I actually did this work on Dad's Monte Carlo this weekend, but I thought I would share it in the Tech General just in case someone else can make use of my "Mad Monkey Garage Skillz!"
You can form plastic with heat. You can also re-form damage plastic with heat. The nature of the part is that it WANTS to go back to it's original manufactured shape. This is true for both the flexible plastic that I'm working with in these pictures and the hard plastics that you find in the interior of cars. Don't throw it away - try to fix it!
Step One:
1. Clean most of dirt off. Doesn't have to be perfect, just don't
want to force dirt into the plastic.
2. Heat the part with a heatgun. Don't melt it, but get it too hot
to touch with your hands. You NEED a heatgun, a hair dryer will
not get hot enough.
3. Use flat or round items to form the plastic back to it's original
shape. Wood, metal or hard plastics all work well for this.
4. When the original shape is back, hold it in that position and put
a wet cloth on it. The water "quenches" it and makes the
hot plastic stop moving in the position that it is currently in.
5. Repeat if needed, sometimes you have to do this a couple of times.
If it's bent - don't give up and spend a bunch of money for a replacment! Try this! If it works - YEAH! If not, what the heck, it was bent anyway - right? You can save ALOT of dough by repairing these types of parts instead of replacing them.
angela
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