In repairing the doors, I did mix up these types of plastic in that the broken brick is ABS, used to repair three doors in cellulose acetate, one of which ended up in a truck in ABS again. If ever I find a spare door in ABS I'll swap it out.
Friday, 5 February 2021
Lego Bedford removal truck repairs
Three of my Bedford removal trucks each had a broken or missing left door. The one at right had it glued to the rear of the side by a previous owner, the other two came in with just one door. But a friendly seller once sold me two loose broken doors amongst other bits, so all three could be put right.A broken blue brick provided small strips of a useful thickness. These were cut into thinner strips that would become the new spindles for the doors. To be sure, they were tried for size in the hole they would need to fit into.
A bit of the original door spindle was cut off each end, so the replacement could be longer and stronger. Merely sticking new tiny bits on the ends would be very tricky to get right and would come off again at the merest nudge. After being superglued in place, the new ends were sanded down to the same thickness as the original.
The rear of the chassis could in each case be bent down just enough so each door could be fitted in place with the new spindles sitting in the appropriate holes at top and bottom. The doors are fully functional though should best be handled with a bit of care.
As an aside, the lowest of the three Bedford removal trucks is a later version made from ABS plastic. Which is duller in colour than the other two made from the earlier cellulose acetate plastic. But it shows the advantage of ABS, in that it's still straight as an arrow after half a century. The two older trucks show the kind of warping that cellulose acetate unfortunately is subject to.
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