45 Flighter Loose Body

July 21, 2016

Hello,

I have an original-style flighter 45 (dated to 1962 thanks to a cap monogram) with the black plastic body that a SS sleeve slips over. Got it cheap on Ebay because there's an issue with this body; the SS sleeve rotates freely from the plastic body, which means that to tighten or unscrew the body from the section, I have to grip the exposed black tip. I thought it would be an easy fix, but my original guess of being able to unscrew the black cap from the back of the body is turning out to be fruitless. Does anybody have any suggestions for reattaching the steel to the plastic?

Thank you.

Edited July 21, 2016 by jcreilley

July 21, 2016

Can't you just put some epoxy on the plastic body and slip the sleeve back over?

July 21, 2016

If you are not able to remove the SS sleeve from the plastic body, you can try to add a drop of shellac between the sleeve and the body.

A less sticky alternative to shellac is the curing liquid that boat people use to secure hairline cracks in fiberglass (such as Capt. Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure).

July 21, 2016

Hmm, not sure about that; Tolley's doesn't secure the crack, it plugs the leak. Its adhesive properties are failry weak, I don't think it's suitable for the OPs problem.

July 22, 2016

I did try shellac. Put a drop between the end cap and sleeve, and then worked it around and around until it started drying. It worked for the first few screwings, but quickly came undone. Seems like in order to make it permanent, I'd have to get some adhesive on the front of the body as well, but that seems tricky since the threads to screw onto the section are right there, I could easily get shellac on the threads.

Edited July 22, 2016 by jcreilley

July 22, 2016

If shellac didn't work I would use something stronger. Here in Britain that would be Araldite 2 party epoxy, but I'm not sure what it would be called in the US

July 22, 2016

It is going to be a difficult task to effectively work the epoxy between the sleeve and the body if these parts are still together.

That is why I thought about Tolley's crack cure: obviously it is not a glue but it is highly liquid allowing its penetration into narrow spaces.

Of course the best would be to separate the sleeve and the body. I found this picture here on FPN, it shows that the black top cone is screwed onto the plastic inner body:

www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/260649-parker-45-flighter-stripped-down/

July 23, 2016

It is going to be a difficult task to effectively work the epoxy between the sleeve and the body if these parts are still together.

That is why I thought about Tolley's crack cure: obviously it is not a glue but it is highly liquid allowing its penetration into narrow spaces.

Of course the best would be to separate the sleeve and the body. I found this picture here on FPN, it shows that the black top cone is screwed onto the plastic inner body:
www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/260649-parker-45-flighter-stripped-down/

Thanks for the pictoral evidence that that cap does come off! I went back to trying to get it off. After two soakings in 200 degree water, I was able to work that end cap off. There's just a small amount of shellac or some other similar adhesive holding it to the body, so all it took was being a little less gentle than I was being. The SS sleeve came right off, and I was able to shellac the whole interior and reapply it. Now it's solid and shows no sign of coming apart again!