Dumb question about 1/8 scale Poacher kits

[jpolacchi]

Stupid question/subject, but I'm wondering if anyone in here knows? I bought out some 1/8 scale Poacher body parts for a different scratch project. Does anyone know what kind of plastic Poacher used (or uses) for the kits? I don't think it is styrene? I want to know what solvent to use to bond the parts together and other styrene parts. If I have to use epoxy and 5 min epoxy so be it, but chemical bonds are stronger than mechanical bonds. I'd prefer to use a solvent to melt parts together.

[Andrew Gorman]

No personal experience, but it it's not styrene it's probably ABS. Any acrylic or plexiglas cement should work. The late Ambroid Pro Weld, the "Same Stuff" someone was selling, etc. My fave is TAP Plastics:
https://www.tapplastics.com/product/rep ... cement/130
If you are using another product, check the SDS to make sure it includes methylene chloride, which is emphatically NOT methyl ethyl ketone. And yes, you can buy it in California, just not in the South Coast AQMD east of LA.

[DaveVan]

Plastruct solvent glue in the Orange bottle will work with ABS. Great stuff and available most shops/online.

[jpolacchi]

I got the parts just a couple days ago, they are without a doubt styrene. The seller kind threw me off with how he said he repaired one of the parts that cracked and needed to be glued back together. He used superglue and a piece of metal to pin the part. So, I thought it wasn't styrene and something else that required epoxy or superglue. I figured if it were styrene he would have just used a drop of solvent to melt the parts back together. I'll test it for sure, but I am 99% sure its styrene. I know the look and feel of styrene and it lacks the feel and the flexibility that ABS has. I think the Plastistruct Plast Weld will work on it too.

[seam-filler]

I couldn't say for sure, but I would suspect that, like many other model car manufacturers, Poacher probably use HIPS (High Impact Polystyrene) which is styrene with polybutadiene added. Like ABS, straight styrene solvent will often not work, but anything that works with ABS (like Plastruct Plas Weld) should work well.

[jpolacchi]

I talked to someone the other day who is part of Pocher club/forum and it most definitely is styrene. Regular styrene solvents will work, MEK and I thought of using the Plasti Weld Plastistruct makes will work. I'm confident it will. Its solvent universally works on most plastics if I am not mistaken? Acrylic, MEK, styrene. I think butyrate too? It's been a long time since I have purchased any.