I’ve been going through my pile of passenger-side 67/68 dash bezels (Standard and XR7), and it seems that all of them need some kind of repair. Just thought I’d share one of the more simple repairs I’ve done to replace one of the missing broken-off plastic bits.
I’ll let it set overnight for all the solvents to flash off, then I’ll remove the excess material.
What type of material did you use?
Steven
Plastex. Horrible smelling solvent, but it works really well. Seems much stronger than the original plastic.
After reading the spec page it seems like a pretty good product.
Steven
Made a few more repairs on some of my dash bezels today, then realized the mold bar wasn’t holding its shape anymore. I’d been heating it up (to soften it) in the microwave oven in a bowl of water, with the mold bar floating on top. Sure made it quick and easy, but apparently microwaves deteriorate the product. I’ve ordered some new Plastex mold bars, and also ordered a similar plastic repair compound called PlastiFix. Just wanted to compare the two products and see if one might be better than the other. Dang, will probably be a week before I can continue on these repairs. In the meantime, I’ll start experimenting with some chrome urethane paint I purchased awhile back. I just want to ensure it has enough reflectivity to match the original chrome on the dash bezels.
Oh yeah, and here’s the resulting repair. Still needs a little more work removing some excess plastic, but pretty much done.
New mold bars “Out For Delivery”…yeah, never showed up. Thanks USPS! High temps in SoCal right now making it perfect for plastic repair, but 20-40 mph winds are making it impossible to try out the chrome paint. Standing by to stand by…
May 1st, 2014
New Plastex mold bars finally showed up today in the mail. The '3-pack" were sized at 2-1/4" x 7/8" x 1/4", while the 4X size was 16-1/2" x 7/8" x 3/8". The 4X looked like an end piece with a radiused edge, so maybe it was an end piece and they gave it to me as a bonus for not being a perfectly sized piece? Don’t know and don’t care, just really happy to have the extra molding material.
Moving on to the project piece, these five mounting studs always seem to take a beating and get snapped off. Although there’s some extra plastic material remaining from my previous repair attempt, I’ll continue on. I’d previously viewed a comment from Don Rush that one repair technique involves using all-thread glued into the socket, with flat washer/lock washer/nut to affect the repair. I totally hate this, as it would seem to put all the stress onto the inner portion of the plastic cone structure. I’ve epoxied a 7/32" copper tubing within the original plastic mounting post to enhance the strength of the structure.
That is VERY cool!
Probably the next best thing to 3D printing a whole new part 
LOL! This would be the ‘manual-process’ 3D printing method!
Quick update, here’s a pic of a 67 Std bezel with all five mounting studs repaired (foreground). Need to cut-off the excess material and finish file/sand. Picture quality is horrible…need to buy a better camera. For now, my cell camera will have to do.
A couple days ago I finally received my shipment of Plastifix, along with an additional 3-pack of molding bars (from Urethane Supply Co., Blue-colored mold in pic). I used one of these Plastifix molding bars on a repair and was not pleased with the results. At room temperature, the Plastifix bars are less rigid. When I heat the Plastifix bars to the same temperature as the Plastex bars, I can barely get enough moldibility (is that actually a word?) to make a proper mold. Maybe more heat is needed with the Plastifix bars? For the moment, the Plastex bars work the best. I took a whiff of the Plastifix solvent, and it indeed is as godawful as the Plastex stuff. The Plastifix powder seems to be a consistent gray powder, while the Plastex powder is interspersed with black specks, which I would assume add strength to the final repair, but I can’t say for sure until some more testing.
Still testing…testing…testing…