Jerry's Evolving Thoughts on "new-to-me" Prime Premium

I haven't been keeping up on Prime stuff...but this looks like an obvious design flaw....yes? I defer to the gurus for the correct answer.

 

Doing some search, I found this video.

Turned out it is called Line-X, the material used to spray onto the truck bed. It is not the most aesthetic material to cover the front of the car, but if it can be smoothed out a little bit more and maybe paint it, then it may work??? I emailed a local line-X service center to check if they can do such an application.

 

Watched a Utube video where alternatives to commercial acrylic cement were tested. Acetone was one of the poor performers. MEK did well. Unless its evaporation rate is much greater than acetone's, it should be a better choice in terms of durability.

I was going to mention those bedliners. There are roll on ones at Walmart and else where, and other colors might be possible. The texture is from strengthening fibers in the material. Smoothing it out likely isn't possible without reducing its strength.

 

MEK is usually right next to the acetone in a hardware store. Label says it dries slower than acetone, so it should give more work time when making an acrylic paste.

These cements all chemically weld the plastic, but the weld quality isn't the same between them. This video tested different substitutes to commercial cement. MEK was the only one to be acceptable as a possible replacement for most uses, but even it falls short of commercial. I think DIY aquarium builders have used MEK, but that was before you could get anything off Amazon.

It appears acetone evaporates out before fully welding the pieces.

 

This is what I ordered, Not exactly sure what it is made out of but most YouTube videos I watched for acrylic repair suggests using Weldon #3.

 

Do you have a video or

Did you get the time to replace this part. Do you have any video or pictures of the replacement. I am planning to do the same for my 2017 Prime Advanced. The PDF file looks like a doable task, but it is not very clear. Any video or more photos of the replacement process will help a lot.

 

Not yet. I have to fix cracks first and planning to mod the license plate holder portion to make a 12v battery plug-in port. Also planing to paint or wrap the piece for added strength. It should not be very difficult, but never know until I get to it. The problem is that I have to work on it outside. I have to pick a very nice day for this to happen. When I am done, I can post the result and maybe step by step pics as Jerry did, but sorry, I won't be making any video. That would be too much additional work.

 

Yeah, the temp this morning dipped to below freezing for the time. All summer flowers and vegetables gone in a single night.

 

Day temp here are still very mild in mid 60s. Plus, very good thing is that with the first frost out of the way, now all the bugs are gone. Very nice to work outside during afternoon.

I want to strengthen the acrylic piece but I can't find right material. Plastidip paint in not likely to add any strength. It will just crack again. The wrap may give little more tensile strength. I actually ordered this wrap, indestructible wrap by VViVid, but it does not look right on the car.

 

We saw our first light frost this past weekend here in Virginia.

 

Well, flocks of Floridians are heading back south soon. I can always tell they are from the south. They have down jackets on when most locals are in shorts and no sleeves.

 

The low morning temperatures in Chicago are cold-soaking my traction batteries making it difficult to achieve the normal (for summer) 6.3 miles per kW. Waaay down into the 5.2's now.