Belt buckle repair bracket

On my beloved wizard belt buckle, the metal finally gave out. I think this was manufactured thirty years ago or so, and the company is long out of business. I looked briefly on ebay for a replacement, but they're no longer available. I've worn this every day for probably....fifteen years, so I'm a little attached to it.

Looking at how the metal of the top stanchion failed over time, I came to a several conclusions:

1) the steel bail is harder and tougher than the metal of the buckle.

2) I've been putting excessive strain on the belt.

3) this pewter hybrid belt-buckle is not going to respond well to my attempting to solder it, and my skills probably aren't up to the task.

4) I bet i can 3d-scan this and make a super-precise repair part!

I was right on 3 of the 4 points. After a dozen hours trying to scan a shape, and utterly failing, I gave up and started prototyping PETG brackets I could fit in and bond with a very durable adhesive.

Ten iterations later, I got the final design, and if you're trying to do something similar to this, I hope you find it useful. You'll likely have to alter some of the dimensions, unless you're repairing another "buckles of america" belt buckle. Designed by eyeball, using an old ruler, Tinkercad, and a small brass caliper my grandfather gave me.

Printed at 100% infill in PETG. Pictures included to show the extend of the problem, how the repair brace fits in, and the adhesive I used. It was either going to be JBWeld, since that is supposed to stick to pewter pretty well, or this extreme-stick stuff. Since the loctite is supposed to stand up to weather better, I thought it might do a superior job of withstanding the vibration of my walking around. It remains a little more flexible than JB weld, too, and since the bail isn't SUPER tight into the spot, there will be some additional strain at times.

The PETG should absorb almost all of the strain, and the loctite epoxy is just intended to hold the bracket in place -- i applied no epoxy around the bale, because i didn't want to limit its movement.