Need some repair ideas...

[krogmeier]

I have a very old 1/16 scale Ertl Allis Chalmers D-17 that is in serious need of repair...trouble is, I have no good idea about how to go about it.  The hitch is broken on one side of the casting.

As you can see, it's intact on one side, and completely gone from the other.

I have contemplated building it up with modeling clay, JB Weld, or trying to find some aluminum  that I could bend, shape and fashion for the bulk of the repair.  I am at a loss, having experimented a little with the clay and having little luck.  Who has some ideas about a repair of this magnitude?

[powerrabbit]

It appears that the part you want to repair is a mirror image of the other side so you could repair it reasonably easily by taking a mould of the good half and making either a cold cast or resin cast of it and then after a little trimming, drill a small hole in the jointing ends and glueing in one a wire pin and then dropping a little glue in the other hole and assembling together and when set smooth the joint and when painted again you would never know.

[Tractorman810]

its a mirror image, but the opposite way round so to speak tim, cast a copy of the good side and it will not fit the other side, do you have the origonal bit at all??

[krogmeier]

its a mirror image, but the opposite way round so to speak tim, cast a copy of the good side and it will not fit the other side, do you have the origonal bit at all??

Exactly the problem...casting it would not be a mirror image...I would need a negative casting.  Sadly, I do not have the original piece...and have never had it.  The tractor came into my possession this way.