the trim on my 88runner is old and has some cracks and feels like it is going to snap if not handled very gently. I have some por 15 epoxy putty and some regular old por15 and was wondering if anyone has ever tried coating the underside of the trim with por15 to give it a little more strength and to keep them from cracking any further?

 

What trim? inside outside?

 

I love Por-15... have used it extensively to coat the frames on a couple of vehicles, and to keep the body from going to hell on the yota, but never used it on trim. I wonder if it would just make it more brittle.

 

inside trim
kick panels, top trim, tailgate panels, cargo panels, that kinda stuff

 

I haven't used POR before but on a 4Runner I had a LONG time ago, I used fiberglass Bondo on the back sides of the topper trim very thin with fiberglass tape and it seemed to stiffen them up well. Those things were so flimsy I thought they were going to snap in half every time I touched em. If POR is as thick as everyone makes it out to be it may help, but at the same time, depending on how it bonds/penetrates the plastic it could also hurt you. I'd contact the manufacturer on that one. I think a thick epoxy layer would probably help as well but whatever you do would probably be most effective if you could coat the entire piece instead of just the backside. JB weld also makes a product that is good with plastic as well. If you find something that works post up! I know I've got some brittle plastic in my rig from cooking in the sun for 20 years.

 

West System epoxy is awesome on almost everything. Or you could just buy some fiberglass resin at your local auto shop, it is much cheaper and works well on plastic. Just rough it up a bit with some sand paper.