Repairing Samsonite luggage

[azr]

hey all. Anyone have any tips for repairing holes, cracks and lock mechanisms on Samsonite luggage. I was thinking of making the same slurry people do for the Vetter fairings and such but I don't know if they are made of the same material or not. Google was of no help.

[850 Combat]

There area lot of threads in other places on repairing Krauser. Lots. Probably similar.

[rustybronco]

Everything I can find says it's made out of ABS. My senses tell me it's ABS as well. (I have a set)

How about a small test area first?

Heat softens ABS allowing it to bend easily.

[tkent02]

I weld them with a soldering iron.

[spyug]

I think they are ABS which is what most bike fairings and bodywork is made from and other vacuum formed parts. As these cases are vacuum formed, I suspect they are ABS too To test, slice off that folded piece and drop into a glass jar with a like amount of acetone.

After a fairly short time it should become soft and can be mixed with the acetone to make the "slurry". It should form to the consistency of honey. Using too much acetone would make it watery and not as useable.

If they are ABS, you can make up slurry using ABS from plumbing pipe or lego blocks.

To fill that hole, you could get some ABS sheet of a similar thickness to first make a patch (available from some hobby stores or plastics suppliers) or make up sufficient slurry to "trowel" on like a bondo fill. Place some duct tape on the inside to close the hole and fill it in.

When dry, ABS can be worked like bondo and smoothed right out. If you are handy, you might even be able to emboss the patch with the pebble effect by scratching it with a sharp nail or dental pick as it is drying.

give the test a whirl and let us know what you find.

[azr]

Fantastic advice guys, thanks a bunch. I didn't even think of looking up Krauser bags Paul, I've never seen a bag in person but I bet they're just like the Samsonites. I'll post as I make progress.

[gustovh]

You can also use the black abs glue used in plumbing to repair cracks and holes, just fill the void with abs something if it is a bigger hole.
V

[850 Combat]

Fantastic advice guys, thanks a bunch. I didn't even think of looking up Krauser bags Paul, I've never seen a bag in person but I bet they're just like the Samsonites. I'll post as I make progress.

I'm going to try this on my Krausers, if I can get the JB weld off:

Go to the hardware store and buy some plumbers ABS cement. You can get sheets of ABS plastic in varying thickness from places that specialize in plastics, or you can get a foot or two of large diameter ABS pipe and cut it into sections to use as patches.

Clean the area to be repaired well, and rough it with sandpaper. Apply the ABS cement liberally to the surface to repair, apply the patch with a good coating of cement, then cover both sides of the repair with blocks of wood and clamp tightly.

Leave for several days to allow the cement to cure.

The advantage to using ABS cement is that it's a solvent for ABS plastic, so if you prepare the surface correctly, it will actually weld the material, rather than just sticking to it as any other form of adhesive would do.
I've repaired my own Krauser bags with it, and also some nasty cracks on the dash panel in my RT fairing. All repairs have held up very well, unlike the attempts the previous owner made using fiberglass cloth and epoxy, which I was able to peel of with ease.