JB Weld Stories

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Mar 24, 2007
Messages
10,007
Location
Upstate NY
What have you used JB Weld for on a car?

I'll start: There was a hole the size of a deck of cards in the passenger rear fenderwell of my 99 Buick LeSabre that allowed an inch of water into the rear seat and fried my airbag computer on the floor by the rear seat this past winter. A sheet-steel panel held on by rivets and half a package of JB Weld is blocking that hole off quite nicely.

Let's hear the stories!
 
A friend of mine had an off-road excursion with his Century that put a hole in the transmission pan when he went over a drop-off and landed on a stump. We took the pan off, hammered it flat, and JB Welded the hole shut before throwing it back on with RTV and bolting it up tight.
 
I once stopped in the middle of the night to ask someone pulled over if they needed help. Turns out part of their plastic coolant reservoir had gotten brittle and broken off so I grabbed some weld from my glovebox and slapped it back together for them. I told them to email me when they made it back to Dallas (this was in San Antonio at like 3am) and they made it back just fine.
 
Don't get me started on this stuff. I've fixed numirious things with the stuff. I've even made parts completely out of it when a piece was missing lost. By just mixing it up and shaping it close to what I wanted then "machining" it with my dremel tool.

My wife hit a rabbit one day and broke the bezel around her fog light. Insurance est was around $750 for a Light, Bumper cover, and paint. I JB welded the Bezel, put a new bulb in the light, and sanded the bezel sprayed it black to hide the crack. From the front you can't tell its ever been hit. Cost less than $10.

Our Brush roller in the Vacuum is not availible without buying $100 conversion kit that changes the base, motor, brush roll, and belt. Nealy as much as the thing costed in the first place. Worked fine other than that. So the bearing supports on the ends got a JB weld make over. Been using it about a year like that.

I've got a Mikita circular saw that one of the brush holders cracked and broke. There wasn't much of the original left and little room in that end of the motor to add to the holder. I mixed some up and let it harden good in a match box. Then replicated the part as best I could by carving with several different bits in my dremel. I don't use the saw like a building contractor. But it works fine for my needs. BTW I did try to find a replacement from Makita N/A for that model saw.
 
Originally Posted By: soldierman
Don't get me started on this stuff. I've fixed numirious things with the stuff. I've even made parts completely out of it when a piece was missing lost. By just mixing it up and shaping it close to what I wanted then "machining" it with my dremel tool.



I can't take credit for this one, I just read about it yesterday.
A guy had a cheap food processor that broke a plastic drive gear. The gear isn't available as a spare a part, you need to buy the entire base to get a gear.

He super glued the broken gear together, made a mold of the gear with plaster of paris and cast a new gear with JB weld. He said it's been working for three months so far which is as long as the factory part lasted and he has the mold to cast another one.

For JB repairs, consider using some fiberglass cloth in the JB for extra strength. It makes it several time stronger if you are spanning a hole, etc. It won't stick any better, but it will be several times as hard to break.

If you back up a hole with duct tape, it gives the JB something to sit on and hold shape while it cures. The duct tape adhesive makes for a crude parting agent when you pull it off later.
 
I repaired the radiator filler tube of a 93 Lumina. It was a plastic part that cracked. I found the smallest PVC coupler that fit around the tube. Trimmed a bit to get a better fit. Installed with JB Weld.

It lasted a few weeks (over 2K miles) until I sourced a deal on a replacement radiator. I was tempted to leave it going until it broke but it was the 'future wife's' car. I had to wait until she was a real wife before I pulled tricks like that on her car :)
 
Not a car but on our old Allis Chalmers WD45 we could never get one of the oil lines to stop leaking. So dad slapped some JB weld on it and it held for as long as I can remember.
 
I installed drain plugs in both of our cars' transmission pans, they leaked, JB welded the [censored] out of them, now they don't leak.

So far it's stood up to thousands of miles of hot tranny fluid just fine.
 
Last edited:
This is of course not going to be in every factory dealership, but for independents and home tools boxes, JBQuick is a must have.
I have more stories than Davy Crocket about it.
 
I just used some Kwik Weld to patch some cleaned rust pinholes in my car's rocker panels (with a plastic spoon for spreader. I love DIY!). Get to primering, and there's the one I missed! Grr!

JB Weld in various formulations seems to be holding my car's undersides together with all the rust holes it's repaired.
 
I've patched a number of cracked tractor engine blocks. The N series tractor often cracks at a non-critical area if the block freezes. I've repaired several of them-widen the crack, drill the ends, work in some JB Weld and dab it with cheese cloth to give it the same texture as the surrounding block.

A couple have been nearly impossible to detect after their painted, and I'm sure all are still holding.
 
I repaired a mounting tab that sheared off of a radiator in an accident. The upper tie bar pushed back and broke the tab off of the upper tank. JB welded it and drove it another 80k before I sold it!
 
July 2005

One of the hottest nights I can remember and the air conditioner in the house turns off. I step out to the garage (HVAC is over the garage) to see water pouring from the ceiling. I go upstairs and find that the primary pan had rusted through and filled the secondary pan. The secondary pan had no drain and the shutoff switch had done it's job.

I pulled the primary pan out, cleaned it up, and put some JB weld in the crack. Added a few coats of paint, reinstalled the pan and we've been in business for the last 4 years.
 
I've repaired quite a few diesel engine blocks with the stuff. Detroit blocks tend to cavitate where the liner o-rings seal against the block- there will be rough, sharp, corroded-looking holes in the block, usually right where the top liner seal seals against the block (there are three seal rings at the bottom of each liner).

So long as the block is intact enough so that the center seal ring can seal against a good metal surface, then I consider the block usable. I clean out the cavitation with brake cleaner and blow it dry. Pack JB weld into the holes, let it set up a little bit, scrape it flush with a razor blade. Let it set up overnight and sand it smooth. I don't know well it holds up with heat and time- but it DOES fill the cavitation holes and keeps the seal rings from being cut. That's all it really NEEDS to do in this application... but it might also help the top seal ring seal.
 
Not a JB Weld story, but my dad used some Bondo to patch a hole that was rusted/worn through the reel on an old bean combine. He used it for years before retiring, and the Bondo actually wore more slowly than the rest of the metal around it.

Modern epoxies and the like are pretty amazing.
 
Originally Posted By: Solo2driver
Hole in oil pan-- check (another Subaru, and a buddy's Passat 4Motion). Great stuff!!


I ran over something one time in my old 320i and it snagged the oil pan drain and pulled open a tear in the pan. Tried to JB Weld it back together and drove it to class. That afternoon after leaving class, I could see an Exxon Valdez-sized slick trailing downhill from my car. walked to gas station, bought oil, filled it up, and drove it to my mechanic. $30 later he welded it right. I didn't touch the stuff for years afterward. Bought a pack a few months back, though, just to have.
 
Not a car related story but the Toilet tank had a 8inch crack in it repaired it with JB Weld and 8 years later and still holding.
I replaced the shower drain pipe with pvc and just under the floor I could not screw the pvc to the pipe..so out came the JB Weld and epoxied the section of drain pipe and no leaks after 3 years!!
 
i used jb weld to seal a crack in the transmission on a scooter. still holding to this day, although i don't like using the stuff. it's more something i'd do in a pinch but otherwise it's garbage.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top