defrost vent repair 66-67

[66sat440]

hi there, like a lot of us my defrost vents were trashed in the thin area that bolts to the dash. i fixed mine with two 28 5/8 lengths of 3/4 metal strapping that you should be able to get at your local lumber yard, 2- 1 1/2 washers,some fiberglass resin and some silver hvac tape. some welding and assembily required. if i was to do it again i would only pour the resin 1/8 thick to seal the vent and fill the rest with a good silicone. hope this helps some of you out with yours. ron

 

[Gary67]

How bout if I just send you four and you fix em....lol looks good though,.....

 

[66_B_Body4ever]

Great effort 66sat440,
I am going to dive into this fix myself soon enough. One note you should be aware of, and I will check when I head home tonite to confirm, is that these ducts are made of polypropylene or polyethylene and fiberglass resins will not adhere long term. These plastics have a polyolefin base that need special surface modifiers applied before any resin will work. And as a further note only epoxy or urethane based adhesives will work. And another precaution...absolutely no adhesives work on polyethylene plastics. These vents are likely polypropylene however. Ingenious fix, just needs the right repair adhesive/prep procedure.

 

[66_B_Body4ever]

One another note, I will attempt a plastic welding repair on mine, and if it is successful I may offer my sevices to other fbbo members. At the end of the day, its only plastic!
Collectively we will find a cure...

 

[eldubb440]

damn spiffy.......the best part about broken parts, is you cant really screw them up

 

[5wndwcpe]

One another note, I will attempt a plastic welding repair on mine, and if it is successful I may offer my sevices to other fbbo members. At the end of the day, its only plastic!
Collectively we will find a cure...

Apply for a stimulus grant. Could even qualify for "green" funding if you use, oh I don't know, a tofu welder or something.

 

[66sat440]

thanks for checking into the plastic 66_b_body. having the right adhesive for these would help a lot. i was thinking that a couple of 3/16 bolts that run through the banding,resin and vent would hold the whole thing together.that way the resin is nothing more than a spacer between the vent and banding. thanks to all of you for the comments ron

 

[Meep-Meep]

Simply brilliant!

 

[thebankerstoy]

Hi Ron,

Great to see you here on FBBO my friend. You and I have been talking about fixing these damn defroster duct vent nozzles for awhile now, since I brought it up over on the Big Block Dart web site. I had a deal all worked out with Mike Ross at B/E&A Reproduction Parts to make brand new sets of these parts for us for around $85.00 to $100.00, but I couldn't get ANYBODY here on FBBO, or a few other web sites that I posted this subject on to let him know that they would buy them if reproduced, so the project has been cancelled.

Richard

 

[66sat440]

hi richard, it has been a long haul on these things hasn't it? i know i tried to make new ones from scratch with latex molds but that really never worked out. they would have to be vacume molded or injection molded to do it right in my oppinion. if B/EA would have put these out at a hundred a set for the first hundred he would have been lucky to make back the tooling cost. i don't think the repair i've come up with is perfict by any means but it should work. maybe B/EA will come up with something better with fixing yours. i know your on a lot of other sites as well that might be interested in this so feel free to post links to this if you think it could help out some others. have a great day everyone ron

 

[66_B_Body4ever]

Apply for a stimulus grant. Could even qualify for "green" funding if you use, oh I don't know, a tofu welder or something.

Yes, yes smithers...Tofu, never thought of it...by changing the complex organic matrix with an infusion of methahexacrylate we can do it...now if I could only find my mind...I know I set it down here somewhere...

I will post my results...of that welding that is...

Cheers.

 

[66sat440]

not the greatest pics but a couple of shot of the vents in a spare dash. tifu? good heavens man! use rendered sugarbeet juice...it'll stick to anything!

 

[66_B_Body4ever]

Awesome...