Adhesive recommendations for metal to plastic

Hello all:

I have 99 Concordr LXI and the plastic trim piece on the hood near the
windshield keeps disconnecting from the metal retaining clips. The
original piece blew off on the highway and I couldn't stop to find
it! I had installed the replacement without issue but Sunday that one
started flapping so I managed to get off the road and remove it
completely. The mounting clips grab onto a very short plastic
extension on the trims underside. I am wnodering if there is a body
tech or an adhesive knowledgable tech that could recommend a possible
brand or type of adhesive.

TIA

 

Your best bet is to replace with a whole new piece. Any adhesive on
that particular piece is a bandaid (literally), and it will just blow
off again. They made those clips like fish hooks - once they are in the
body, you can't remove that piece without breaking them out of the
plastic. Body shops all the time are gluing them on after a repaint,
and I can tell you that that is not reliable at all (on that particular
piece).

Was the replacement a brand new piece? I'm surprised it would be coming
loose. Are the clips breaking out of the plastic, or out of the hood?
Is it pressed own far enough so that the latches on the clips are
snapped in to grip the holes in the hood?

If you can take the whole thing off (again - may not be possible without
breakage, you can glue the clips into the plastic using
Permatech/Versachem's "Plastic Weld" epoxy - that stuff is amazing (on
the glues and goops aisle of the auto parts stores). I actually have
one of my Concordes done that way - been like that for 2 years with no
problem. I also ground off the latch hooks on the clips so it doesn't
grip the hood so irreversibly so I can remove it if I need to without
destroying it (for painting or whatever) - that's not the part that
comes loose - the part that comes loose is the clips out of the plastic.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Thanks Bill: I will check it out. The trim piece is completely off
and in my trunk, I need to extract the clips and glue em back on with
the Platic weld stuff. There are the center three clips that may
cause me issues but I used to repair office equipment and have a few
special tools I can use to release thes babies. Thanks again for the
info I greatly appreciate your time and help!

Have a great weekend!

 

You're welcome, Hank.

To reiterate, once you have those clips out of the hood (you'll figure
it out - you've just got to squeeze/poke/compress them with pliers
and/or jeweler's screwdriver enough to release those danged barbs -
might have to wiggle them around and pull a little bit - might have to
get a little mad), you'll see those barbs that lock them into the hood.
Once you have them out, get a hand grinder (Dremel Mototool or
equivalent) with a cutoff wheel, and grind those barbs off of both sides
of each clip. Once you do that and glue them back onto the plastic,
they will still hold into the hood fine from spring pressure - the barbs
just make it so you have to break it to get them out of the hood - I've
been driving with mine like that (barbs ground off) for two years, and
it holds tight - yet - if I need to, I can pull the whole thing off
without doing any damage.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')