Heater box question but first: A Tale of Woe

[Pdxguy]

Finally finished rehabbing my heater box, and with 2 or 3 bolts to tighten down managed to drop it. Broke off a corner of the top piece. There is about 5mm of open space communicating with the interior of the box. I can fix it, wondering if I can get away with leaving it as is. The firm closed cell foam that goes between the top and back piece can cover the gap with the lighter foam strip that goes around the front top piece would be over the top of that as well.

 

Thanks,

Dennis

 

[Son of Marty]

IMO time to break out the JB weld. Thats a known leak spot anyway why take the chance?

Edited May 8, 2023 by Son of Marty

[JohnS]

You could probably just paste in a little extra piece of closed cell foam to cover that.  Like that light gray self adhesive camper shell foam from Home Depot.

[tzei]

Glue the broken piece back in. 
 

But those bolt heads… you’ll need a pretty thick foam strip to get that to seal to chassis.

[jp5Touring]

JB Weld it. Nice and neat so you can take it apart in twenty years. 

[jgerock]

12 hours ago, tzei said:

Glue the broken piece back in. 
 

But those bolt heads… you’ll need a pretty thick foam strip to get that to seal to chassis.

+1.   I like using pan head brass hardware from the HD or Lowe’s stores.

[Einspritz]

If I may offer two alternatives.

 

My supposition is that the material is abs, so you might try a but of mek to "melt" the two together or use the adhesive "rapid fix" which uses a cyanoacrylate type base along with a dry glass head filler. You bond the two together then dust on the beads by layering and adding more glue on top of the bond to hold it all together on both sides. But I'm not sure if it can take the stress of clamping action/shear when tightening it down which depends on how well the two halves fit together.

[JohnS]

Here's a link to a post from when I rebuilt my heater box back in 2014.  It shows the little panhead stainless screws, washers and nylock locknuts I used.  They worked great.  Hope it helps

 

Edited May 10, 2023 by JohnS