Fixing broken plastic door liner

[JDAugie]

Continuing to fix up my VF-63 and notices a cracked door liner with a piece missing.  Any suggestions on how I might try and cover the missing area?  My last resort is black duct tape. What about trying to apply multiple layers of plasti-kote or something like that. Thanks for any ideas.

[loman4ec]

Your machine is quite common and there is usually someone parting one out on the site. You may find a member that is willing to cut out a piece of a liner on a parts machine. If they cut the piece bigger than you need it then you could trim it to size and then glue it in place. That may be your best bet. I would start another thread asking for someone parting out a V63 and ask for the part. I am sure even if no one has one available right now you will get your piece soon. Also just so you know the Vendo 126 is just a taller version of the V63 so you may find that the liner piece may be the same. Also be sure to compare pictures of the liners as there are many different versions of the V63 so you may find that the liners are different on the different versions of the machine. It may be the same but I would check just to be sure.

[JDAugie]

That's a good idea.  I wonder though, Is the liner material brittle? How easy is it to cut to the shape I would need to replace?

[loman4ec]

Its not incredibly brittle. I think a sharp knife or even better a dremel tool would be best. I think a dremel tool would make it much easier and then I would use a black epoxy or a strong black glue so it fills the gaps and also covers the seam. Since it is somewhat glossy you may be able to wet sand it and then polish out the sand marks after sanding with increasingly higher grits and getting up to 2000. then polish with novus or another plastic polish you may never see the repair. I would try the sanding and polishing on the back first before ever trying on the good side as it may turn out disastrous. If you had to you could always paint the liner. I have painted breaker strips when replacements were not available.

[JDAugie]

That sounds like it would work. I do have a dremel.  It doesn't have to look perfect. I really just want to keep the insulation dry and look as good as possible without costing too much.

[ScottP]

Thanks for the info, I have the same exact issue with my Cav CSS64FS when we took the libner off this past weekend, it broke in the same spot, but at least I have the piece. Will glue it back in as suggested and go from there when we start putting it back together. One item of note, back in the day, they were not afraid to make things using a ton of screws, have never backed out that many screws in my lifetime as i did this past weekend.

[loman4ec]

Harbor Freight also sells a plastic welder pretty cheap. You may be able to plastic weld it and make it look much nicer??? I don't know

[JDAugie]

They just opened a new Harbor Freight near me, I'll look for that.

[bubba]

My FIL bought one of those.. For the life of me, I can't figure out how to make plastic stick together. I've tried a few different types of plastic and different rods, and it has never worked well.

[collecture]

My FIL bought one of those.. For the life of me, I can't figure out how to make plastic stick together. I've tried a few different types of plastic and different rods, and it has never worked well.

Don't the instructions have words??