There’s a danger lurking in the garden and its name is The Large Iron Flowerpot. This menace usually lives quietly by the garage door minding its own business. But for as yet unknown reasons it occasionally decides to sneak up onto a reversing car where its iron lip sticks out at approximately the same height as the rear tail light.

Two nights ago was such a night. I cannot blame the tail light for shattering, for it was merely plastic against the solid might of a cast iron pot filled with extra earthen ballast. Instead I point the finger of blame squarely at the pot’s malicious nature. (And possibly the icy weather and poor judgement. But mostly the pot.)

But retribution will have to wait as there is the more pressing problem of making the car road worthy again. Not wanting to contribute at least $100 to the manufacturer for a replacement tail light assembly I tirelessly trolled the Google pages for suggestions.

Well, it turns out that a hot glue gun is just the thing to glue everything back together again. The glue is flexible and waterproof and sufficiently gloopy to fill in the gaps where the missing pieces are.

Here’s the final result:

Taillight
Taillight

It’s not going to win any beauty contests but it is street legal which is the most important thing.

I can offer some advice if you try this. The glue is thick, which means some sanding of the plastics pieces will be in order for it all to fit together again. Start with the bigger bits and make sure it can be dry assembled before reaching for the glue. Oh, and don’t forget the glue from the hot glue gun is, well, hot, so be careful when applying.