Work around enough automotive interiors, and you’ll undoubtedly come across cracked and brittle plastics and trim pieces. Heck, walk through a parking lot and you’ll see an array of split or ripped ABS bumpers too.
And while you may(!) be able use glue, contact cement, or other pricey adhesive to bond those plastic parts back together, the folks at Summit Racing have an even better solution.
Meet the Summit Racing Hot Stapler Kit.
As you’d guess, this clever tool embeds superheated metal staples into the seam of your plastic repair—adding a significant amount of strength to the joint, while still allowing the area to have some flexibility.
Then, once all the required staples are in place, you clip off the leads and the tool kit comes with a broad heated tip that lets you smooth over the melted plastic surface to conceal the repair. From there, you can leave it as-is—or sand/polish/paint away the crack until it’s gone.
The kit also includes an assortment of different plastic welding rods that allow you to flow-in heated filler material to fix a crack or fill a seam. Read the stapler/welder tool’s instruction sheet here to get a better idea of how it all works.
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Although he uses glue and epoxy to bond the parts here, our Pal Jefferson Bryant wrote a good article that shows you how to clean-up a repaired crack and make it invisible to the casual eye.
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The stapler wand is battery powered and rechargeable, so you’re unfettered by cords and wires as you maneuver around the repair, and the kit includes the USB charging cable too.
The kit also comes with a variety of staple sizes to accommodate a range of repairs. Summit Racing offers a big supply of replacement staples in assorted sizes as well.
The wand fully charges in just a few hours and it features an integrated LED light to help you see what you’re working on. As an added bonus, a battery indicator light will help you avoid running out of juice halfway through a repair.
All told, if you want to make a strong, reliable, and clean fix to your automotive plastic, this tool can help you do it.
Get all the details on the Summit Racing Hot Stapler/Welder here.
I used this to stitch together a fender well. I got it to the point you could not tell it was repaired. I put the staples on the inside and smoothened over and lightly sanded the outside. It really works well.
I will brag on good products and point out bad and I can say no bad here. This is a good fix for a number of things around the house too.