Repairing serious external damage to an airsoft pistol slide.

I was showing the LiPo conversion that I performed on my CYMA(ASG) airsoft AEP to one of the guys at our local airsoft field. I was standing at the back of my car, I had removed the top slide and temporarily put it in the trunk of the car. The shout went out from the safezone to get on the ready line for the briefing. I quickly put my pistol in its holster, and closed the trunk. SMASH!!! The top slide was shattered like dinner plates at a Greek Wedding. The top slide shattered sending pieces flying in all directions. I sheepishly gathered what pieces I could find for possible future repair.

There were five major pieces and another five smaller pieces, but 10% of the slide was missing and could not be found. This would ordinarily make the pistol a write-off, but I decided to fix it up and publish my experiences in case it helps any of you repair a previously 'un-repairable' weapon. First off, you must set your expectations. You are unlikely to achieve such a good repair that the repair is undetectable, but with a bit of effort you should be able to make a repair that is passable and robust.

Step one was to glue together the remaining parts using two part epoxy adhesive...

You can see there are some quite large pieces that were missing in action. How on earth could you make those missing parts and make them fit exactly?

By casting the missing pieces, using the remaining glued up part and some electrical tape as the mould.

So with some PVC electrical tape, I taped evenly without stretching or deforming the tape...

I mixed up the two part epoxy adhesive, flipped the part over and filled the missing pieces with the mixed epoxy. After leaving for a full 24 hours to both cure and then harden, I removed the tape. The white cured epoxy has taken up the shape of the missing part

The epoxy is not only good at taking up the space, it is very strong and adheres to ABS very well. Virtually restoring the strength of the part. It may however only make a temporary repair in parts that receive a lot of wear or stress.

I could paint it at this stage, but it would certainly be obvious that it had been repaired. So what is needed now is sanding and filling then re-sanding all along the repairs and cast parts...

Note that I have removed the sights.

The filler I used is model-makers white putty. I sanded this down with wet and dry paper. Lightly spray painted, the filled and re-sanded once more...

I sprayed two final coats of ultra matt OD green paint...

The OD paint looks blue due to the camera and light conditions.

The finished repair is not perfect but it is usable, strong, and it would need to be examined closely to see that it had been repaired. If you scroll up and remind yourself of what we started with, I'm sure you will agree that there is a significant improvement. I have deliberately used the photos that show the repair. From most angles it looks like an undamaged piece...

Finally, I painted the slide OD and not black because the black I have is black like the night sky, where as the body of the gun is a dark grey/black. It would have been difficult to make the black spray, match.

I hope this helps somebody, thanks for reading. :)

If you want to leave a comment, please do so by clicking this link and not by using the blogger comments below which do not allow me to reply. :D