Repairing tail light reflector plastic

[bigperm206]

The reflector plastic which holds the four bolts which holds the tail light assembly to my car has broken/crumbled and now I am not getting a good seal between the body and the tail light assembly. This means I am getting water in my rear foot wells.

Is there an epoxy/glue which is best for repairing the plastic reflector piece so it will be able to hold the four bolts and I can get a good water tight seal again? Maybe some type of marine epoxy? Or, is there a better fix for this problem. Thanks

[socalfiver]

Same thing happened to the bottom 2 screws on my left taillight.

I have no recommendation for what will hold, but J-B Weld did not hold for me. I've yet to try another epoxy, and am scouring the yards for a good used assembly. They occasionally pop up cheap on Ebay, and there's a set of NOS assemblies for under $200, which is a steal. if I had a job, I'd be ordering those.

[Domingo]

Tight them to hard as I did the first time and cracked the tail light cover...

[T.Hanson]

My experience with most plastic parts: glove box latch, tail lights, defy simple gluing. Maybe drilling peg inserts, fiberglass gob, goop, sand,...or buy new and be done with it.

[Mike W.]

It depends on how bad they're broken. I've had some success with epoxy, but not great. And if you have any distance to span you'll need to reinforce it with wire or something like that, epoxy alone is too fragile when it's thin like that. And you can't get it too thick because then you'll have problems getting the taillight to seal and not leak which is probably why you're there in the first place!

There may or may not be some deals here from one of my E28 friends. And it does say to make offer, so make offer, there probably aren't a lot of people beating the doors down for E12 parts. All he can do is say no, LOL.

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?t=84377