Glareshield repair methods

[PT20J]

I just completed some repairs on my 1994 M20J glare shield. It was warped and starting to develop some cracks. Here are techniques that I found helpful:

The glareshield is made from ABS plastic and is really easy to work with. I first separated the two pieces that form the glareshield assembly by using a long bladed knife and a thin putty knife to work the upper and lower pieces apart at the glue joint. Then I used a heat gun to soften and flatten some portions that had been warped by the sun. I got some 1/16" thick sheet ABS from a local plastic store and used this to reinforce some cracked areas from the bottom side on flat parts of the glareshield.  ABS cement used for gluing plumbing pipe together works great. Small cracks can be glued back together by dribbling some MEK (which is a solvent for ABS) into the crack with a toothpick or other device and then pressing the two sides of the crack together. Just use it sparingly.  Some areas needed reinforcing, and for these I used two or three layers of glass cloth embedded in ABS cement. Don't get carried away reinforcing - the glareshield needs some flex to be able to install it. After completing the repairs, I glued the two parts of the glareshield together using RTV. This will hold them securely, but make it possible to get them apart in the future if necessary. To hide the repaired cracks on the top of the glareshield, I filled in some voids with a little ABS cement and then sanded smooth. Then I used SEM Texture Coating and Trim Black sprays to finish. SEM has a good Youtube video on this. I also put some UHMW PE tape on the back edge to make it less likely to scratch the windshield during installation and removal. Final touch was to install Bruce Jaegar's Easy-out glareshield repair kit to allow enlarging the slot around the center post (I think forcing the old part around the post is what caused a lot of the cracks).

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