Fix a broken plastic tab

[Whip]

Hi. I'm sure you would've encountered this situation before, a product places exorbitant amount of forces on plastic tabs and they eventually fail. This happened to me. The product is an aftermarket rear view mirror. To fix it to the mirror, there are 2 spring loaded clamps. The springs are strong but I didn't know they were held by tiny plastic tabs until I opened it up. I had to do that because one of them broke.

Here's how the good side looks like:

And here's the broken side:

Here's a picture of the broken tab:

My question is can this be repaired? If so, what would you use to fix it? In the past I've tried CA glue but it doesn't hold enough force. In the installed position, the spring is always in a pulled state.

I don't know what kind of plastic this is but it would be the most common cheap plastic out there.

 

[Ian]

Welcome to the forums . Is the tab that broke the fixed end? It appears to be, which makes it a little easier.

How thick is the plastic? I'd perhaps be tempted to melt some sort of hook base in to the plastic, if it is thick enough. Or, make some sort of new jig that you can fix to existing screw holes/fixed parts (like the plastic standoff) and mount a new hook on that.

 

[Whip]

Thank you. Yeah it is the fixed end.

The plastic is not very thick. 2mm? Can't measure due to its shape.

I've been searching for different glues and am thinking I'll try a 2 part epoxy to glue it back in. Not sure if it can take enough stress, but I've read the joins are pretty strong.

Do you have a video of a similar fix that you are talking about so I can visualize it better?

 

[Ian]

I've not got a video unfortunately, I'm just thinking of ways to improvise . Epoxy may work, but you might need to re-enforce it with something (and be sure to scuff the surface a lot to get as good a bond as possible).