# What's the best glue for plastic car body parts? **URL:** \ **Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\ **Created:** [December 13, 2007, 2:13pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-the-best-glue-for-plastic-car-body-parts/8295 "2007-12-13T14:13:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![George\_San\_Jose1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e5b9ba/32.png) [@George\_San\_Jose1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/George_San_Jose1)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 3:28am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-the-best-glue-for-plastic-car-body-parts/8295/22 "2018-06-19T03:28:55Z")
I used JB Original for this myself, even though it involved gluing plastic. ---
**Author:** ![BillRussell](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/billrussell/32/3179_2.png) [@BillRussell](https://community.cartalk.com/u/BillRussell)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 12:00pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-the-best-glue-for-plastic-car-body-parts/8295/23 "2018-06-19T12:00:03Z")
> [@B.L.E](#): > > Just light the filler rod like a candle and drip the molten plastic onto the joint you want to weld. That sounds like soldering a connection by dripping molten solder on the joint… in other words, a poor connection. I tried that on repairing a ski. As I thought, a very poor joint. ---
**Author:** ![B.L.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/848f3c/32.png) [@B.L.E](https://community.cartalk.com/u/B.L.E)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 11:50pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-the-best-glue-for-plastic-car-body-parts/8295/24 "2018-06-19T23:50:01Z")
Soldering is joining metals using a low temperature melting point tin/lead alloy. The work itself has to be hot enough to melt the solder or the solder won’t wet the metal. To me, dripping molten HDPE onto damaged HDPE is more akin to thermite welding where railroad tracks are joined by having a thermite reaction drip molten iron onto the joint that’s to be welded together. The molten steel melts the surface of the steel to be welded together. They do preheat the metal to be welded though. ---
**Author:** ![George\_San\_Jose1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e5b9ba/32.png) [@George\_San\_Jose1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/George_San_Jose1)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 2:34am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-the-best-glue-for-plastic-car-body-parts/8295/25 "2018-06-20T02:34:20Z")
Interesting vdo @B.L.E , thanks for posting. I’ve always wondered what a person could do if they had to weld something in a pinch, w/o proper welding equipment. Like if your 4WD broke down in the boondocks, and you needed to weld a suspension part to the frame to get home. I wonder if you could weld something like that using gun powder or gasoline? ---
**Author:** ![B.L.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/848f3c/32.png) [@B.L.E](https://community.cartalk.com/u/B.L.E)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 3:17am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-the-best-glue-for-plastic-car-body-parts/8295/26 "2018-06-20T03:17:25Z")
Blacksmiths of old welded iron together using a hammer and a forge to heat the iron orange to yellow hot. Some borax was used as flux and the orange to yellow hot iron was hammered together to form a weld. I still get annoyed when conspiracy theorists claim burning jet fuel doesn’t get hot enough to melt steel. “You don’t have to melt steel to soften it enough to fail structurally, you moron!” as anyone who has heated steel red hot and worked it on an anvil can attest to. A charcoal fire will do. ---
**Author:** ![George\_San\_Jose1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e5b9ba/32.png) [@George\_San\_Jose1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/George_San_Jose1)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2018, 12:40am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-the-best-glue-for-plastic-car-body-parts/8295/27 "2018-06-21T00:40:38Z")
I’d like to try that experiment. I’m going to build me a charcoal fire and see if I can weld two pieces of 3/8 inch rebar together by getting them yellow hot, sprinkle on some borax at the junction, and whack them together with a big hammer. Do you think it would work if I just used a propane torch instead of building a charcoal fire? The blacksmith shops I’ve seen seem to use coal fires and an air-bellows to get the metal really hot. I have an oxy-propane/MAPP setup I could try too. ---
**Author:** ![B.L.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/848f3c/32.png) [@B.L.E](https://community.cartalk.com/u/B.L.E)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2018, 1:30am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-the-best-glue-for-plastic-car-body-parts/8295/28 "2018-06-21T01:30:57Z")
I think blacksmiths use coke in their forges. Coke is to coal what charcoal is to wood. Charcoal would probably do and you will likely have to blow air through it in order to get the temperatures you want. There’s hundreds of blacksmith videos on U-tube. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Wilson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/edb3f5/32.png) [@Jeff\_Wilson](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Jeff_Wilson)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2018, 6:20am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-the-best-glue-for-plastic-car-body-parts/8295/29 "2018-10-30T06:20:35Z")
It’s not Oatley All Purpose pipe cement, it’s Oatey All Purpose pipe cement. I’m not being pedantic here but the spelling is important when you do a search… ---
**Author:** ![B.L.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/848f3c/32.png) [@B.L.E](https://community.cartalk.com/u/B.L.E)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2018, 10:50pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-the-best-glue-for-plastic-car-body-parts/8295/30 "2018-10-30T22:50:38Z")
My apologies for the misspelling, I’m usually a stickler for correct spelling and grammar myself. > [@George\_San\_Jose1](#): > > I’d like to try that experiment. I’m going to build me a charcoal fire and see if I can weld two pieces of 3/8 inch rebar together by getting them yellow hot, sprinkle on some borax at the junction, and whack them together with a big hammer. I tried it during my lunch break at work a couple of days ago, I successfully forge welded a piece of coat hanger wire into a loop using a oxy-acetylene touch and a hammer and anvil. I had to get the work straw yellow and this thin wire cools off so fast that I only had seconds to do the hammering. I also discovered why blacksmiths that do forge welding wear long sleeve shirts, leather aprons and gauntlets. That molten borax squirts out from between the pieces being forge welded together and splatters you. [Previous page](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-the-best-glue-for-plastic-car-body-parts/8295.md?page=1)