Jump to content
HybridZ

Recommended Posts

  • 3 months later...

Glad you're happy with the repair ring.  

 

These work really well with 240 Z's.  I'm still looking for more suggestions on other Z parts that we can model and print to replace parts that we really just can't get anymore.  I can print in about any color of ABS plastic, and I can have metal parts printed through shapeways.com or other outlets.  

 

I've got a decent model of the early 240Z side emblems, so I'll probably have that printed in aluminum. A pair should run about $100, Which is on par with used.  in ABS I can print a pair in ABS and paint them for ~ $30 bucks, so I haven't decided which direction I want to go, but likely I'll start with the ABS.

 

Is anyone needs any parts recreated, I'm still interested in helping.

 

Phar

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've got a good dome light for my 280Z I'll pull it out and see what it might take to print it. The problem with the light is that it is slightly curved which might make it harder to print.  I can make it flat and it would be then easy to print but it wouldn't be an exact duplicate.   I'll start working on it and let you guys see what I come up with.   I've also been thinking about a replacement that could fit in the same location, but would have switches and 2 lights real similar to the Z32 dome light.  I'll work on an OEM replacement first though.  thanks for the suggestion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The curved profile of the dome light would likely have lots of striations if it were printed as is. The outer surface could probably be sanded but the inner surface would be more difficult. If you make the inside flat and sand/polish the outside I could see it working.

 

Another option to guarantee an exact replica would be to cast it. Oomoo makes silicon rubber and plastic casting materials and for smaller parts the minimum amount of materials you would need to purchase to get it done would be around $60. (which is a down side of you're only making a couple of that part)

I work in a model making department and we clean up printed parts all the time and then cast them once we achieve a desirable finish. The mold can then be reused many times.

 

Also, I've been wanting to find something for the Z that I could print out and then cast in aluminum. I've tried a few things from existing parts like emblems (I think I remember you commenting on my thread Pharaohabq) but unfortunately the aluminum shrinks when cooling and the mounting pins are then in improper positions. I think printing something that accounts for shrinkage would be a great thing to try so I might contact you when it gets a little warmer out.

 

Sorry for the long comment. I hadn't seen this thread in a while and got excited when I had something to say haha. 3D printing is awesome!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah the striations are an issue. I may be able to get it printed on my buddies resin printer, Those work nice, but I'm not sure how well that would handle heat or wear. Also the resins are a lot more expensive than ABS.  I'm thinking if this is printer flat on the surface then filed down a bit on the edges it would be quite functional, though it won't be an exact duplicate.  I'm going to need to make a new printer that uses a better system for overhangs. If I had the overhang supports printed in PLA or some other water soluable it would make these parts much nicer.  Granted I could overprint and sand to cleanup, then perhaps the acetone bath to smooth the edges. 

 

How much shrinkage did you see with the aluminum?  Did you try the Aluminide, instead?  I was looking as shapeways to do metal printing for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aluminide is aluminized plastic.  Go to shapeways.com and look at their materials list, they describe it pretty well there.

 

When I printed my Emblem for the side of the 240Z, it looked like it came out pretty well. The dimensions matched pretty well with my original part.  I have yet to paint the plastic though.  Full Aluminum printing I'd wonder about, but if you were casting, then yes you'd have to account for shrinkage.  If you added 20% to your cad model then made the mould it may come out about right.  I want to do some aluminum casting. I've been saving cans, and I guess you can do it with Cement crucibles and map gas. though a real forge would be best and using real casting sand. 

 

in comparison, plastic parts are much easier.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I second the dome light. Those lenses are hard to find.

Well I finally had some time to get to work on this. I took my NOS light I was saving apart and pulled out the lens. I was amazed that even though this was in a box for the past 35 years and in the plastic, that the lens was kind of spiderweb'd with cracks in it. Kind of annoying, but in anycase, my original is still intact for It was easy to get measurements.  I recreated the lens in Creo and  made some adjustments.  For 3d printing ease I made the face flat rather than rounded and bevelled the edge. this worked well.  I Printed it out in White and here's the product: Reproduction on the left, OEM on the right.

post-4150-0-23283000-1391245926_thumb.jpg

 

The top + assembled:

post-4150-0-56986300-1391245944_thumb.jpg

 

A close up: you can see the diagonal gridding of the print, which actually adds a lot of strength. The lens face is only 1.5mm thick.

post-4150-0-29259500-1391245935_thumb.jpg

 

I connected it to a power supply with an LED dome lamp:

post-4150-0-22943700-1391245960_thumb.jpg

 

If anyone needs one of these, please let me know. I'll sell em cheap. Just PM me. Thanks...

 

If anyone else has any ideas for things that would be nice to reproduce for these cars, please let me know. I'll be happy to work on it if it's something that's printable.

 

Phar

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm thinking about building one of those abs vacuum forming setups. I want to create a new center dash that I can modify to fit all of my ideas. Could you create something like that? Just a solid piece of plastic that would fit in that space.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well the Console center piece is a little larger than my 3d printer can handle. But there are companies with larger printers that could print it for a price.  The fun part is actually modeling the part. that's usually more expensive than the printing.  Concievably  yes I could model it. But  would it be worth it? There are still a lot of OEM center's available. It's only if we were going to Mod the console that it could be really worth the hours it would take to model it, and be able to sell enough to cover the time. Print time in a larger piece could run into many hours too.   What are you thinking? Why are you wanting a new center console?

 

Phar

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would just like a blank console that I can put whatever I might want in. In my case I'd like to shove in a double din stereo and switches for an aftermarket ac. I see lots of people though that have done different things with the center so it might cool to just have a blank. I didn't really understand how the printer worked until I went and looked at it. It would probably just make more sense to cut the console out of ABS or just do the vacuum forming instead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Or find a way to make that piece take a common mirror. With all the crumbly plastic mirrors out there, I'm sure someone would want one. I had to frankenstein a Hyundai mirror with my Datsun arm since I couldn't find a mirror that wasn't crumbly or black around the mirror. It wasn't hard to do actually.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...