Eng Cover Striker

[DMCJosh85]

When I bought my car I noticed that the engine cover striker wiggled a bit. This last for almost a year until one day it it didn't and the striker and threaded insert came falling right out. On https://store.delorean.com/parts/fra...ine-cover.html see parts # 50 & 52.

My fix was to use Permatex 84333 ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ) which is a high temp epoxy stick that sounded promising. I cleaned up the hole the insert goes into and let this stuff cure in place and then drilled a required hole and threaded the insert in. This worked for a few months until it began to wiggle and eventually failed all together. So now that I'm back to needing to fix this I wanted to see if anyone had a product or repair recommendation for this application that might help me out here.

[Rich]

I cleaned up the hole the insert goes into and let this stuff cure in place and then drilled a required hole and threaded the insert in. This worked for a few months until it began to wiggle and eventually failed all together.

No specific advice about it yet, only a question about exactly which material or interface failed in your repair.

Did the epoxy crumble and break up? Did the epoxy let go of the inside of the hole and come out all in one piece on the insert and striker?

[Ron]

FWIW- That looks like it is made for metals.

Try cleaning the hole out , leaving it rough, and use new fiberglass or JB Weld it in.

[DMCJosh85]

FWIW- That looks like it is made for metals.

Try cleaning the hole out , leaving it rough, and use new fiberglass or JB Weld it in.

Giving JB Weld a try now. My previous repair started to crumble apart before it just pulled right out entirely. Admittedly I am not an accomplished expert of fiberglass repair.

[Helirich]

I fixed mine without glue, but you might not like the cosmetics. I just drilled and tapped a stainless bolt for the striker. Then I tapped the cover for the bolt. It's very solid, but you can see the bolt head from the top.

IMG_0491.jpg

The added benifit is I can unthread it if the mechanism stops working.

[MrChocky]

Giving JB Weld a try now. My previous repair started to crumble apart before it just pulled right out entirely. Admittedly I am not an accomplished expert of fiberglass repair.

My expectation is that JB Weld was the correct choice. Fiberglass is useful material, but I'm not sure I'd trust it for "sharp" impact situations like the striker.

[Jason]

I used a press in threaded insert with some JB weld to help hold in the insert. So far has lasted at least 8 years, 70k miles, and lots of opening/closing.