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Getting excited! PLEASE EXCUSE the RAW ABS without any finishing. if you have seen any of my other stuff you know this stuff will go through hours of finishing and post processing.
Currently I am working on getting the fitment much tighter on the meter hood.
you can see the oem tabs are small and brittle with little to no support. On mine the screw boses are metal inserts with really wide bases which makes huge difference in rigidity and strength
on another note, I am loving this 7" BTI dash, so far so good.
as far as timelines and prices, I have discussed some of this in detail but Ideally in the coming days I will open up sales with a configurable web page on my site. any input is welcome. please note all of these parts are in process.
That's looking good! If you make it and LHD and RHD you should sell tons of these.
Does the ABS hold up in the sun? The was once a vendor selling gauge pods, but they would melt and deform once summer rolled along. Not sure what type of plastic they were using. I would assume ABS is fine since the original parts are made of that, but I don't know anything about 3D printing.
Only thing I really know is that you have a lot of skill to make and redesign these parts, and your printer must be huge to make these.
That's looking good! If you make it and LHD and RHD you should sell tons of these.
Does the ABS hold up in the sun? The was once a vendor selling gauge pods, but they would melt and deform once summer rolled along. Not sure what type of plastic they were using. I would assume ABS is fine since the original parts are made of that, but I don't know anything about 3D printing.
Only thing I really know is that you have a lot of skill to make and redesign these parts, and your printer must be huge to make these.
Keep up the good work!
Vince
I'll start by saying, yes I sell everything in LHD and RHD.
Secondly my stuff is warrantied for LIFE. So if issues were to ever arise, the part is covered.
Yes ABS holds up in the sun, MOST people printing parts at this time are using low grade machines and low grade materials that are easier to print. To my knowledge there is no one producing panels like this in ABS for any other automotive platform. although to be 100% transparent I have had two failures in over 1000 parts that were probably due to heat and some other effect from post processing. not really sure. The original parts are also made from ABS. yet printing does introduce some interesting characteristics that are unavoidable (like grain structure etc) Despite all of that, I have had overwhelming luck and cant wait to get these panels sorted. I wouldn't run them in my own personal car if i didn't believe in them lol
Looks great. I also think that you should give the option of NO post machining cleanup other than extraneous boogers for those of us that are wrapping or finishing our interiors in something other than stock. But I'm biased
Looks great. I also think that you should give the option of NO post machining cleanup other than extraneous boogers for those of us that are wrapping or finishing our interiors in something other than stock. But I'm biased
i have been teaching myself carbon overlay, but if someone wanted to private message me about such a thing I would be open to discussion on it. Just need to figure out what the post processing costs me.
Done, Meter hood I feel has good fit up on both my cluster and the oem cluster. Gauge mounting tabs and the tabs that are responsible for breaking the oem clusters also fit well and line up!
it was difficult to get a good fit on the oem cluster because I only have one working screw boss! Check out my screw bosses though. Super large bases with threaded metal inserts.
ill provide the hardware for these and now I can start working on finishes. I think though at this point it’s time to organize all of this and add it to my website.
So with these parts nearly complete, i'd like to get some input from the forum members on concerns or feedback.
I'll start with saying my goals and some things that may clear the air or answer questions in advance:
Everything I sell or have sold, is done so with a lifetime warranty on that part to the original buyer.
I feel customer feedback and honesty is 100% the best way to proceed with everything, this also means I will often provide unfiltered responses if I feel your question is unfiltered etc and I'm pretty unapologetic about it..
I like to shy away from discussing my manufacturing methods because there is huge stigma against printed stuff. primarily coming from hoe *** shops trying to make a quick buck. **** those shops.
Yes 3D printing has come a long ways, but also yes there are still issues and aspects that make the process un appealing for all parts or components.
The largest issue with printed parts is there layers, meaning if 2 of the 1000s of layers fail to bond, you have a weak section of that part. I do my best to ensure I design and eliminate this from happening, and of course every part is different.
Casting and Injection molding WILL ALWAYS provide a better stronger part.
I would highly advise against standing on my map lids or large flat interior panels lmao I don't think that's covered under warranty
I Only use ABS and high grade paint like SEM etc.
I have seen 3d printed stuff sold for pennies, and I have seen RX7 parts sold for 1000s, I like to keep my prices below parts I feel are better alternatives. Even though I offer dozens of parts that no one else does, I value a community that can afford to
mod their cars and in return, I hope that people have the understanding that I'm a 1 man show, and everything is hand finished or 1 off.
with that being said, my parts from a year ago and today I feel have drastically improved. I am constantly trying to improve my designs, my finishes and my turn around.
Sometimes I send out parts that are not perfect and when that happens I feel pretty bad. a layer line i missed sanding or a run i missed while finishing. I send out a lot of parts so this is inevitable and im sorry
I have had i think 3 part failures now. two were due to acetone washing the parts I believe. they warped in the sun pretty badly. I revised the designs and sent replacements
the third was a cup holder that I had not caught a bad layer separation, and it failed during shipment.
anyways, I appreciate the comments or feedback, thanks again
Briefly I'll talk about these inserts for the Shift surround. Basically they are little ABS Coin holders and blanks that fit into the OE brackets, essentially they snap into the spots where the buttons and stuff goes. I made blanks as well. In the future I would like to do like audio jacks and usb ports and stuff. overall I really like the idea
and hope to refine it in the future, but here they are. cheap to make so they are cheap to sell!
The hood looks really good! I wanted to take of my hood and cluster surround to paint it, but was too worried about cracking the stock hood. Knowing I can get a better replacement if mine does crack, I'm more willing to attempt it now haha. Good work man!
Ordered a hood today, can't wait to get it! Thanks for making these parts, this is a real tough spot in the RX-7 world since Mazda doesn't have the parts new any more.
That gauge hood looks awesome. As soon as I get my tax refund I'm ordering one! Do you offer the cluster surround in the factory/ oem setup too?
Vince
Thanks!, Unfortunately at this time i do not offer a factory style cluster panel as the work involved would be crazy, BUT soon I will offer a cluster for aftermarket gauges (Like speedhut), and adapters for the oem cluster panel to do the same. and Maybe just maybe at some point I will offer a oem style cluster
Love how the Pillar pod came out, overall the finish and fitment is awesome. I am sure as some of you know, there has been a plethora of LHD available pods with varying levels of fitment (some using double sided tape etc) My goal with these is to offer a setup that fits and snaps in like OEM
Need some help locating part numbers or substitute for the metal retainers on the Meter Hood and the Shift Surround.
Making decent progress on this shift surround, I had previously made a quick blank to see how practical this will be printed. I learned quite a bit from that, so now I'm excited to see this come to life in its entirety. Likely this will have some post process reinforcement added. but I wont know until I make the finished piece.
Also curious what kind of options people are going to want. Obvious options are cup holder, arm rest and oem buttons. aside from that I am open to ideas.
I don't have any feedback on the shifter surround but looking forward to what you are going to make.
I am interested in the door plastics. Have u thought about making these? If so, do u have a timeframe?
Other than the map lid, which I’ve already created. The only door plastic I have planned is the pocket itself.
the rest of the plastics could be done, but would be incredibly time consuming and would require quite the development budget. I just don’t see the market supporting my time to do so.
we are talking like 800$ in developmental costs per side. If people wanted to come together to make that happen, it would still be some months for me to get to a point where I could actually tackle it
