Repair Your Plastic Hood Vents (almost no cost) - Pictures

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Slownrusty
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Location: Houston, TX

Repair Your Plastic Hood Vents (almost no cost) - Pictures

Post by Slownrusty »

Guys - The plastic underside hood / bonnet vents always crack at the attachment screws from overtightening or become brittle over time due to the engine heat or how fragile these pieces are.

Good news - You can still buy a brand new one from BMW = left side ONLY if you want to shell out almost $50. The right side is NLA

You have a choice to remove them altogether or fix them for nearly free.

Needed:
1) Thin sheet of aluminum (taken from you metal scrap pile)
2) JB Weld (we all have a tube of this stuff in our garage) or equivalent epoxy
3) Tin snips to cut the aluminum sheet
4) Clamps
5) Satin black plastic compatible paint.

Time: A few hours only

Here is the broken vent, and I have made the new aluminum tabs:
Repairing Right Hood Vent 1a.JPG
Repairing Right Hood Vent 1a.JPG (857.51 KiB) Viewed 2909 times
Repairing Right Hood Vent 1.JPG
Repairing Right Hood Vent 1.JPG (840.5 KiB) Viewed 2909 times

Epoxied and curing:
Repairing Right Hood Vent 2.JPG
Repairing Right Hood Vent 2.JPG (924.33 KiB) Viewed 2909 times
Repairing Right Hood Vent 3.JPG
Repairing Right Hood Vent 3.JPG (811.43 KiB) Viewed 2909 times
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Slownrusty
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Location: Houston, TX

Re: Repair Your Plastic Hood Vents (almost no cost) - Pictures

Post by Slownrusty »

Painted and ready for service again:
Hood Vent 1.JPG
Hood Vent 1.JPG (995.68 KiB) Viewed 2907 times
Hood Vent 2.JPG
Hood Vent 2.JPG (729.08 KiB) Viewed 2907 times
Hope this helps,
Yasin
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635sharknose
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Re: Repair Your Plastic Hood Vents (almost no cost) - Pictures

Post by 635sharknose »

Very nice ! =D>
Paul
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1987 635CSi Bronzitbeige
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86_6series
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Re: Repair Your Plastic Hood Vents (almost no cost) - Pictures

Post by 86_6series »

Now that's a smart solution.
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Austintatious
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Re: Repair Your Plastic Hood Vents (almost no cost) - Pictures

Post by Austintatious »

These would be a great Item to have 3d scanned and print them off on a 3d printer.
jsspagg
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Re: Repair Your Plastic Hood Vents (almost no cost) - Pictures

Post by jsspagg »

Great idea!
I'll bank this one once I get to that point.

I did a similar repair to the air ducts that channel air to the rotors. These attach below on the right & left below the battery bot and window washer fluid tank. The plastic mounting points got busted up after 42 years of service.

Using thin sheet metal I cut and formed the shape. I used Por Patch because it is what I had on hand and it claims to stay a little bit flexible- we'll see about that. used the adhesive to attach the cut/shaped sheet metal and used clothes pins to clamp. After the cure time I put a few rivets in for good measure. I am not yet at the time to attach back on the car, but I feel it will work out just fine.
Attachments
Rotor Vent.jpg
Rotor Vent.jpg (486.63 KiB) Viewed 2016 times
Sheet metal.jpg
Sheet metal.jpg (482.35 KiB) Viewed 2016 times
Por Patch.jpg
Por Patch.jpg (512.04 KiB) Viewed 2016 times
1980 635 Euro
Under restoration
TimU
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Re: Repair Your Plastic Hood Vents (almost no cost) - Pictures

Post by TimU »

Well done, a great fabrication!
04/1986 635csi Euro spec
Australian Delivered, RHD
Ronnie Wilson
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Re: Repair Your Plastic Hood Vents (almost no cost) - Pictures

Post by Ronnie Wilson »

😀👍🏻
Ronnie
Liverpool uk.
1986 635csi.
Bronze Beige Metallic.
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