Cracked thule box

Www.recrepair.com is what Thule recommends you use to seal your crack :) -- it is an ABS patch kit and is waterproof as it is used for permanent canoe and kayak repairs. it is NASA designed.

I am using it on my Atlantis 1800.

I used Bondo and it worked great, I just painted it after to get it to match.

I have the popular Thule Atlantis 1600 which for reasons that still escape even the high volume vendors, has been discontinued as originally set up. A large (8 metres) branch fell on my Thule box splitting the upper carcass in many directions (both seams and field areas), in addition to the complete break of a front lower segment. I acquired the box for the features it represented, now broken, wanted to buy a new one --- wait... it is discontinued. While I was able to finally find one after much searching, I decided to try and fix the broken one. Well I have to say, it worked out great, and did not involve expensive epoxy, adhesives, hot air welders, or any of the methods most commonly referred to.

Thule's cargo boxes are made from ABS plastic. The same black plastic material used for your household domestic waste plumbing systems. Rather than use foreign (non-ABS) as your binding agent, simply use ABS. By keeping the joint material native, you are essentially re-establishing the continuity of the original material.

Take a small pieces of ABS pipe (any scrap will do, just ensure it's ABS -- will say on the side) and grind it down in shavings. I used a rotary cutting tool with a bit that looks like a common router bit for rabbit joinery. This resulted in very small shavings. Accumulate enough shavings and place in a small glass jam jar with a lid. I had to cover roughly 1.5 metres in crack length and found ABS shaving volume equal to a couple marsh mellows to be plenty. Here's the magic.... pour a small amount of Acetone into the jar and stir the contents (outside as it fumes) -- add more as needed just to get it to the consistency of carpenter's glue.

After you have bound the cracked segments of your Thule from the outside (I used rubberized packing tape as it great horizontal field strength but can be removed easily). The tape up doesn't have to be pretty, just ensure the edges are tight and tape is firmly holding it tight. On the inside, use a rotary cutting tool and any cutting bit to grind a trough directly where the cracks are. I when down approximately 3 millimetres and across approximately 8 mills. I left it rough to the touch.

Clean the trough with Isopropyl alcohol; let dry. Using a small paint brush (ones you find in elementary school water colour paint kits is fine) "paint" the trough with the dissolved ABS in your jar. The advantage here is the Acetone in the mixture dissolves the edge of your trough so both the slurry (your mixture) and the hard carcass body are naturally bonding. As you might imagine, the Acetone will evaporate leaving nothing behind but ABS -- as hard as the original, fully bonded to the original material. Once dried, apply additional coats to build up the trough to your preferred profile.

Remove the tape on the outside and you're set. You could apply some sealant to the outer surface of the cracked area, but I did not as keeping it clean to look at is difficult.

Good luck.

Use fibreglass strip and epoxy bonding compound for long-term durability