TOPIC:

The brackets which hold the driving lights to the bottom of the Monster Beetle nosecone break off very easily. Consequently undamaged nosecones are rare and expensive. There are a few ways to repair them floating around on the 'net but to me they all seemed like quick patch-up jobs. I thought I would have a go using Lars' soldering iron technique to re-build the brackets. I used an E2 part (cut in half) from the Midnight Pumpkin.


Firstly I screwed my two rings to a driving light assembly to get the correct spacing and glued them to the bottom of the nosecone.


Once the glue was dry I removed the light assembly and used a hot soldering iron to heat up the area where the rings join the nosecone. I then used the soldering iron to build up the area with more plastic from a parts sprue. I tried to get a lot of heat into the join so the plastic would 'weld' together.


And the Back:


Once I was satisfied the rings were securely attached to the nosecone I filed away the excess plastic and sanded the brackets to the right shape. I also chose to fill the bottom of the nosecone between the brackets because I could not neatly finish the internal corners because of the lip on the bottom of the nosecone.


Now some grey primer, a very light sand and another coat of primer. It looks pretty good and it seems no weaker than an original nosecone.


My repaired nosecone beside an original nosecone. A keen eye will spot the difference but the repaired nosecone certainly does not scream out "broken and patched up" like screwing a bit of metal to the back etc does.

p.s. Notice the lip on the bottom of the original nosecone. This is what I was talking about earlier.

I hope this helps someone.

Looks great

I think the only way to avoid the tabs breaking off is not to run the car with the lights on - there's a lot of weight hanging off the tabs, and then the bumper slams into them at the slightest knock ... any plans for a "quick release" system? e.g. M3 bolts with the heads cut off, drilled for a long body clip?

Well done, excellent fix.

Jonny wrote:

... any plans for a "quick release" system? e.g. M3 bolts with the heads cut off, drilled for a long body clip?

I have been thinking about making a very flexible mount for the lights to replace E5... When I get around to doing a body for my brushless beetle I would like to try same mod on a Blitzer/Scorcher nosecone and run chrome Metallic Pumpkin driving lights on a custom mount. For now I probably won't run any lights

Nice job!
I thought the soldering iron welding trick was mine, has Lars suggested it too?
Only thing I'll add is that you have to be a bit careful with the heat when welding high-stress plastic parts - if you get it so hot that it starts to look "wet", you're already at the point where it'll cool brittle (The "wet" is the plasticiser leaching out, & plasticiser is what allows the plastic to bend without snapping)

I first saw the "plastic welding" trick around 1990, and I doubt if it was new then

@vara351:
Excellent repair job!

eddrick wrote:

I thought the soldering iron welding trick was mine, has Lars suggested it too?

I got the idea from Larbut's "Battered Body Treatment" article. While I don't know when or by whom this trick was first used, I cannot thank Lars enough for sharing it with us. It also helped me build a presentable 'basher' bodyshell out of something which I thought was junk.

Great fix. Quick release lights would be the way to go for running.

Well there you go, I'm not the only one who has fantastic ideas then!
I can't remember WHEN I first saw a similar trick, but I can tell you WHERE - I was building a 1/35 Tamiya tank & the manual suggested heating a screwdriver to rivet the tracks together. One thing led to another...
In more recent times, I often do professional plastic welding for my work, building chemical tanks, pipework etc & although the welders are a bit more advanced than the old soldering iron (Pressurised hot air or nitrogen, temperature controlled for the manual tools) the theory is still the same