I have bought some 2.5mm abs sheet from plays-kool for my internal side panels. I want to cut it too long so that I can wrap a tab over the sills.

How easy is this?, would a hot air gun do it?

Any tips?

Cheers,

Mark.

yes, heat gun is plenty hot enough.

Its a nice job, but try on an off-cut first.

Matt

If there is a protective sheet on it remove it before you use the heat gun as it can be a devil to get off once heated as i found to my cost on some poly carb sheet.

Mike

heat it gently then let it cool slowly - should stop the bend becoming brittle or bubbling - good luck !

I wondered about using abs for the same thing, but when I checked it appears to be flammable with a tendency to continue burning even with the heat source removed. The same site did not mention the same problem with PVC.

Any wiser more experienced comments appreciated.

Err...if my side panels are alight I suspect I would have either very warm legs or quite possibly RAN AWAY

Seriously, there are lots of people who have used this material and it cannot be any worse than carpet or the wood that many people use for their dash.

Just a thought here i wonder if hot water would soften it enough to bend it as i have used boiling water on some types plastics in the past with success.

Mike

Boiling hot water would be a good idea depending on what size of ABS your bending? I made a rear defuser this year for my Tiger and used ABS cut then heated with a heat gun over a long pice of 2be1. I have even used a car heater to bend smaller parts of ABS... Good Luck.

ABS is used extensively for molded panels in public transport - planes trains buses etc as well as lots of car dash boards, if it is on fire and you are still in there you are fairly fooked anyway.

Bending straight lines is easiest done on a hot wire bender, - see your local secondary school, small bits can be done with hot air gun but try and put most of heat in from the side you won't see,
If you get a rubbery smell it is getting too hot- back off the heat a bit.
never concentrate heat on one spot as it will bubble and melt, if you want to turn it back on itself have some kind of former to bend it over - even a bit of bar in the vice would do, waft some gentle heat over front surface to help it to roll over.
As above practise first
Hope this helps
atb
Mike

All very good advice......

I will give it a go at the weekend.

Thanks,

Mark

Been doing the same this week to mine. Takes a bit of practice to get it right on the bigger panels but straight lines at 90 deg are pretty easy. As has been said, use a form to get the bend or it can kink a bit.

Good luck and stick some pics up when you're done

Useful advice, thanks.

Bent abs here


abs sill

Went ok with the heat gun. It is not perfectly straight but not bad.