Fixing a Broken cyma Zink body

[Nateman332]

Hey! It's Nate here, I recently received a CYMA AK-104 with a few parts shattered on the cheep zinc body including the hinge (shudder) and part of the front. As a welder I wanted a challenge so I traded it for a working display gun and last night was the first night of fixing the body.

If you're asking yourself why the hell I'm posting this it's because I was asked by the person on the other end of the trade.

Now to get into it:




So I've decided to fix the front with JB weld because on non stress parts it's easier and safer then soldering (and a lot cheeper... stupid expensive silver solder rods...). So because the part keeps falling off I've opted to use some reverse tweezers (you press them in to open them, great for holding things) and I've put some cloth in between them and the JB weld so they don't get welded to the piece.


Now because the hinge is broken not even solder will fix it... so I'm going to rip it off and replace it with a solid stock piece (which is pictured) off a plastic spare body I have (If this doesn't work, I'm going to just throw it in there).

So, yeah, that's day one, oh and this happened also (while trying to sand it no less):
[IMG]www.airsoftcanada.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=53716&stc=1&d=14805485 65[/IMG]
I hate zinc...

Anyway, that's day...er..night one. I'll post night 2 tomorrow. If this is in the wrong thread then by all means move it for me! please! Oh, and feel free to ask any questions or comment.

[Kingsix]

Potmetal strikes again

[Drakker]

Nice, thanks for actually doing it! When Nateman332 told me he wanted to fix it I asked him to post a short guide, not being a welder myself, this is going to be very instructive, and it will be great to see my old AK pal be brought back to life!

[RainyEyes]

Do you have a picture of the end result? Half the pics are covered in tissue paper and I can't really see the repair or broken part.

[Drakker]

It's a work in progress.

[Nateman332]

I've worked with Zinc before and I know it's awful to work with but it is workable. This body however is a bad casting, I accidentally dropped it on my CARPET from 4ish feet and the rear hinge broke off (not to mention the JB weld)...so I got my brother to drop both this and a plastic ak frame (Nothing in them, as empty as can be) from head height on to cement which is what I consider an average amount of force an airsoft gun gets (er, correction, this is the average force MY airsoft guns get, this is why I have a stamped steel L85a2). The results were...interesting, I'll post the pics in a little while but until then I say this: DON'T game with a zinc body.

[Nateman332]

Alright, so here are the pics:
This is the Repair:


these are the results of the 5ft fall (The trigger guard and rear stock piece on the plastic reciever were added on between the test and pics)

Pot metal front

Pot metal Rear

plastic front

Pot metal and plastic together

In conclusion, that body is going to be thrown out after I break it down with a small set of pliers (yes, it's that weak, I've tried it since the pics)

Sorry to disappoint but I believe this can act as a lesson, one that I think most of us already know: don't bother with zinc castings (AKA pot metal, although real pot metal, cast iron, probably would've been better then this stuff...) it is kinda fixable but, like this fix showed, it'll just break some other place. Comment if any of you care about the rest of the restoration of this AK-104. Otherwise this'll be it.