Shell repair for Phantom 4 pro (cracks)

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The plastic is not poly, so glues with solvents will stick. There are a few that have been used here. Check the search (magnifying glass) for previous posts. Plastex, JB plastic weld, are a couple and a few other recipes. Good luck.
 
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Believe a repair worth trying first, cracks not that bad. Common location. Just finished a reshell myself. Not hard if you can solder and have the right tools. Took 4hrs first time. Sure is pretty, and flies.
From "Eta ate my P4" hurricane damage
20201123_125337.jpg

So naked without the wetsuit. ?
 
I ordered Ceys Plasticos Rigidos to try. In the features it mentions that it also fills gaps. Its plastics phantom 4 pro are ABS.I will inform you.


An ideal adhesive for gluing hard and rigid plastics
For types of plastics such as PVC. Polyester, methacrylate, rigid polystyrene, plexiglass, rigid plastic seats, ABS, SAN
Powerful and durable, transparent, indoor and outdoor use, fills gaps, fast and water resistant
Unsuitable for welding polyethylene, polypropylene and PTFE (Teflon)
Excellent quality
Made in Spain
 

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Some drill a tiny hole at the ends of cracks to stop the spread before glue. Adding a strong adhesive tape over the crack is also helpful. Not pretty unless used artistically but helpful. Hope you get to add a success story.
 
Some drill a tiny hole at the ends of cracks to stop the spread before glue. Adding a strong adhesive tape over the crack is also helpful. Not pretty unless used artistically but helpful. Hope you get to add a success story.
I'm afraid to make a hole in the crack, lest I make it worse. I will just put the cola and let you know if I was successful.
 
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First, I want to state that I am not a plastics expert by any means. I have worked with plastics quite a bit, though, through the years. I have done lower reshells on both Phantom 4 Pro and a P4P V2 and it's not too bad, but the shells are pricey for what they are, especially on small cracks that could easily and safely be repaired in certain areas of the shell. On spare P4P pieces, for experiments, I have tried, with no luck, Testor's plastic model cement, gorilla glue, Thin and Medium CA (super glue) both regular and odorless. I have also used 5 and 30 minute hobby epoxys with fairly good results, but really wanted to find a solvent based plastic adhesive so kept experimenting. Yesterday I tried Oatey Regular PVC Cement (Gold Can) and it didn't work well, remained too flexible, but when I tried Oatey All Purpose Cement (Red Can) for PVC,CPVC, ABS, it worked great. Super solid, like a plastic weld. With cotton swabs I applied a light coat to the outside and a heavy coat to the inside and spread the crack open a bit and then pushed it closed and quickly wiped off the outside. I made sure to prime first with Oatey Clear Primer for CPVC and PVC. I guess you could use the Purple Primer if you wanted, lol, but that's up to you.
 
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First, I want to state that I am not a plastics expert by any means. I have worked with plastics quite a bit, though, through the years. I have done lower reshells on both Phantom 4 Pro and a P4P V2 and it's not too bad, but the shells are pricey for what they are, especially on small cracks that could easily and safely be repaired in certain areas of the shell. On spare P4P pieces, for experiments, I have tried, with no luck, Testor's plastic model cement, gorilla glue, Thin and Medium CA (super glue) both regular and odorless. I have also used 5 and 30 minute hobby epoxys with fairly good results, but really wanted to find a solvent based plastic adhesive so kept experimenting. Yesterday I tried Oatey Regular PVC Cement (Gold Can) and it didn't work well, remained too flexible, but when I tried Oatey All Purpose Cement (Red Can) for PVC,CPVC, ABS, it worked great. Super solid, like a plastic weld. With cotton swabs I applied a light coat to the outside and a heavy coat to the inside and spread the crack open a bit and then pushed it closed and quickly wiped off the outside. I made sure to prime first with Oatey Clear Primer for CPVC and PVC. I guess you could use the Purple Primer if you wanted, lol, but that's up to you.
I wanted to post an update to this post from a few weeks ago. After 18 flights totaling over about 350 minutes of flight time the Oatey All Purpose Cement has failed. Upon inspecting it, it almost seems like the adhesive was a little too brittle. Not sure. But it failed right along the original crack line. I'm very surprised because in my testing on scraps it did great even when twisted and trying to pull it apart. Maybe I moved it around too much while it was curing. Not sure. Sigh. Back to the drawing board!
 

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