Brokey Flight Shield

Lia

The art of bodge knows no bounds.

The other day I snapped my flight shield trying to follow FF's instructions on removing the middle hump in the shield. Spoiler... even though they say you can bend the black flight shield pro... I assume they mean new ones. Because my 3 year old one snapped violently. To make matters worse it tore straight through lil skater Spyro too ;~;

After a little crying, apologising to Slush and wondering why I was so dumb as to try bend plastic that was clearly not giving at all I had 3 options...

Spray paint my clear shield black
Buy some similar plastic and make my own
Glue the shield back together

To get me through the next few days I did #1 to avoid getting a soggy leg when shopping. However gluing the fender posed the question "will that even work???"

I have some very special glue that's done miracles and figured what's 1 more miracle than welding 3mm plastic together without it snapping under load when putting it back on.

This glue is amazing. Long story short my bosses chair shattered a castor wheel and as a joke I said I'd glue it together. 5 years later THAT WHEEL HAS OUTLIVED THE REST!

Just in case though I bought a big sheet of ABS to make my own if this breaks. Admittedly I didn't have faith.

However it held. I managed to slot it in with the magic super glue.

Gloves and goggles were me being a complete wimp. You should have heard the noises I made. Lots of squeeling anxious it was going to snap and hit me D:

Here's the glue if you're interested. Crazy strong stuff.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0012RGL3K/

Long live the flight shield!

LOAFFETTE

@lia
~~Had to type this on my desktop because the website wasn't letting me post anything on my phone~~

It's nice to see people repair broken items, especially stuff made out of plastic instead of tossing it into the trash! The repair looks pretty good, and I'd say you did an excellent job!

Lia

@loaffette Fixing it felt right, although I’m not sure how well it’ll hold. That’s a lot of stored energy in that bend. Worst case I glue it again and work it into an art piece.

Tomorrow it’ll get the tappy tap test with a hammer. If it explodes then I’ll be cutting my own since shipping a shield to the UK is gonna suck.

Lia

Nooooo it brokey again D:
Was kinda expecting that tbh. 3mm of plastic was not going to hold that sort of continuous loading.

Looks like I'm cutting my own, good thing the clear one is still un-warped so I can use it as a stencil.

S. Leon

@lia -- Aside: Your video of machine-sewing up your wrist guards inspired me yesterday to take out a needle and thread and hand-sew up mine -- now much more secure.

Edit: On your flexshield you could glue&screw a strip of reinforcing plastic on the underside. The industrial rows of screws or rivets would give the shield a bit of a steam punk look.

Lia

@s-leon Aha I remember that. Surprisingly the new velcro I added has been way more versatile than the ones that came sewn on. Nice one fixing yours and hopefully the fix lasts long too :)

I did consider bracing it but thought that might ruin the look. Would have to be on the outside as the clearance due to the hump is really tight D:

blkdout

I like the rivet idea but yeah, that kind of work and aesthetic isn't for everyone. I'm sure the freshly cut one will be just fine... I personally like seeing the tire spin but I also don't ride through puddles like you lunatics lol.

Lia

Finally fixed properly by biting the bullet and cutting that big sheet of ABS.

Found out very quickly that the power tools I wanted to use to trim down the sheet were not going to work. They melted the sheet too quick and got really messy.

Didn't have a suitable blade so brought out the big saw. Knew I kept this thing for a reason. Used some spare 20x20 pine as a fence to try keep it straight so the leftover material wasn't all crooked.

I didn't want to use the scroll saw since I'm pretty bad with it but after spending forever using hand tools I gave up. TBH I think I did an alright job. Identical in shape, material and style to a stock flight shield so I'm happy :)

All that's left to do is heatgun the ends to put a slight bend in so the hump in the middle isn't as permenant. Finally do what I set out to do in the first place before snapping my old one ;~; Just need to put stickers on it now and dirty it up so it's just like it was before all this.

ed_co

@lia Great replacement

Lia

@ed_co Thank you :)
Beats paying international shipping for a replacement.

LOAFFETTE

@lia well done on it!
I envy your ability to do these kinds of fixes
I don't have the tools or knowledge to do this, nor the money since I just bought a OW XR lol

Lia

@loaffette Thanks :3
I'm super slow when it comes to doing these things, so many unfinished projects D:

That scrollsaw was only £40 secondhand on eBay if you want to get something like that, super useful but a bit tricky to control since the blades are super flexible lol.