Plastic Welding ABS

[BILL MERRYMAN]

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE- JUST PURCHASED A CHAPARRALL ATV FOR MY FAMILY, ITS IN PRETTY ROUGH CONDITION JUST GOT IT RUNNING AND HAVING ALOT OF FUN WITH IT, DOES ANY ONE KNOW A WEB SITE OR A PLACE TO GET MANUALS OR ANY INFORMATION ON THIS ATV, ALSO TRYING TO REPAIR CRACKS IN THE BODY HAVE HEARD THAT ITS POSIBLE TO PLASTIC WELD THE ABS BODYS ON THESE UNITS, ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED BILL MERRYMAN WESTERVILLE OHIO

[greggv2007]

plastic welding

Just use the search at the top of the page. There is lots of good information on this site about it.

[dale7637]

I have a couple plastic welders, and let me tell you it is way easier than you might think. Talk to a good plastic shop in your area, they will be able to do it for you.

[racerone3]

i think this might be one of the threads that had some lost posts.
i think that i posted that i think the bodies of the chaparals were made of fiberglass and not abs. you should be able to fix cracks with a fiberglass repair kit from a hardware store.
good luck with it

[jeffery9076]

CHAPARRALL body

found this it is abs

[racerone3]

found this it is abs

thanks for the quick correction. i was trying to go from memory, and wouldn't want to give bad advice. in that case i would go with the acetone and abs "goo" method. it's not the prettiest thing in the world (but really not any uglier than anything i've been able to achieve with a plastic welder) and the repairs i've done with it have held up really well

[jeffery9076]

no problem

thats what were all here for HELP

[vanmeterj1]

Ok, More questions from the Jr varsity team... I have an Attex and I am not sure if the two halves come from the same year. after tearing it down and going through all of the information I can Find I have not seen a single tub like mine on anyone's Attex on this site. I have posted some pictures in my gallery and I am seriously hoping someone can help out. The Frame reads 71 the engine WAS a 290 something JLO but this machine has been worked on a great deal before I got it, it actually has FAFNIR bearings on one side and some other creature on the other. I have yet to see any single thing that points me in the right direction with the tubs.

the big concern I have here is that I don't know what to make of the tub because it is very clear that the two pieces I have do not fit together at all. The staple holes do not line up and the top is about an Inch bigger than the bottom. I tried to start some repairs with ABS but it just seems to not want to stick. I also bought a heat welder and tried the abs rods on it that way without much success.

is there any test or way to determine if it is ABS or POLY with any success? I know I can count on some of you ABS Attex guys to chime in here on this tub please..

[hydromike]

Hey 'Van...

Your top is definitely an ABS Attex Chief/295 Wild Wolf second third generation style upper. From what I can tell from your photographs, your lower MAY be a Chief style, or MAY-BE an older (by a year or so) second generation ST style body, which is also ABS. They don't line up for anything when placed one on the other. Overall width is different, and the front/rear angles don't match up well. Welding ABS is a bit tricky. Both sides need to be CLEAN, and it takes a bit of getting used to, but it works well with a hot air welder and commerically available ABS rod.

ABS will react to Acetone, which is a solvent available at Home Depot and Lowes. Take some acetone (also a principal ingredient in nail polish remover) and spread it on a rough part of the body with a paper towel or clean rag. Acetone will slowly dissolve the ABS if it's in constant contact, and just cleans it very nicely if you just use it as a wipe on-off method. HDPE (polyethylene) doesn't have such a reaction. It sounds like someone may have replaced your upper or lower at some point along the line. Not the end of the world, but fitting them together may take some working.

Let's start off my seeing if your upper and lowers are both ABS...
~m

[vanmeterj1]

Mike,

You are dead on with the don't line up worth a crap thing... I used the rod and welder. but the instructions didn't say any thing about the clean part... (wait for it)
Eureka!

Back to the drawing board... and lowes again. I had tried a little acetone I had here around the garage, but ran out quickly as I only had a splash left in the can. I have worked way too late this week to pick up some more. I knew about the acetone instructions from reading all of the posts on the site. I have some ABS pellets (I cut up all the rods I had from the welding trials) that will be headed into the paint can tomorrow. I will let you know what the Results are with the acetone on the lower.

I spent most of the evenings this week sanding off the fiberglass patches that had been tried by the previous owner. (I can only Ass-u-me..) I could tell right away that was not going to work as they were peeling up all over the place.

Just a thought on this but I think if I can get the Goo to work the way I need it to, I may do a major refit of the top by doing one of the Truck bed modifications. it would fix my fitting problem as well as be way cool.

thak you again 6x6 world for delivering knowledge on tap..

[lewis]

The Crush has a st300 tub with a chief top. Yes there are alignment issues but all can be dealt with. I pre-aligned the halves, clamped them together and drilled and inserted pop rivets as the initial set up. Plained the two halves with a hand plainer to get the two halves the same size. I also pulled and adjusted the body to match the front and rear corners. Clamping and adjusting was done first to get the initial set up. Pop rivets are 1.5 inches apart and there is over a hundred of them in the machine. It is not perfect but has worked out well. There are not many of these bodies around our area so i had to be creative with the body work.
The st top lays on the bottom tub and will show the mis-alignment but the chief top wrapped over the top part of the tub and part of the side of the inner tub. This helps, also re-enforced cracked areas.
Sanding the Abs is easy but takes time, you can make this surface as slick as glass but unless you coat it with something it will return to a dull surface shine. I painted mine so this is not a problem. Clear coating will work i am sure. You just have to get a clear coat that is designed to adhere to ABS and this is a pretty common item.
Some pictures from the gallery that show the adjustments.







slight misalignment on top half of body.


Plained corners


The finished product.

Just takes time

[racerone3]

looking through your photos, your machine is a hybrid of several machines. the frame started life as a 6 chain ST style, and has been converted to 4 chain. in the attached pic, i circled the mount for it's 6 chain rear adjuster. I have an ST and a Wild Wolf and the lower tubs are WAY DIFFERENT! you might want to look for an ST upper body to fit your lower. the point in the front of the body is at a different angle and even going with the "little truck" design, the front angle and width of the bodies will probably cause fitment issues.

[lewis]

Ok....the tub was from a 252 Colt. The frame is a super Chief and the top is from a donor super chief. I thought George told me that but he did not....Sorry George! But the point was, that with limited resources you can still make things work. There is a VERY limited supply of ATTEX bodies in our area. Funny thing after i acquired this machine from George i found one less than 2 miles away. A complete upper and lower with frame, axles, tires but no motor or trans. I,m still satisfied with the way things worked out. Didn't mean to pass on bad info...heck i believed it.

Just thought i would clear this point up.

[LarryW]

Thats cool Lewis. I messed up the other day too. Heck it happens to the best of us!!

[hydromike]

...the frame started life as a 6 chain ST style, and has been converted to 4 chain.

As a sidenote, I thought I'd add that Attex actually did some of these conversions at the factory. There were rear chain adjusters that actually bolt with U-bolts (as in the picture) to the 1" round cross tubes, rather than bolting with a single bolt through the square cross tubes on later models. When they did away with the ST "cradle" primary chain adjustment method, they just bolted stamped steel sideplates as uprights for the transmission. I have one of these in the barn....

It would seem that maybe they had a lot of ST-style frames leftover when they started the conversion, or maybe started to convert the frames before a the final 4-chain setup was developed completely. Whichever is the case, they actually did it right from the factory. It's a cool way to convert over a 6 chain if you're ever so-inclined.....

~m