Resin buildings falling apart

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Moonraker

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I have a dozen buildings on my railway which came from BOB and other suppliers. When building them, I glued them with Araldite and then reinforced every joint with car body filler. After ten years outside, in temperatures up to 45C, the car body filler has separated from the resin walls and they are falling apart.

I am going to reconstruct them all and am wondering what to use to glue the walls. I am thinking of using Araldite again to fix them initially and then silicone roof and gutter sealant to reinforce all the joints. The silicone is left over from sealing some roof leaks.

Is that a reasonable way to go or is there a better way?

Regards
Peter Lucas
 
Depends on what resin the buildings are made from. Epoxy and polyester resins are incompatible, epoxy won't cure in contact with polyester and polyester self releases off epoxy.... Silicone on the other hand should stick to both the only problem being that you cant paint "the good stuff". Personally I would use a polyurethane adhesive sticks to just about everything can be sanded, stained, painted... Sikaflex 291 would be an excellent product for exterior use.
 
Superglue - thick or medium viscosity. Rocket is one brand I use. Works on both polyester and polyurethane type quick cure resins. Get a reasonable sized bottle and reinforce again with Isopon P38 filler or similar. Epoxy no use in a changeable outside environment for bonding surfaces due to moisture. Plus, materials in building will expand/contract at different rates causing joints to fail over time. Make sure you sand off all the old epoxy on the joints' mating surfaces first before refixing.

Note - older polyester type quick cure resins never fully cure. they constantly shrink throughout thier life (Ever wondered why you get crazed paintwork that needs restoring on old 60's fibreglass cars all the time). This is usually combated in moldings by the resin being "filled" with crushed marble when mixed. You can tell if the resin is of this type if you scrape or sand it and it gives off that distictive "fibregrass resin" smell - same polyester resin stuff. Most resin models produced now are of the ployurethane type, it does not give off and any smell when scraped or sanded and is fully cured when releasd from molds.

Max
A man at the resin molding company I used in the past, CMA, told me that.
 
Whatever method you use and there is some good advice here. Without doubt use that Silicone to strengthen the internal joints. It does work and should last years. Look at the Goldfish Tanks that are joined with the stuff.
JonD
 
Recently I have been using Evo-Stick Serious Glue for my outdoor buildings. It is waterproof and transparent and has a -30 to +130 temperature range. I've been very impressed with this stuff and have glued a lot of things in my house with it. It's too early yet to know yet how many serious winters it will survive, but so far so good.
 
ROSS said:
This might be a good post to tell you of a new glue I have found. Darn expensive (7 grams about_ £10.) ???
This stuff comes as a small tube with a UV led on top as a kit..cheapest £19
Squeeze the glue onto the job, shine the UV light on it and its cured..rock hard. Can be sawn, filed atc.,
PROFORMIC is the stuff and there is a video with details on Google.

(Of course...if you buy a couple of UV leds and wire them up as a torch then you save and just have to buy the glue (The kit UV torch is about a fiver).

RAPID & CONRAD sell it in the UK. Conrad in Germany.

http://proformic.com/
Click to expand...

Sounds like the stuff Dentists are using to fill teeth these days.
 
I think they (Dentists) mix it with something to give it colour.
 
Well, ya never know! ;) ;) ;D ;D ;D ;D
 
Thanks everyone. Looks like superglue to do the initial fix followed by silicone roof and gutter sealant to strengthen the joints internally.

Regards
Peter
 
I'm actually very impressed that they lasted 10 years!

Good info here.

Given how much maintenance a 1:1 building needs over 10 years, I think this is a good test.
 
I wonder if anyone has tried lead adhesive as sold by builders merchants to glue in lead flashings as it is weather-proof and seems to sick to everything.
 
funandtrains said:
I wonder if anyone has tried lead adhesive as sold by builders merchants to glue in lead flashings as it is weather-proof and seems to sick to everything.
Click to expand...
I got a TV Man to use some of this stuff to glue in a Half Slate Roof Tile that had been dislodged Last Year when he tore down all the TV Aerials for me. Thus far (around 6 Months) it has stayed in place well.
JonD
 
Has anyone tried the 'No More Nails' type adhesives for resin buildings at all???

I have a Pendelbury line-side hut awaiting assembly here.
 
@kedwards - I've used Really Serious Glue on all my outdoor buildings, and in UK conditions, I've had no problem at all - some items have been out now for 30 years without repair. The main problem is that over very long periods, some plastic buildings deform in the heat but no glue will protect you against that, alas. (Nor against the footballs launched by next door's kids - we're using theatre nuclear weapons for that now).
 
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