How To Repair A Thule Cargo Box

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Final Updated on February 23, 2022 by

Y'all may want to fix your cargo box for cheaper solutions, and nosotros have some suggestions & tips for yous. When you got your cargo box, y'all probably used information technology weekly or monthly with your family unit or friends on a road trip or other outdoor adventures. Consequently, you lot may meet unpredictable accidents on the highways or in a metropolis. When your cargo box has scratches, holes, a damaged surface, you lot can supersede information technology with a new one or repair it with tools. Diverse damages require different methods, so nosotros will introduce common ways of fixing a cargo box.

Small Cracks

If your cargo box has a brusque or long scissure on its surface, you can use this method to set it. Beginning, you need to take your cargo box off the car and put it somewhere easy to operate the fixing procedures. Nosotros highly recommend you offer a deep clean before taking any further steps of repairing. If you lot don't have whatsoever fourth dimension for cleaning, you improve make clean and dry the damaged portion of your cargo box where you want to ready and apply additional materials for sealing. In one case y'all have prepared for repair, you tin start to follow the steps to recover your cargo box'due south cracks with recommending tools.

renewing a cargo box from offset to end – tools required

Cracks have many kinds, short, long, vertical, and horizontal, then yous need to measure them and write the number downwards for later apply.

Before starting, you have to gear up a scissor and a roll of Flex Tape. When you lot choose a scissor, y'all use one that you can throw away as garbage later on using because of the super viscid glue on the record. Y'all can observe Flex Tape on Amazon, a local auto store, or Homedepot, and you only take two color options when you purchase the FlexTape: white and black.

If your cargo box is not blackness or white, you tin use the other options below to fix a crack.

When yous have a scissor, a ringlet of Flex Tape, you are ready to perform the repair.

Firstly, you open up the package of the Flex Tape and cut the tape appropriately with the measurement you take for the damaged portion of your roof box.

Secondly, yous paste the tape to cover the scissure from left to correct or upwardly to down gently. When the tape goes, yous employ your thumb to stress the tape from center to border to the end. Tertiary, when the crevice is fully covered, you should wait closely to ensure that it has no air chimera within the record. If it has, you employ your fingers to hardly stress from centre to edges on the area until all air bubbles disappear as wanted.

Thirdly, y'all better exit the fixed cargo box where it was for 24 hours for expected results.

Information technology is the first method to fix a crack on a blackness or white cargo box, and it is affordable.

If you have doubts near method i, you can lookout a video from Youtube. The writer repaired his blackness Thule cargo box and tested the Flex Tape with a long road trip on a rainy day. We think the video has what you want to know, and you tin acquire a petty from it.

Holes & Large Harm

If y'all accept mistakenly drive through your garage without taking the cargo box off, your cargo box may have holes or large cracks on it. When you come across situations like the to a higher place statement, you still have options:

Repairing the cargo box yourself with a small amount of coin on tools ($100),
Fixing it in the local car shop for more than $300,
Buying a new i for $500.

If y'all decide to go with option 1, you follow the steps beneath to minimize the hurts and maximize the saving. It sounds skillful. Ok, let us get started.

Steps of Fixing Holes & Big Cracks On A Cargo Box

Sand the Surface area

Y'all use sandpaper to smoothen the area until the surface is smooth for your finger touch, and the 80 grit sandpaper can do the job. Normally, 2 to 3 times of polishing is enough for later steps. While you lot are polishing, you demand to spread some water to the target area. Exercise not sand the surface without h2o for as well long.

Clean the Area

Afterward polishing, you can outset to clean the area with water until it is make clean and dry out. So, you can use oil remover to wipe the surface for seconds for taking off the oil from the target area and get ready for the side by side steps.

Utilize the Epoxy

put epoxt on broken parts and sand to smooth after dry

Now, it is time to put some epoxy to cover the holes, gaps, or large cracks on your cargo box. When you do this step, you need to employ wooden tools to level the surface with added epoxy. Making sure all broken parts are covered is significant to the results, so yous demand patience. (Expect for at least 30 minutes until the epoxy is dry and ready for further sanding)

Sand the Area Once more

You lot use your finger to feel if the epoxy is dry and house, and y'all tin sand the expanse one time again until you lot can not feel whatsoever tiny gaps between the edge around the epoxy-covered area. (with water on not too much)

Cover the Residuum

Before performing the press step, you take to use newspaper or plastic paper to cover the rest area of your cargo box. In this step, y'all take to exit some space for the target area to minimize the color deviation later finishing. We recommend comprehend 10 cm away from the edges of the broken parts, and it is good to even the color. You can use masking tape to paste newspaper around the cracks, and don't forget to leave 10 cm between the newspaper and the target area all around, not ane side.

Print the Area

Now, it is time to print the broken expanse for your wanted color. You can use the Flex Seal Rubber for this purpose, and it is our top recommendation. When you practise the printing, you accept to move the spray from left to right evenly all the time; moreover, you never concord the spray at i point as well long, and that will cause colour-not-matching at the end. Afterward press, yous leave the cargo box for 8 hours, then bank check if you lot need to utilise more printing on information technology for better results or not. Subsequently all, y'all accept done the fixing in a couple of hours, and we recall you tin can get an expected upshot if you lot have done every stride with patience and right operations. Withal, If you have washed something wrong, it is non a big bargain. You at least have covered the holes or cracks with printed epoxy materials that are waterproof, durable, and UV resistant, and the merely bad part is the colour non matching the residual part of your cargo box. Not a big deal, and it is yet working, so why not be happy.

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