How To Repair Thule Cargo Box

Posted by Rack Attack on 03-11-2013 nether Cargo & Luggage Racks

Cargo Box Repair Guide

"I just ran by box into an surreptitious parking - can information technology be fixed?"

Believe it or not, we hear this quite often, and NO you're not the only one we hear it from. It is easy to forget that you have a big cargo box on top of your already alpine vehicle when you lot take to park underground downtown. Hey, fifty-fifty we forget these things sometimes (simply don't ask united states of america almost it).

The stiffness of the ABS plastic hat - which gives the box its lightweight strength and rigidity - is very unforgiving when you hit something with it. While information technology takes quite a collision to completely shatter a cargo box (unless it is very cold out), it is rare that a box volition survive an undercover with aught more than a few red or yellow scratch marks.

Most damaged boxes will have one or two cracks (ranging from a couple of centimeters to a couple of feet) or even a hole or 2. And not every box that has been damaged is fifty-fifty repairable. Some holes or cracks are simply much too big to be repaired at all, and some injuries occur in "sensitive" areas to the box, meaning the structural integrity of the box has been compromised. If this is the case, nosotros will tell you lot so, and your but recourse will be to purchase a new box.

If, nevertheless, your box tin can exist repaired, nosotros will inquire to take your box for 1 week and requite you lot an judge on the labour (commonly $60-200) cost. Our box repair methods take come a long style over the by decade or so. Initially (in the late 1990s) we would apply ABS "patches" - cutting pieces of ABS plastic attached by ABS cement - to the hole or croaky section of the box. This would be a pretty practiced solution, but ran the risk of coming apart after a couple of years. Plus, it gave the box a real Frankenstein's monster bumpy sort of wait. Replacing the ABS patch fix (at least on fixes larger than a small crack) was the fibreglass patch.

We still employ this method for actually large holes if necessary, but we prefer not to. Fibreglass patching kits are neat for repairing canoes and kayaks, but the fibreglass doesn't effectively bond to ABS plastic for longer than a couple of years. So eventually it is going to start to skin off. And, as it is non of the same texture as the plastic, even when painted it actually stands out equally unattractive. Our current primary method of box repair, developed a few years ago, uses a compound chosen Re-Plast by an automotive parts visitor chosen Wurth. Re-Plast is similar to an epoxy in principle (it comes in two tubes that are mixed together in a big double caulking gun-blazon applicator), in that it has two compounds that mix into one to create the bonding agent. However, unlike epoxy, Re-Plast hardens into plastic. And yous have to work quickly, considering it sets later on 3 and a half minutes!

The appearance of your cargo box is something that nosotros take pride in doing our best task at restoring, simply be enlightened that there is no chance your box will wait brand new. The best we can provide (based on the materials we repair ABS with) is giving the box a sort of "scar". The Re-Plast sets to a gloss black color - which works well for doing matte blackness box lids (and pretty much all bases), but glossy box lids demand to be painted. While nosotros cannot lucifer colours perfectly, we exercise our best to get the closest match possible using automotive affect-upward pigment. While information technology does not look awesome, information technology'southward certainly better than a large crack that keeps getting bigger with every trip:

This repair was pretty straight-forward, here'southward a more difficult repair.

2 days ago I discussed some of the methods of box repair, and showed a couple of pictures of a straightforward box repair. Today, I want to show some pictures of a difficult repair - patching a small hole. Usually, a small hole is acquired by the bear upon of the box hitting something, with the fracture causing a slice of the box to break off.

In a best case scenario, the cleaved piece is not lost and is able to fit its hole (like a puzzle piece). Nonetheless, almost of the time the piece goes missing, and I have to cut a piece of ABS plastic off of an onetime box to fit the hole:

This piece then gets fitted into the hole, and taped from i side. This volition permit me Re-Plast the 1 side of the lid with the added slice remaining in place.

After removing the tape (after iii and a half minutes), the added piece is gear up into place. Information technology is all-time to then wait a day before applying the patch to the outside of the lid.

It doesn't wait that bad at this stage, but to add forcefulness the outside of the lid besides needs to be patched. This is where the advent of the box is slightly compromised for the structural integrity:

In the end, the box does not look as good as new, but information technology works. While a repair such as this is not cheap ($150 and up), it is certainly cheaper than a new $700 box.

So if yous have a cargo box that is injured, come see us and we volition see if we can help you.

Source: https://www.rackattack.com/blog/cargo-box-repair-part-1/

Posted by: benedicttherem.blogspot.com

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