Over the past few weeks, we’ve looked at a power inverter, a road trip game-changer for keeping your tools and gadgets juiced up; returned to the giant battery power stations that can keep the lights on while off-grid; and a multimeter, a simple tool that will save you so much diagnostic time. This week’s Cool Tool is an adhesive that actually works.
My fleet consists of a bunch of vehicles that break in asinine ways. No, I’m not talking about rusting transmission oil pans or baffling electrical gremlins. Really stupid stuff like body parts randomly falling off or interior pieces that just don’t feel like hanging on.
This happened during my trip to pick up my Suzuki Every with my Volkswagen Touareg VR6.
On the way home, the passenger side mirror began flapping back and forth before launching itself out of its housing. I quickly learned that not having a side mirror on a car that’s supposed to have one really bothers me. I couldn’t stop looking at the empty mirror housing where the mirror used to be. Thankfully, the wiring for the heated mirror glass is pretty beefy and held onto the thing for dear life.
I balled up some duct tape, stuck it to the back of the glass and shoved it back in. The fix got me back home, but the mirror fell back out on the first hot day afterward. Whatever held the mirror on wasn’t doing it anymore.
Oh, I had to fix this.
An easy solution is to use an adhesive, but admittedly I’ve long had bad luck with them. Maybe it’s just me, but the stuff I’ve adhered with Krazy Glue, Loctite, or Gorilla Glue never really stood up to the abuse of a daily-driven vehicle.
Digging through my drawers at home, I found a tube of Amazing Goop Automotive adhesive.
I bought this stuff back in 2020 for a sunroof repair on my Volkswagen Passat W8 before I decided to just replace the whole thing. I put a small dollop of the Goop on the back of the mirror housing, waited the recommended two minutes to let it cure, then pushed the mirror glass in place.
It’s been months since then and the mirror still hasn’t fallen off. The Touareg has been on a couple of road trips, off-road and through super hot days. But the mirror still holds on.
Following that initial success, I began using the adhesive on everything around my home and my cars with excellent results. This stuff seems to hold onto parts like you’d think super glue should.
As another example, when I brought my Volkswagen Phaeton home, a piece of trim came off of the driver’s door.
I applied the Amazing Goop to the trim and slapped it back on. I’ll need to actually replace the part eventually, but it looks fine for now.
Reviews show that people have used it to adhere convertible windows, moldings, grilles, bumpers and heck, even the soles of shoes!
I will note that you have to follow the instructions carefully and take the weather into account. Don’t just squeeze it out and immediately try adhering something. The product cures and hardens as it evaporates.
On a warm, dry day I find that the stuff works pretty quickly. On a hot, humid day it presumably evaporates slower, and you may need to use something like a vise grip or c-clamp to hold the part in place while it does its thing.
I paid about $7 for a 3.7 oz tube of Amazing Goop, and pricing is about the same just about anywhere.
What adhesives work for you? What have you glued together that’s still holding on today?
Do you know of a weird or unique tool that wrenchers can benefit from knowing about? Do you want to see us put a type of tool to the test and see how it performs? Shoot me an email or drop it down in the comments!
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