widening an air dam

[dusterbd13]

i need to widen the black plastic air dam from an 80's s10 a couple of inches for the duster im working on. this piece is slightly textured, and is a molded piece.

what i was thinking was getting another from the salvage yard, cutting the needed extra length from it, and adding it into the middle of the good one im lengthening.

my questions are:
1. how do i attach it all back together?
2. will i need to reinforce the spliced area?
3. how to get the texture back in ot?
4. what products to use?
5. any other experience/things im missing?

ive never really done much with plastic before, so im somewhat lost. i dont even know what KIND of platic these are made from. so i can googlke how to work with it.
trhanks for nay help you can throw my way, or directions you can point me in.

thanks
Michael

[Jim Nilsen]

Short of riveting it together or making a splice out of metal it will be hard to make it look nicer. Glue or plastic welding will not work well for looks if it is even possible to weld it or glue it. I know the air dam you are talking about and you might as well start with something from another truck or car that is the width you want or longer and cut it down or fabricate something from scratch.

There are a few guys here doing S10-15's and do some nice work, maybe they can point you in the right direction. Look for the builds and go from there with the ideas.

Goodluck

[elitecustombody]

That airdam is some sort of thermoplastic like TPO,Olefin,Elastomer or Polypropylene,either way, it can be cut and plastic welded, as long as it smears when you grind it,it can be welded, If I were you,I'd check to see if a full size truck airdam will work or buy two s-10 airdams, you can buy them dirt cheap aftermarket, cut two and make one.

I just finished painting a bumper for Fernando's (killer67) new Escalade. I cut this bumper in pieces as you can see in pics below, shortened it by about 6 inches to give it a roll pan look,but still retain factory reinforcement bar/trailer hitch,parking sensors and a portion of what used to be step pad.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/02/IMAG02351-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/02/IMAG02641-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/02/IMAG02841-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/02/IMAG03051-1.jpg