Mario James, Gleaner Writer

Gary Hutchinson works on a dashboard. The airbags had exploded.

Has this happened to you? You're nudging along in traffic, your foot on the brake, riding the transmission's ever consistent urge to creep. The cellphone rings, you reach for it and lift your foot at the same time and realise too late, that the vehicle in front of you didn't move. Kee-rump!!

Bumper damage

Heart in your mouth, you get out, walk round the front and see your bumper on the ground, the car in front is an SUV - the occupants didn't even feel it. On the morrow you visit two places; the insurance company and your dealer/favourite parts store. Since only bumper damage occurred, the insurance company will drop you like a hot potato. A little thing called 'excess' has been brought to bear on your finances. The bumper costs less than ten per cent of your ride and you find that the offending piece costs more than $50,000. What are you going to do?

For the well-heeled set, this is not a problem; but or your average joe, a penny saved is a penny earned. Nestled in the heart of Half-Way Tree is a little-known place (well known to those in the automotive trade, but practically invisible to anyone else) that works what can only be described as black magic on plastic pieces. Its name is Wedge Equipment and Supply.

Wedge Repairs

Using a secret process that will never be fully revealed, Wedge plastic welds torn bumpers, cracked dashboards, interior/exterior trim such as grilles, interior panelling, plastic valve covers, overflow bottles, almost anything that's plastic. To repair a bumper, the injury to the moulding is first 'steeled', a technique which brings the torn edges of the part together and a special mat is melted into the plastic. This adds strength to the joint and holds the edges i for the next step, which is the actual 'welding' of the plastic. This process is very similar to welding with oxyacetylene: there are even filler rods that are used! The bumper is then refinished in the normal way.

This is a fibreglass free process, and essentially so. Fibreglass and today's plastics are incompatible. The compounds are thermally and chemically different; they expand at different rates and thus are subjected to different stresses at the same temperature. Eventually, the plastic separates, and its back to square one.

The company also does airbag repair. No, they don't fix the airbag per se. They fix the cover that is torn when the airbag explodes. They do it well enough that the end result is virtually indistinguishable from the original and filler is not used! Give filler two to three months and it will slough right off. A resin is used that is compatible to the plastic underneath, and the texture is moulded back unto the plastic. Dashboards are done the same way.