S4+ front spoiler crack repair
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Joined: Aug 2014
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From: Adirondack Mountains, New York
Looks mighty fine.
I tried a weld repair on my original spoiler - an autogenous weld (no filler), with a soldering iron, crudely. I concluded that the spoiler material is a form of rubber - it would decompose before it would melt. A piece of rubber is essentially a single molecule. I ended up using marine grade fiberglass and epoxy. Then I ran into a fallen tree on a dark and stormy night....
The new one came folded into a small box - definitely rubber (or some sort of cross-linked polymer, as in the "X" in PEX tubing).
I suspect your repair is relying upon the adhesive quality of your filler, just like the epoxy of my fiberglass repair. Try not to hit any trees.
I tried a weld repair on my original spoiler - an autogenous weld (no filler), with a soldering iron, crudely. I concluded that the spoiler material is a form of rubber - it would decompose before it would melt. A piece of rubber is essentially a single molecule. I ended up using marine grade fiberglass and epoxy. Then I ran into a fallen tree on a dark and stormy night....
The new one came folded into a small box - definitely rubber (or some sort of cross-linked polymer, as in the "X" in PEX tubing).
I suspect your repair is relying upon the adhesive quality of your filler, just like the epoxy of my fiberglass repair. Try not to hit any trees.
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Joined: Sep 2002
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From: Irvine, CA
Yes, I am still uncertain what the spoiler material actually is, as a non-chemist I can't get much past it being a thermoset material- it melts into an oily puddle of residue when burned. I didn't do any frankly destructive testing on the filler repair, but it seems pretty robust. The PU rod is the only one of the six or so in the Polyvance kit that sticks to the spoiler material at all.
