade in for a new vehicle before too much longer. If I could get the bumper to last that long, I’d be super impressed with the 220W plastic welder / hot stapler I bought off of Amazon. Oh I searched Canadian Tire and Home Depot web sites first before turning to Amazon, but that’s an entirely different conversation. As it stands I don’t feel the ROI on a brand new bumper is worth it given the potential life span of the vehicle itself. Had I of done this nine years ago, BAM! new bumper, no contest, but the vehicle is atleast eleven years old, and I don’t think we’ll get all that many more years out of it. I can live with the zippered look as it stands right now.

On a side note: what the fuck is Cam Newton wearing on Good Morning Football right now? That’s a hell of a get-up. Makes a statement. Half Doc Holiday, half Diane Keaton, all pimp. The outback ten gallon hat is a focus puller – fo sho. Damn.

I’d like to be able to revisit the bumper issue in the spring when I can be outside in better weather. If I have to crawl under the van, I’d rather do that in the sunshine than on a bed of ice & snow. Maybe that makes me weak, or only half serious about DIY fixes, but I don’t relish the thought of freezing my fingers to stubby numb nubs while working on body panel clips, and sorting out all the unforeseen issues that accompany body panel/bumper swap outs. No thanks. Not in minus twelve or worse. If I had a bigger, insulated garage, that might be a different story. I’m a DIY’er of leisure, not a hard core go’er.

Have a great Tuesday. Ciao Bella.

Hot Staples to the rescue? Or not.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on Hot Staples to the rescue? Or not.

Ordered the 220W plastic welder slash hot stapler for our front bumper repair. Well, it was I whom well and truly fuckered the bumper, so I found an inexpensive method to try and repair it. I don’t typically do body work, because I’m not trained on that sort of thing. I can pull a dent, and sand bondo, but I’m no “car guy”. After watching reviews and some Youtube videos, the hot stapler plastic welder gun thing looked like it was something I could do, atleast rudimentally. And what do you know? It VERKS! I actually did it. Now, a caveat (of course) if I weren’t so afraid of the whole lot shattering and exploding into fifty pieces it would have been better to pull the bumper off and do the staples from the back, keeping the front side pinched closed with an additional pair of hands. That would look mint. But as it stands, I did it myself, from the front, and we have a zippered up Frankenstein front passenger side of the bumper. I tested the mesh first method, but the minus twelve plus windchill this morning meant I couldn’t keep the gun tip hot enough to mix the mesh into the plastic/acrylic of the bolt down struts I tested on. So straight to staples, and the various sizes I used worked pretty well. At least this far. I haven’t driven it yet, and I kept the lashings on for additional support. Two elastic tie downs, and a length of 300lb tensile strength rope. If I can keep it from falling off until we decide to buy a new vehicle I’ll be happy. All this to save $400 on a new unpainted bumper, plus delivery, and then trying to reuse the light well clips that go on the back inside of the front bumpers. Otherwise I’d had to purchase the new light well sockets too at an additional expense, and potentially paint the whole thing. Ugh! Money, money, money and more money!

So that was about 75 minutes of my Monday morning. I need to do the kids laundry and head over to my dentist appointment. It’s a full Monday today, believe you-me. Wilding out over here! Domestic Duties Monday is in the hizzay! I didn’t sleep so well last night either. Sore back, shoulders and arms from shoveling and scraping the rink ice. Makes my wrists ache just thinking about it. Good lord was it ever cold this weekend. Minus nineteen and then some. Bare handed putting kids skates and helmets on & off. Chasing hockey pucks and dodging children with chairs, hockey sticks and chunks of ice. Exhausting and icy cold. I need a weekend from my weekend. Ciao Bella!