My 04 Cooper S JCW has a broken off tab on the right side of my rear bumper cover, the one that mates with the inner fender liner, and I was hoping to glue it back on and then strengthen it with JB Weld, but so far Locktite super glue and liquid Testors plastic cement have not stuck to the bumper cover material. Anyone know what this material is and what glue might work to glue the tab back on?

 

Is there anyway you could drill a small hole close to where the broken tab was? If so, maybe if access allows is to run a zip tie through the hole then into the tab slot to secure the bumper.

 

Bondo makes a special epoxy for bumpers. I hit a racoon with my Corvette and it cracked my front bumper. Used the Bondo stuff and worked very well.

Epoxy Bumper Auto Plastic Panel Repair Syringe Kit Durable

 

Locktite Plastic Bonder works well if both parts are plastic. Only issue is the syringe version was awful to work with as it dispensed unequal portions. It's probably the same stuff as the Bondo.

Holds my golf swing training grip on and that things whips around pretty fast.

 

This is the tab on the very edge of the bumper cover where the side light trim piece fits into the groove(s) molded into the bumper cover. Unfortunately there is no place to drill a hole that wouldn't be seen or prevent the side light trim piece from fitting in the groove.

I did a search and found there is a Loctite super glue plastics bonding system that says " Bonds leather, cork, paper, cardboard, wood, chipboard, fabric, metal, ceramic, rubber and hard plastics such as Plexiglas, polycarbonate, polystyrene and PVC " and there is a J-B Weld PlasticWeld product that this site recommends, http://www.craftechind.com/stick-to-...e-for-plastic/ after testing several plastic glues, although they didn't test the plastic bonding Loctite - just the same Loctite super glue I tried without success. Interesting that they say 24 hour bonding on the super glue and the package says bonds in 15 seconds with full cure in 24 hours. Mine did not bond in 15, 30, or 60 seconds.

I called J-B Weld to ask about using the PlasticWeld Syringe (the glue the test recommended) on my bumper cover tab and the lady who answered said I should use their Plastic Bonder Syringe. I asked what the difference was and she said the bonder would stick and the Plasticweld would not, which seemed odd given the descriptions on the J-B Weld web site are very similar. PlasticWeld does say it's for hard plastics and Plastic Bonder specifically mentions bumpers and Polypropylene & Polyethylene Plastics so that is what I just bought at the local O'Rellys. They had it in black and in tan so I got black. I also bought the PlasticWeld repair putty to try building up the joint (assuming the Bonder does the initial gluing).

I am letting everything normalize to room temp and will report back on how it works. BTW, the "Restore Auto-Saved Content" button saved my bacon when I inadvertently closed this tab when skipping back and forth. Great feature I've not seen on other forums.

 

Update:I mixed up some of the J-B Weld Plastic Bonder epoxy and used it to glue the right side tab in place using a tongue depressor clamped to the bumper cover and C clamp clamping the tab to it to hold the tab straight. The Plastic Bonding epoxy mixes easily and is thinner than the usual J-B Weld in the tubes, so it tends to self level but sets up in half an hour. I then used the same PB to reinforce the tab joint on the outside and after it cured I added more to the inside forming a pretty good size fillet. When all was cured it seemed pretty strong and moving it flexes the flange on the edge of the bumper cover so I didn’t use the PlasticWeld for reinforcement; I didn't think it was necessary The Plastic Bonder is pretty good stuff and seems to stick quite well; I'll let you know how it holds after I touch up the cover and put it back on, but I'll have to wait for some warmer weather. I don't like to deal with plastic parts when the temperature is in the teens.