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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Skirt repairs..


Mr Cull
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Recently I smashed the driver’s side skirt on my Supe.

 

See pic:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1000107&l=523eb&id=591183224

 

As both skirts already had small cracks in them I decided to get some quotes to get them both repaired. I believe these are original OEM skirts

 

 

I got a reasonable quote off one of the traders on here for repairing, spaying and fitting. But wanting to get a few more quotes I decided to visit a few local body shops.

 

At the first one I went to the bloke initially started saying that some plastic can be welded and some can’t and he was not sure which type of plastic the skirts were made of. He then quoted me a good price for the repair which I thought was a bit surprising as he couldn’t tell if the plastic was weldable and that was the method he was going to use. This body shop did not get a great review from a friend who has been there before and was a small 2 man setup.

 

I then visited a larger more professional body shop which has got a good reputation in the local area. The guy from there quite quickly came to the conclusion that the skirts were made from none weldable plastic and that if any weld job was performed on them then the crack may well re-shatter as soon as the skirt is put under any stress. He said there was no point quoting and I should try and source some replacements myself.

 

So I’ve had conflicting reports on whether these can be repaired. I am reluctant to spend the money if the repair won’t last. I have searched the forum and found a couple of posts about skirt repairs but no real details. I’m interested to know if anyone else on here has either repaired skirts before or had theirs repaired? If so then what technique was used and has the repair lasted?

 

Also does anyone one know if the plastic used to make original skirts is weldable?

 

Any comments welcome

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If these are indeed OEM skirts then they are made from Polyurethane which is a thermoset plastic and therefore cannot be welded using conventional plastic welding techniques.

 

The damage shown in the photo cannot be repaired by welding in my opinion. However, that doesn't mean the skirts cannot be fixed and polyurethane is an extremely strong plastic. As you will know these skirts cost a fortune new and second hand and I reckon it would be worth having a go at getting them fixed. The damage looks pretty severe though and it would really depend on the length of that crack.

 

If these were mine and the crack was less than around four or five inches long I would (and I'm sticking my neck out here...) bridge the gap using fibreglass from the inside if possible and then repair using flexible bodyfiller and refinish as normal. Many would disagree with this as this type of repair would not be as strong as the plastic surrounding it which means that any slight pressure on this area will cause it to crack again and they are right but it is worth a try in my opinion (but then again I would be DIYing this so the cost would be minimal).

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i repaired a front bumper on a supra by plastic welding, my bodyshop has a special kit that includes a range of plastic rods that can be used to fill any gaps that are left, skim over both sides with fibreglass resin, fill and paint. its been fine for over a year now

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well i got the same problem. Mine was fixed whit fiberglass, but ther were noge problem to remove it. As it do not stick as well on polyurethane.

I also try some "rubber" glue, it work, but was to flexible.

Then i try some 2 component epoxy glue. It also did not stick on polyurethane .

My last try was to fine a nother box og polyurethane, take it to smalle bits.

Heading it up to where it was fluently. Then got it over the crack and let it cool down.

It is working but not healty to inhale... :)

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