More Glue

[Roger]

The sealing rubber is coming away at the top of the drivers side door opening on my car. It appears to me that it is attached with no ridging behind to give it a mechanical grip so it will have to be glued back on.

The only glue I have to hand is Copydex which claims to be suitable for plastics but is it suitable for what I presume is synthetic rubber. I don't want to blight a relatively expensive car for the want of the right product but it is a 40 mile round trip to the BMW agent and they might insist on me paying them to do the repair rather than selling me a suitable glue.

So is Copydex a good choice or if not what readily available adhesive would do the job properly?

[dave cowell]

Copydex is not suitable as it needs to soak in to the items to be glued. it cannot soak into steel or rubber.

dave

[Newshound]

I don't think copydex sticks particularly well to painted metal. I would be inclined to use evostik (not necessarily as a contact adhesive as long as you can clamp it long enough for the solvent to evaporate).

[The Natural Philosopher]

acrylic or silicone frame sealant.

[Derek Geldard]

If it's still the same from my youth in the previous millenium ...

Copydex is a water bound latex solution that works best by soaking into 2 fabrics and then drying out as they are held together. Handy for carpets and rugs etc.

Copydex can't soak into the car door, nor the rubber seal so wouldn't appear to be a good choice. A good contact adhesive that you can spread on both surfaces, allow to bond and then dry out and then re-wet with glue before mating them together would appear to fit the bill.

HTH

DG

[Roger]

The message from "Newshound" contains these words:

It's actually rubber to rubber rather than direct to metal.

Anyway it appears Copydex is out. Thanks for the various suggestions everyone.

[Dave]

A very great deal of what glue/bonding agent to use, is down to the type of rubber. I would suspect that it is silicone rubber and as such, you should use a silicone adhesive. Look out for a supplier of Dow Corning silicone stuff (available in white, black and clear). Failing that, you could use the clear stuff that you use to make fish tanks. Find your local tropical fish emporium and ask there.

Dave

[Dave Plowman (News)]

If it's rubber to rubber superglue is ideal.