REPAIRING CRACKED RADIATOR PLASTIC

>>1171122
The best thing you can really do, if you're willing to go to lengths like that to try to fix it, is to just go to the junkyard and pull a replacement.
Also check rockauto for prices beforehand. One time I pulled a radiator for a truck, looked it up online a few weeks later and it was $15 cheaper online. This was in CA though so junkyards can be a total ripoff.

I'm all for DIY and fixing things rather than replacing them; I have irrigation plumbing fittings on my truck water hoses and one hose that had a hole has been taped up with electrical tape for years, but crappy radiator plastic just isn't worth the time and frustration.

If you're dead set on keeping it for either time/money reasons then you could get a hot knife attachment on a soldering iron and some zip ties. Go ahead and plastic weld that shit. Hot knife in place and feed zip ties into it to fill (in case you were wondering what I meant.)

Obviously this is a temporary fix (depending on your skill, it can be permanent) and the temperature changes might fuck with it so before driving go ahead and run the car up to temperature for thirty(30) minutes and check for leaks periodically. Let it cool back down to ambient. Fire it back up and check for leaks again. Spending 3 hours checking before driving might save you a seized engine from over heating.

>>1171129
>go to the junkyard and pull a replacement.
this.

radiators hold pressure and the plastic will always break again.

these are usually fiberglass reinforced plastics and are very difficult/impossible to weld

This is a temporary repair until I can find a replacement.
The cheapest I've found online is €300. I'm hoping to find a cheaper one second hand.

I'm in EU and there are very few junkyards left, at least in my state.
My car is close to 40 years old too.

I don't know what type of plastic it is, but it doesn't feel like the type that melts, or I would have welded it.

I'm mad at myself for breaking it. I was too lazy to get some dish soap and ease it out and instead used too much force.
I could have left it as it was and it likely would never have failed, but I had a suspicion the thermostat was stuck closed and my car has no temp gauge.

>>1171122
in layers
sand area with lowgrit
2part epoxy
low weight fiber glass
squeegee epoxy to saturate glass
let chooch

can also use jb weld with glass just harder to squeegee through make sure glass is thoroughly saturated

>>1171513
Epoxy and glass strips is what I thought of doing first but I was afraid it would end up too hard would not expand at the same rate as the plastic when heated.

In the end I went with denim brushed with epoxy for the first layer, then added saturated glass strands to the epoxy before brushing on to the denim for the second layer. 4 layers in total.
It looks ugly, but should hold.

The fact that it broke on the bend of the elbow turned out to be a good thing because I had extra space to build up material in the 'crook'.

Some years back I tried making micarta from denim and found that brushed denim was much more flexible than soaked.
A piece could be bent in to a U shape and would slowly return back undamaged.
I hope it holds.

>>1171122
You could try epoxi and a barbbed brass fitting.

>>1171611
Sounds like that should hold for a while, but seriously check prices for a new radiator. They're really not that expensive.