Handful

iTrader: (1)

Anyone Ever try this? I have a duckbill spoiler that I recently picked up. Its the rubber type and has a crack in it. And I'm trying to figure out how to repair it. The best option I came up with is wrapping it with vinyl, and filling the crack with some sort of
putty or silicone.

Any thoughts? Anyone Done this. Any pictures? thanks.

Spirit-RE

iTrader: (25)

Had the same problem.


What I did was....
Sanded it, primed, sanded, primed. Repeat x20. filled a lot of the holes/cracks up.

Then, plastered all kinds of stickers all over it to cover up most of it. Turned out very nice imo.

I can post pics if you like, not many people care for this style, but whatever

Handful

iTrader: (1)

essentially ill be doing the same thing just with one big black sticker. what did you use to fill the cracks?

Spirit-RE

iTrader: (25)

many of layers of primer and wet sanding.


Doing it with one sheet of vinyl would be a huge pain.

Depending how bad it is, see if you can work out the imperfections like I stated, and then paint it black.

Handful

iTrader: (1)

People vinyl entire cars. It shouldn't be to bad. Maybe ill make a thread. Hopefully is

jjwalker

Why apply vinyl to it? You could do a good putty job, sand,sand, sand, putty, sand, prime, paint and come out with a respectable spoiler.

Filler has a hard time affixing to rubber, I understand, but even an epoxy resin coating without the fiber glass would do the trick. I would first fill the cracks with filler, then resin the entire surface. After that, I would sand it smooth and comfy and go to painting. Seems easier than trying to apply vinyl to it.

JustJeff

iTrader: (13)

So you're saying use epoxy resin without using any woven fiberglass. I've thought about doing this to a duckbill I've got in storage but I figured what would happen is the hard layer on top of the softer foam duckbill wouldn't hold up. It would crack eventually. Thats my assumption anyway.

TheAbsence

iTrader: (19)

I'm in a similar situation but do not have deep cracks and plan to simply sand the crud out of it without the use of any filler. What I'm wondering is what type of paint to use.

JustJeff

iTrader: (13)

Paint won't hold up on that foam unless there is some sort of hard surface for it to be on. I saw a pic of painted mudflaps which are made out of the same material and it looked like ****. At least thats my assumption

jjwalker

It may crack due to lack of support inside, but I am not sure how much force the duckbill is experiencing. Adding the fiberglass couldn't be too bad, it would just cost more and take a bit more time. It would obviously be stronger though.

daviddeep

iTrader: (4)

I'll bet that any different material you try to bond directly to this urethane foam will crack and separate from it after some exposure to hot and cold cycling. I'd love to know the best way to fix this stuff because I have a few cracks in my factory aero front lip and fender extensions that I'd like to fix.

I think the idea of wrapping it tightly in vinyl may actually be a good one.

Battle Cat

iTrader: (78)

woot woot, greg you better vinyl wrap it.. then we can wrap the vert up

jjwalker

Well, if you epoxy and fiberglass it, it shouldn't be an issue. Even if the urethane foam does separate, the fiberglass structure should stay intact.

Handful

iTrader: (1)

Ill wrap the one i have with vinyl. I think the vinyl might stretch across the cracks with and they shouldn't show up as much, or maybe even at all. Vinyl is cheap, and easy enough to do yourself, in any garage. That was my theory on wrapping it. Fast, and simple. My crack is to deep to fill anyways.

jjwalker

That's what he said

clokker

iTrader: (2)

I don't think this will work very well.
(I was in the convention graphics business for quite some time and did lots of vinyl work).

First of all, wrapping a fender and wrapping a spoiler are two different animals...for all intents and purposes, the fender (or roof or what have you) is two dimensional where the spoiler is three- so you'll have to figure out how to treat the corners.

You'll be wanting to use a high performance vinyl which is more colorfast and flexible (because it's thinner), but the thinner material telegraphs surface flaws more readily.
Any vinyl stretched over a gap- like your cracks- is just going to stretch and rip very quickly.

It might look OK for a few days but not much longer.

jjwalker

I agree with clokker. You can get resin and glass for $50 and have it done in a few hours if your good and careful.

JustJeff

iTrader: (13)

I'd like to see results with either method. I've got a duckbill I pulled from the junkyard. The sealed outer layer is worn, but it's all intact. I've got lots of leftover resin, activator and woven fiberglass leftover from a subbox I made.

daviddeep

iTrader: (4)

Handful, I guess you could also try filling the crack with some kind of black silicone caulk or sealant. At least that sort of thing would theoretically expand and contract with the urethane in reaction to temperature changes. Plus if the crack is small, you'd get to retain the stock look (if that sort of thing matters to you). If it doesn't work, then you could still try encasing the whole thing in resin.