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Here's a fairly simple piece but it's also a NLA part that I needed. Plus I wanted to play around with flexible filament.
It's printed in TPU which comes out like a stiff piece of rubber. This has been on the car about 2 years.
there are several questions in the thread that i'll offer my input for. This might seem a bit rambling.
As far a size. my printer can print 180mm wide, 180mm long and about 160mm tall. (so about 8x8x7 in inches). That said there are much bigger printers out there.
There are also services that will print an uploaded file.
there are some finishing steps that sometimes need to be done. A dash piece might be sanded then hit with #8 glass abrasive for a nice texture. That's what all of my pieces where I removed the coating were done.
Dupont announced a 3d printer that works in Teflon. They won't give out many details and it has to be leased from them.
i cant think of anything thats nla for c4’s really
Control arm bushings in rubber (TPU?), although it seems like SuperPro mostly has that covered. But there aren't any offset LCA bushings available anymore since VBP went out of business. I know those can be made on a lathe out of urethane or delrin.
Control arm bushings in rubber (TPU?), although it seems like SuperPro mostly has that covered. But there aren't any offset LCA bushings available anymore since VBP went out of business. I know those can be made on a lathe out of urethane or delrin.
There are other types of plastic that you can use in the filament based machines. Including some that incorporate wood and metals. I use PLA because it's cheap and works for around the house things like kitchen cabinet slide holders and Kitchenaid *****. I have a C4 projects in the works--printing a cover for a bluetooth ALDL reader as well as maybe printing the chassis pieces for a new audio head unit. For the latter, I may have to break out the ABS and get my hot bed working.
The cool thing about 3D printers today is that the filament based ones are pretty accessible to a lot of people at this point in terms of cost and software. I bought mine as a "for parts or repair" unit off of eBay and have less than $200 in it. Further, with part files easily available on Thingiverse there is a possibility that what you need may already be designed somewhere. When you consider the parts for around the house (and for the printer) that I've made, it hasn't paid for itself but it has proven very useful.
You can pick up a Monoprice Maker Select (Wanhoo duplicator clone) for $220 new right now.
But be warned. These things are like Corvettes.
You end up doing mods and upgrades
Mine has a filament guide (printed from a thingiverse file), Z braces to stiffen the frame and a k-swiss hot end, to handle higher temps
Oh, and you end up with more than one.
You can pick up a Monoprice Maker Select (Wanhoo duplicator clone) for $220 new right now.
But be warned. These things are like Corvettes.
You end up doing mods and upgrades
Mine has a filament guide (printed from a thingiverse file), Z braces to stiffen the frame and a k-swiss hot end, to handle higher temps
Oh, and you end up with more than one.
Ain't that the truth. The whole notion of "reprap" is self-replication. Although one's enough for me, for now at least. My printer has a Raspberry Pi added-on as a controller as well as various other mods. This makes it a pretty much stand-alone tool. I'm about to replace the MOSFETs on the controller card with a couple of external ones. And you can build parts and mods for other machines too. I just printed and added an air assist and a focus **** to my laser engraver as well as printed a small Dremel based cut-off saw. I'm also printing parts for a small CNC router. It's a bit addictive.
Ain't that the truth. The whole notion of "reprap" is self-replication. Although one's enough for me, for now at least. My printer has a Raspberry Pi added-on as a controller as well as various other mods. This makes it a pretty much stand-alone tool. I'm about to replace the MOSFETs on the controller card with a couple of external ones. And you can build parts and mods for other machines too. I just printed and added an air assist and a focus **** to my laser engraver as well as printed a small Dremel based cut-off saw. I'm also printing parts for a small CNC router. It's a bit addictive.
Jerry
I put a mosfet on for the bed side as it draws enough current to damage the motherboard of the controller. I just printed a bracket and bought the mosfet for $7 of amazon. The consensus on the Wanhao is it's not necessary for the hot end. But It's not going to cause a problem if you use one either. I had a spare lenovo think pad so it's in the shop. Gives me wifi and runs the printer.
My wife thought it was a waste until she saw what it could do. Then it was a measuring cup holder, spice rack (custom fit to cabinet), new ***** for the advent calendar.
Sway bar bushings!
i have an 84 Z51, and the sway bars are a weird size due to the rock hard springs.
i have been planning on buying a later set in a slightly larger size that has bushings available, but that also requires me to edit my radiator fan situation (from what i have red).
I also have this little gas powered rc car that has nearly identical suspension to my C4, it has sway bars that you can tune.
i learned that if you do it wrong, the car will handle weird and spin out easily.
so I'm hesitant to fk with something that seems to work.
This isn't C4 unique, but handy if you need to change a regulator. They wedge between the outer seal and the glass to hold the window in place.
These are available commercially. I had a regulator to change on my daughters car and just drew up and printed a couple. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4166949
Control arm bushings in rubber (TPU?), although it seems like SuperPro mostly has that covered. But there aren't any offset LCA bushings available anymore since VBP went out of business. I know those can be made on a lathe out of urethane or delrin.
What about carbon fiber? There are 2 common CF filaments that can be printed with regular printers.
There's also a filament that's 98% stainless steel, but it has to be annealed in high heat after printing.
I got my 11 year old son a 3D printer for Christmas and I have made a few 3D printed C4 parts from people,who have uploaded on thingiverse, headlight ****, door vents for my 1987. i have also made a few other things on tinkercad from scratch. All PLA so far.
Do you guys think its possible to 3D print a brake cooling kit for the 1996 C4? Something along these lines?
I think you would be better off printing just the duct adapter and fitting it to a stock spoiler. The picture you posted is what about 6 feet wide. The average hobby print would give you 8 inch pieces that would need to be assembled. so at the least 9 pieces. Doubt there is a commercial printer out there that can 90 a 6ft piece. And if there is it would be several hundred dollars to print and ship.
Probably something like this. This is not scaled to a air dam just a concept
Last edited by belairbrian; Feb 17, 2020 at 12:02 AM.
