Lens Repair

The right front turn signal indicator broke loose of it's moorings on a recent trip to the video store. My wife noticed it first and suggested someone had damaged it. After further investigation that was not the case.

The lense assembly is the original one I got with the Rover and was damaged in the wreck. The slot that is cut into the plastic of the top of the assembly was broken. On further examination both sides had the problem.

I purchased some plexiglass to repair the tops. Thinking I would glue a piece on the top of the lense assembly and then drill it for the screw to secure it again to the mooring point. Plexiglass proved too brittle. When I applied my drill to the plexiglass it shattered. This material will not work.

Wow, how disappointing. Now I was left with nothing to finish the project. In my search for plastic at the hardware store, I asked for what I thought I needed and they only had the plexiglass. I thought I'd try it but I had my doubts from the beginning. I spied a black plastic paint tray in the clutter of the garage. This is one of those cheap plastic room painting kits. The plastic is black (preferred) in color and very flexible. It is almost too flexible to be used as a paint holder but perfect for this project.

I cut several pieces off and with my handy dandy tubes of JB Weld I mixed up some product and went to gluing. I have had good luck with the JB Weld before. My first attempt to glue the right side lense broke when I applied the drill to make the hole. I'm not sure what I did wrong but I just glued it again.

I then drilled holes to place the screws through to secure the assemblies to the front of the truck. As I always try to do I replaced the existing screws with stainless steel screws and washers to hopefully eliminate a little rust. The screws I purchased at my local Ace Hardware and had painted black heads.

I took the opportunity to clean the bulbs while I was in there. They had a lovely layer of dust on top of them and I could tell they were probably original bulbs due to the amount of dust/crust on them. I also took the opportunity to blow out the lenses with my handy dandy air compressor. The bulbs will probably fail with in a week. What do you want to bet?

It was a "quick and dirty" repair as my dad would have put it. On the Difficulty Scale it rates as a 1. Maybe even a .5 on the scale. It could be easier only if I had someone else do the job while I sipped a rum and coke and directed the job from the comfort of my lawn chair.

Additional note. The JB Weld while awesome failed a few months later. I drilled the cases and with the same plastic bits I used with the JB Weld I rivited them together. This worked very well.

Thanks for reading and happy Rovering.