Best way to repair cracking polycarbonate hood?

[CO 2.0]

So I keep cracking my poly hood and I want to know all the different ways it can be fixed. Right now I'm just stopping the crack from running by drilling a hole in the end of it. Then I'm using zip ties and drilling more holes to keep the hood in the position it's supposed to be at. I tried using plastic epoxy, but just made a mess and it didn't hold very well. Anyone have any better ideas for me?

 

[kcdavidak]

repair

not sure how well it will work on poly hood, but this is what i did on belly pan, 10 feet of snow and i hit the only stick on the whole mountain.ripped hole under clutches missed the skid plate,darn luck. so we took fiberglass mold wax laid up three coats,let dry,laid up five layers of roving with black gel coat mixed in the resin, easy on the catalyst, so it cures slowly for strenght. popped mold of sled {not damaged),trimmed and fitted to dammaged sled, ran a couple beads of seallant around edges used large headed rivits. made fiberputty leveled inside of pan,covered with alum tape .looks real good . so now i have a skid plate under clutches.

 

[UtahSnow]

Really the only way is keep doing what your are doing. I call them zip tie stiches. I use little zip ties about every 3/4 inch or so. I have a bunch on mine and they hold together great. I tried everything on my last hood and this is what works best.

Nate

 

[Boony]

I had a repair done on a ZR Cat hood at a Freightliner dealer, the truck hoods are made of SMC, some kind of plastic compound. They have a syringe with two tubes in it and they put this black liquid in the crack, then clamped it for a few minutes, then used a small patch of cloth on the back side. It matches the hood perfectly and after they wiped the outside with thinner while it was drying, you could not see the repair. So you might check with an auto body shop or if you want to fix it youself go to an autobody supplier for the repair compound. Hope this helps....

 

[snowcross338]

If it is made of lexan or carbon fiber, no real way to fix it. If it is a stock hood you can use plastic adhesive repair material that body shops use, my favorite is Lord fusor check out the hood I repaired in the Skidoo thread titled Xp hood I fixed and painted, I have done this for years, and they hold up better than new.

 

[Kevco]

Call Scott at Diamond S. Seriously when they start to go the go. I wrapped mine with fiberglass at ALL the edges it sure uglied it up, but that eventually let go too.

 

[ruffryder]

Really the only way is keep doing what your are doing. I call them zip tie stiches. I use little zip ties about every 3/4 inch or so. I have a bunch on mine and they hold together great. I tried everything on my last hood and this is what works best.

Nate

I have done the same but with steel wire. Drill some holes for the "stitches" and tie it up. Sled hoods tend to get abused (twisted and flexed) a lot and this method is cheap and easy, though not pretty.

I tried zip ties but they get brittle in the cold and don't deal to well with uv light.

 

[sledit74]

hood repair

if it is like lexon I used fiberglass tape (sheet rock tape) and the black pvc glue tape the out side of the hood to hold the crack together and put glue on the inside and a layer of the fiberglass tape and then a few coates of glue

 

[CO 2.0]

Thanks for all the advise guys. Think I'm gonna keep zip tie stitching it until the season ends, then try to do some type of fiberglass or plastic glue...

 

[TravRMK]

See my post in this thread http://www.snowest.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53639