Gluing in the broke out piece

[80BrownK10]

pics.

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Well, this is what happens when you don't finish the fit up. You find out that when the lower trim is put in my little sculpted piece is off by a quarter inch. Oh well, time to get the Dremel tool out again. I was going on the straight line at the opening for the edge of the trim piece. I thought that that line was a good place to cut it off. I don't know why that didn't work. Oh well.

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Okay, done. It didn't take but a couple of minuites to get it right. And now we have a piece that fits when everything else is in place that needs to be in place. Don't worry about the bottom of my piece, it's just I don't have the lower trim part screwed in tight on the other side. It'll be okay. But now it's ready to glue in.

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Here it's lined up pretty good. It was that little tip right at the edge where it's bent over to form the circular opening that I had to make sure was cut correctly. It would hold the whole piece off if that tip wasn't cut down right. The trim piece is in on both sides, and after I made sure they were in that's when I knew it was reshaped right and ready to glue finally.

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I am well experienced in gluing plastics. This is the best for most all plastics. It sets up fast, holds initial strength in about a minute or two, and cures hard in twenty-four hours. But do you know why I can glue something like this piece with confidence? Because I had kids who played with toys and didn't have the money to replace them. So I fixed them. When the little kid is standing there crying their eyes out holding two pieces in their little hands, you have to get creative...fast! But fix it with what? A nail? A piece of string? I went through all the Super Glue(s), polyvinyl chloride adhesives, and glue for poly styrene, and all the other crap they make plastic toys out of. I know what works and it ain't Super Glue! Super Glue is good for some poly styrene's, but it ain't worth a crap for some other plastic toys made in China out of who knows what the heck it is. So I know my glues and what works, and what doesn't on whatever it is you need to glue. Now, the other thing is, why bother with it? If it's broke just throw the thing in the trash, or tell the kid to play with it broke. Really? Really? Well, since I'm a fixer to begin with, I wanted to see if I could fix it. Besides that garners hope in the heart of the kid if you at least make an effort to make those tears go away. If you don't have kids then you'll never know the look on that kids face when in a couple of days you hand them back what was broke, now it's whole. And they give you this look like you just performed some miracle. Their Beatleborg, Power Ranger, or Teenage Ninja Turtle action figure is now ready for battle, or what's better, that Barbie doll is ready for the runway!!

Yep know exactly what you mean. I have fixed many cheap things, many Thomas the Trains, sets , things that are not replaceable because we have no idea where it came from or it's too old and like you I can't buy everything new again.

Thanks for this glue tip. I have tried super glues, epoxyies etc. I will have to get some of this for my repairs and kids toys.

 

[Finkaire]

We used to grind up a piece of plastic that didn’t show, mix with aceton to make our own glue that matched

 

[SirRobyn0]

Yep, you're right about that. That's all these shops do around here is replace. The days of working a fender or some other body panel are dead and gone. They don't care about learning craftsmanship anymore where a man would hammer out dents. They just rip the thing off and bolt another one in it's place then charge you as if they did something real technical. The proverbial monkey could do what they did. But you get charged new body part costs when they got the part off a wrecked car out of the wrecking yard. You ought to be charged for a used body part, and the shop should give the customer the choice of used or new part, but you're charged new body part costs as if they bought it from the manufacturer. And the dealer is where they do that the most. They don't have the time to order a new fender from some warehouse and wait for it to come. They want that car done and out of the shop that day. They make their money off volume. That's so it'll make room for another car they might be able to make even more money off of.

My wife bought a new Toyota Camry many years ago. Every single time she took it in for something, not that a whole lot was ever wrong with it, it cost her over $350+ no matter what. Now, what the hell? Yeah, yeah, I know you're paying for a "technician" and his training, skill, and all that, plus the best parts, blau, blau, blau. So why is my 50+ year old truck still running and nothing ever goes wrong with it and it runs just as good, even better since I rebuilt it, and not that it needed it, only because I wanted to, than the day it was new??

Like I said I've never worked in autobody.... But I remember the days where every town had a radiator shop. I remember rebuilding starters and alternators, at the shop. That sort of thing. I remember rebuilding CV axles too, on front wheel drive cars in the 90's. That stuff is gone, now we replace those parts rather than rebuilding them. Why? Cost of labor. Why is labor so damn high you might ask. Well from what I see it ain't going in the employee pockets or the owners, it's going out the window in the form of bills. The shop I work at now the rent alone is just over $10,000 a month!!!! No kidding no exaggeration. Our labor rate is $140 an hour and we are in the middle, there are independant shops around here that are almost at $200 an hour!!!! It's crazy!!! Oh of course do keep in mind the area I'm in has one of the highest cost of living in the country, and we can thank Microsoft for that.... If I had a guy rebuild a CV axle we could easily be at $400 not including R&R from the vehicle. So we buy a new CV axle for half that.

That sort of folds into my frustration with automotive and I don't wanna derail your thread to much into my complaining but pay has been flat for the last 20 years in this industry. I've watch food, gas and other things triple in the last 20 years while pay stays the same. Guys don't get into automotive like they use to either. New guys starting out are expected to go to at least 2 years of schooling to learn about the computerization, buy a bunch of tools and then start at $20 - $22 an hour. Why would anyone do that when a fast food job starts at $18 - $20 there's no schooling to do and no tools to buy. When I got into automotive I left a fastfood job paying $4.50 an hour and started busting tires for $9. Twice what Mcd's was paying. By that standard automotive should be starting guys at $35 an hour. Not even the top techs around here make that. I don't get me rolling on what I think about flat rate pay.....

 

[AuroraGirl]

Like I said I've never worked in autobody.... But I remember the days where every town had a radiator shop. I remember rebuilding starters and alternators, at the shop. That sort of thing. I remember rebuilding CV axles too, on front wheel drive cars in the 90's. That stuff is gone, now we replace those parts rather than rebuilding them. Why? Cost of labor. Why is labor so damn high you might ask. Well from what I see it ain't going in the employee pockets or the owners, it's going out the window in the form of bills. The shop I work at now the rent alone is just over $10,000 a month!!!! No kidding no exaggeration. Our labor rate is $140 an hour and we are in the middle, there are independant shops around here that are almost at $200 an hour!!!! It's crazy!!! Oh of course do keep in mind the area I'm in has one of the highest cost of living in the country, and we can thank Microsoft for that.... If I had a guy rebuild a CV axle we could easily be at $400 not including R&R from the vehicle. So we buy a new CV axle for half that.

That sort of folds into my frustration with automotive and I don't wanna derail your thread to much into my complaining but pay has been flat for the last 20 years in this industry. I've watch food, gas and other things triple in the last 20 years while pay stays the same. Guys don't get into automotive like they use to either. New guys starting out are expected to go to at least 2 years of schooling to learn about the computerization, buy a bunch of tools and then start at $20 - $22 an hour. Why would anyone do that when a fast food job starts at $18 - $20 there's no schooling to do and no tools to buy. When I got into automotive I left a fastfood job paying $4.50 an hour and started busting tires for $9. Twice what Mcd's was paying. By that standard automotive should be starting guys at $35 an hour. Not even the top techs around here make that. I don't get me rolling on what I think about flat rate pay.....

The better way to look at it instead of why go in for 22$ when fast food 18$ is "why the **** is 2 years minimum schooling, paying for your own tools esp when starting, and dealing with Some honestly BS people in life paying only 22$"
You know its funny, because labor rates at shops that the customer pay are pretty transparent because well you get to see it on the quotes, bills etc.

A little insulting for a shop to charge 100$ labor and have the audacity to claim 20$ is rightfully yours, the person who did it and had the knowledge of which few have including the experience and their fair share of that was 80$ because... the building and uniforms???

Like i get that for the company you are working for they kind of have to also be apart of the equation of payment because they do provide things and make it all possible, but those labor rates man....

the customer and the company has sure seen and kept up with "inflation" why is it the technician, whos increasingly more specialized, not apart of that? Almost like there is a party there reaping that extra.

Wage theft

 

[SirRobyn0]

The better way to look at it instead of why go in for 22$ when fast food 18$ is "why the **** is 2 years minimum schooling, paying for your own tools esp when starting, and dealing with Some honestly BS people in life paying only 22$"
You know its funny, because labor rates at shops that the customer pay are pretty transparent because well you get to see it on the quotes, bills etc.

A little insulting for a shop to charge 100$ labor and have the audacity to claim 20$ is rightfully yours, the person who did it and had the knowledge of which few have including the experience and their fair share of that was 80$ because... the building and uniforms???

Like i get that for the company you are working for they kind of have to also be apart of the equation of payment because they do provide things and make it all possible, but those labor rates man....

the customer and the company has sure seen and kept up with "inflation" why is it the technician, whos increasingly more specialized, not apart of that? Almost like there is a party there reaping that extra.

Wage theft

I agree with what you just said 110%. I use the shop I currently work for as an example but they are just doing the same thing everyone else is. The shop I currently work for charges $148 an hour. The newest member of our team has been a technician for 4 years now and makes $24 an hour.

I didn't get into this in my previous post but I wanted to. The shop I currently work for pays everyone a straight hourly rate. But that's not the way it works at most shop. Most shops the techs are paid flat rate. I know you (taylor) already know how this works but if someone reads this and doesn't know flat rate pay means that the tech is paid book time for a job. So if a car is in the shop for set of spark plugs and the labor guide say it should take an hour the tech gets paid an hour whether it takes him 15 minutes or 2 hours. This system encourages and rewards shotty workmanship and short cuts. Some guys will skip steps and not do proper clean up to make an extra buck. And with the low pay many guys with normally good morals will do things they shouldn't so they can pay their bills. Techs will recommend work that isn't need and do a crappy quick job of that work all to try to survive. It's a broken system, and the industry and customers are all paying for it.....

 

[AuroraGirl]

I agree with what you just said 110%. I use the shop I currently work for as an example but they are just doing the same thing everyone else is. The shop I currently work for charges $148 an hour. The newest member of our team has been a technician for 4 years now and makes $24 an hour.

I didn't get into this in my previous post but I wanted to. The shop I currently work for pays everyone a straight hourly rate. But that's not the way it works at most shop. Most shops the techs are paid flat rate. I know you (taylor) already know how this works but if someone reads this and doesn't know flat rate pay means that the tech is paid book time for a job. So if a car is in the shop for set of spark plugs and the labor guide say it should take an hour the tech gets paid an hour whether it takes him 15 minutes or 2 hours. This system encourages and rewards shotty workmanship and short cuts. Some guys will skip steps and not do proper clean up to make an extra buck. And with the low pay many guys with normally good morals will do things they shouldn't so they can pay their bills. Techs will recommend work that isn't need and do a crappy quick job of that work all to try to survive. It's a broken system, and the industry and customers are all paying for it.....

especially with outlandish book times. Such that a tech is asked to slow down and suffer or speed through to keep up

 

[Raider L]

@SirRobyn0,

Yep! That I know. And yeah, it's to bad. Now, I'm not saying a person should be without their car for several days while the techs beat out a fender in order to preserve the craft. And yeah, since cars are made out of plastic these days, it is cheaper to rip the fender off and replace it with another one. And yeah, it gets that car out so it can make room for another one. But I know for a fact that there are a significanly fewer wrecks these days than there were years ago because of the high cost of body work. People are driving more careful than some did years ago because they know if they aren't it'll cost them an arm and a leg for their carelessness.

But I'll guarantee you the insurance companies are behind some if not a large amount of the cost increases to new cars. And by a larger amount they are behind the increased cost of a car what with the third eye brake lights, and anti-skid braking system which added thousands onto the cost of a car. And let's not even talk about all the computer stuff. Don't tell me droves of people called the mfg'er and told them, " You know I just wish ya'll would make a third brake light and put it right in the middle of the back window. Oh we just know it would make drivers more careful if the car had a computer telling them how to drive" Yeah, sure. And all the other crap on cars to. Of course if we could just get Ford to stop coming up with all this bull crap nonsense new ideas to put into cars maybe it would lessen the cost.

Do you realize that most young people who aren't lucky enough to have a college degree cannot afford a decent used car let alone a new car. Now, I'm 72 and I can remember paying a couple of hundred dollars for a decent used car from a used car lot. And with a new set of plugs, cap, rotor, and wires, oil change and a new air filter you could drive the dang thing for years with little to no problems. Maybe you might have to put in a new starter or a water pump but that'd be about it. Young people don't even know how to change out coil packs these days let alone change oil. And where is the air cleaner??

And I want to know who of the public called GM and told them, "I want you to build a pickup truck that is at least three times bigger than it was last year!" "I've always wanted a pickup that weighed ten thousand pounds!!"

 

[80BrownK10]

Like I said I've never worked in autobody.... But I remember the days where every town had a radiator shop. I remember rebuilding starters and alternators, at the shop. That sort of thing. I remember rebuilding CV axles too, on front wheel drive cars in the 90's. That stuff is gone, now we replace those parts rather than rebuilding them. Why? Cost of labor. Why is labor so damn high you might ask. Well from what I see it ain't going in the employee pockets or the owners, it's going out the window in the form of bills. The shop I work at now the rent alone is just over $10,000 a month!!!! No kidding no exaggeration. Our labor rate is $140 an hour and we are in the middle, there are independant shops around here that are almost at $200 an hour!!!! It's crazy!!! Oh of course do keep in mind the area I'm in has one of the highest cost of living in the country, and we can thank Microsoft for that.... If I had a guy rebuild a CV axle we could easily be at $400 not including R&R from the vehicle. So we buy a new CV axle for half that.

That sort of folds into my frustration with automotive and I don't wanna derail your thread to much into my complaining but pay has been flat for the last 20 years in this industry. I've watch food, gas and other things triple in the last 20 years while pay stays the same. Guys don't get into automotive like they use to either. New guys starting out are expected to go to at least 2 years of schooling to learn about the computerization, buy a bunch of tools and then start at $20 - $22 an hour. Why would anyone do that when a fast food job starts at $18 - $20 there's no schooling to do and no tools to buy. When I got into automotive I left a fastfood job paying $4.50 an hour and started busting tires for $9. Twice what Mcd's was paying. By that standard automotive should be starting guys at $35 an hour. Not even the top techs around here make that. I don't get me rolling on what I think about flat rate pay.....

I am just months from turning 40 and I use to work in the automotive parts business and did gofer work and oil changes etc at my father in laws shop when I was in college on breaks and things. I can remember all the Shops and stuff your talking about! I use to take radiators to the shop for him to be rodded out or go pick up starters and alternators that were locally rebuilt.

The big city around my rural area doesn't even have a radiator shop anymore. I work in forestry and know a good bit of loggers. One that I'm pretty good buddies with was telling me the fan came apart and went into the radiator on his chipper. These are big like 600hp+ deals that take whole trees not like a tree service one they feed the tree they removed from your yard into piece by piece. He told me the radiator, intercooler and oil cooler were only sold as a unit and it cost $20,000 to replace. He said the closest radiator shop was in Savannah, which is basically 3 hours from this area and they were 30 days behind on work. So he drove it there and left it cause he could get by without it by bouncing his other chipper around when needed between jobs as it doesn't run every day all day. He said I'm not about to pay $20k for a new one. I think he told me it cost like $1300 to get it fixed. They called him in about a month to get it and been running it since. We have lost the industry like that, I get it. Would you spent $100-200 to fix a radiator that you can buy new for $100? No. I know I didn't even consider it when I had to replace the one in our Sequoia. I even bought Toyota OE supplier Denso brand. It was like $160, and this is a pretty good size unit. So I get that they are squeezed out of the market but where they are needed is in industrial/Ag/ commercial type applications where those units cost into the 10s of thousands like in my example. But there not to be found.

 

[SirRobyn0]

@SirRobyn0,

Yep! That I know. And yeah, it's to bad. Now, I'm not saying a person should be without their car for several days while the techs beat out a fender in order to preserve the craft. And yeah, since cars are made out of plastic these days, it is cheaper to rip the fender off and replace it with another one. And yeah, it gets that car out so it can make room for another one. But I know for a fact that there are a significanly fewer wrecks these days than there were years ago because of the high cost of body work. People are driving more careful than some did years ago because they know if they aren't it'll cost them an arm and a leg for their carelessness.

But I'll guarantee you the insurance companies are behind some if not a large amount of the cost increases to new cars. And by a larger amount they are behind the increased cost of a car what with the third eye brake lights, and anti-skid braking system which added thousands onto the cost of a car. And let's not even talk about all the computer stuff. Don't tell me droves of people called the mfg'er and told them, " You know I just wish ya'll would make a third brake light and put it right in the middle of the back window. Oh we just know it would make drivers more careful if the car had a computer telling them how to drive" Yeah, sure. And all the other crap on cars to. Of course if we could just get Ford to stop coming up with all this bull crap nonsense new ideas to put into cars maybe it would lessen the cost.

Do you realize that most young people who aren't lucky enough to have a college degree cannot afford a decent used car let alone a new car. Now, I'm 72 and I can remember paying a couple of hundred dollars for a decent used car from a used car lot. And with a new set of plugs, cap, rotor, and wires, oil change and a new air filter you could drive the dang thing for years with little to no problems. Maybe you might have to put in a new starter or a water pump but that'd be about it. Young people don't even know how to change out coil packs these days let alone change oil. And where is the air cleaner??

And I want to know who of the public called GM and told them, "I want you to build a pickup truck that is at least three times bigger than it was last year!" "I've always wanted a pickup that weighed ten thousand pounds!!"

I'm going to quote a few things you said because I'd like to respond to one thing at a time. "People are driving more careful than some did years ago because they know if they aren't it'll cost them an arm and a leg for their carelessness." That maybe true where you are at but here in the nearby land of microsoft there are a lot of large paychecks going to new comers to area (many of them new to the country, and they definitely are not good or careful drivers.

"Of course if we could just get Ford to stop coming up with all this bull crap nonsense new ideas to put into cars maybe it would lessen the cost." Agreed, and with all the other computer stuff. For me I do think a simple computer driving a injection system like we had in the 90's is a good thing, but it's way, way beyond out of control now.

"Do you realize that most young people who aren't lucky enough to have a college degree cannot afford a decent used car let alone a new car. Now, I'm 72" You have about 20 years on me. Before I came to manage the shop I'm at now I managed a 76 service station, one of the last in the area, which also had an attached convenience store. I saw first hand what those folks went though as minimum wage employees, only one of them owned a car. Most of them lived in shared apartments except for one guy who lived in a apartment by himself above someone's garage.

Heck I bought a new car in the early 2000's for my wife. No way that we could swing that now.