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n New Zealand a car or truck which
hasn’t had its registration paid for more
than 12 months has its registration
cancelled.
To re -reg i ster t he ve h ic le, ow ner sh ip
has to be proved and it has to pass
a rigorous inspection. This is called
‘compliance’ and can only be undertaken
by a few testing stations.
A young relative of mine had bought
a Jeep Grand Cherokee which, it turned
out, had been de-registered. To get the
Jeep re-registered, Dave, the compliance
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couple of problems. Anyone who knows
these wagons won’t be surprised to hear
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work, including replacement of the
phenolic pistons in the wheel cylinders
which had swollen and jammed. Also,
at some time in the past, the Jeep hadrun into something with a hefty smack
and the bull bars had been pushed into
the front bumper, poking a ragged hole,
fringed with sharp shards of plastic
which were clearly dangerous.
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the bumper was made of thermoplastic,
as bumpers usually are.You never know when
you might need it
Thermoplastics gradually melt as
they are heated and can be welded.
Thermosetting plastics char rather than
melt and have to be repaired by gluing,
rather than plastic welding.
To get t he bu mper repa i red,
I went hunting and I found one
Dennis McDonald. Dennis’s plastic
welding hobby/business shares his shed
with a large motor bike and a bright red
Chevrolet Corvette along with tools for,
as he says, “any job”.
He has two professional-level welding
machines (one TIG, the other MIG),
two tyre machines (one for motor bike
wheels, the other for car wheels), air
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drill press, and lots and lots of other stuff.Plastic welding was
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bumper was made
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bumpers usually arePart of Dennis’s very
extensive stock of
plastic welding rods.
There are very many
different types and
combinations