July 14, 2016—Polyvance announced Wednesday its new 6146 Bumper Plier Kit, designed to make it easier for technicians to repair the rectangular “slot tab” features that are common on bumpers.
The small holes are designed to clip into brackets on the quarter panels to hold the bumper in place. The cross bars are weak and often tear when removing the bumper. Polyvance’s Bumper Plier Kit is designed to help in the repair of these parts.
The kit comes with six steel forming dies of varying widths. To use the kit, a tech selects the die that matches the torn slot tab and fixed it in place temporarily with aluminum tape. The die fills the hole and provides a backing plate, making the nitrogen welding process more efficient. Each die comes with a set of matching pliers to compress the melted plastic welding rod and conform it to the shape of the die. The pliers press the welding rod to the same thickness as the flange while the die keeps it from flowing into the hole, and when it cools, the die is removed and the outside edge of the slot tab can easily be restored.
