chin crack

[Matthew Klinger]

Let me start by saying... DAMN I should have been more careful. I washed and polished her on Saturday... Then Sunday I'm showing her off to some friends... here I must have caught the back end of the passanger side chin on my driveway and cracked it... It's about an inch in length, anyone have this happen to them? I have "Stongard" on the car so replacing the chin is out of the question... Any thoughts on a repair? It doesn't look bad, but I want to look into fixing it. Thanks in advance. -Klinger

 

[Frank 03SRT]

I've done the same thing before. Backed out, caught the edge, and cracked it.

I'm afraid your stonegard is history if you want to fix the crack. There is some glue you can get for the plastic, and one source is Eastwood. I believe it is for fiber reinforced plastic, but don't remember the exact name. You might be able to put a little on the crack, work it in, and leave it alone. I am sure the proper way is to take it off, grind out the crack, fill it in, back it up, and repaint. The Viper shop manual tells how to do it right, but the cost would be way up there.

Trouble with your type of crack is that if you look closely at it, push it from the back and observe, you will probably see many hairline cracks coming off the main crack and other areas. That's what I had. I just took some of that glue, worked it in, tried not to mess up the paint around the crack, ignored the hairlines, and called it a day.

Does drive you nuts though.

 

[ArlyDude]

To prevent it from continuing to crack, take a small drill bit and drill in the end of the crack to round the end so it prevents it from spreading. I don't know if you want to do this as you will have a small hole then, but at least it won't get bigger and you can put some bondo in there, sand her if you want, and then some touchup paint.