Those of us fortunate enough to own an 88-94 truck know how fragile these dash bezels are, especially around the headlight switch. The switch bracket sits on 4 plastic posts and is held on by screws. Those posts break and then you have a floppy switch. Or if you’re like me the previous owner of your truck drilled holes to mount the switch and then the holes cracked leaving your bezel even more messed up.
I did some googling and decided on a method to repair the cracks using a soldering iron, Oatey medium black ABS cement, and dry wall fiber tape. The following is what I did. Not sure if it’s correct but it made a strong repair, probably stronger than the original dash. I wish I took before pics.
I’m going to use button head Allen head bolts to secure the switch. We’ll see how it works I guess.
I need to sand and paint it still but I won’t do that until I know this works out well.
I did some googling and decided on a method to repair the cracks using a soldering iron, Oatey medium black ABS cement, and dry wall fiber tape. The following is what I did. Not sure if it’s correct but it made a strong repair, probably stronger than the original dash. I wish I took before pics.
- I taped the dash together with painters tape on the face to keep everything lined up. My bezel was cracked and tweaked from years of abuse so this took some effort.
- I traced the cracks on the back of the bezel with a hot soldering iron making a groove along the cracks.
- I took a very fine, small, and cheap brush and applied the cement to the cracks. Take care not to use very much as the solvent in this stuff can damage the bezel if allowed to pool up.
- Let it sit. Can says 15 minutes for handling strength and 2 hours to cure. I let it sit for 30 minutes.
- Apply dry wall tape over the repair area.
- Use the applicator from the ABS cement to apply a very thin coating of cement over the tape, which bonds it to the bezel. Remember no puddling or pooling. Let it sit at least 15 minutes. Repeat until the repair tape is mostly covered.
- I then took the painters tape off the face and traced the cracks with the soldering iron. I did two applications of ABS cement to the face cracks.
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I’m going to use button head Allen head bolts to secure the switch. We’ll see how it works I guess.
I need to sand and paint it still but I won’t do that until I know this works out well.