best material for cracked tail light cover repair?

yeah after letting it dry thoroughly, I'd try the 3m red transparent brake light tape.

I can't think of anything that would restore the transparency. But, another option to try is to use a soldering iron to "weld" the plastic back together. That should form a water-tight seal. But it will look ugly.

The epoxy might have trouble bonding to the clear plastic. You can try different kinds, and roughen the plastic surface to improve bonding, but it might pop loose over time. There might be a type of cement that will dissolve/weld the plastic back together, but I have no idea what kind of cement to use (maybe a kind of plumber's cement for bonding the various types of plastic pipes, or model cement that bonds plastic used in hobby model kits).

Maybe someone experienced in body repair has better suggestion to fix broken plastic, but I would guess they just replace the part to have it look nice.

Our local pick a part gets $20 for a tail light assembly. your epoxy repair came out pretty good.

How the **** did you get the epoxy to come out so nicely?

I guess you could wet sand it starting with low grit and working up, and then polish it. Impressive results.

What brand/type of clear epoxy did you use?

KingFatty said:

How the **** did you get the epoxy to come out so nicely?

I guess you could wet sand it starting with low grit and working up, and then polish it. Impressive results.

What brand/type of clear epoxy did you use?

Click to expand...

Every dog has it's day I guess! The thicker center of the repair has clouded up a bit after being outside all day yesterday, so I wouldn't be surprised if it clouds up more as time goes on. Even so, it appears quite solid -- the overall goal is to seal the cracks, so it's still a victory.

I used Gorilla epoxy -- it was the cheaper one at the store. I've used J.B. Weld before as fill for an inside cracked wood threshold, and that hasn't clouded years later. Maybe a different brand wouldn't have clouded, but I'm guessing it can't be avoided with outside weather.

As to your question, I did about 4 separate applications. I've only worked with epoxy as filler a couple of times -- for those the epoxy naturally thins after it was applied, so it leveled itself and dried crystal clear (you can see a drip going across the top of it.) The car wasn't getting used for a while, so I could take lots of time to let each layer dry. At least several hours for each.