treimche

Now that 3D printers are very affordable and lots of people have them, I'm wondering if there are any people here who have designed or printed some parts for the S2000. With 3D printed parts being primarily plastic, that limits the possibilities of course. I'm not very creative so I don't know of much that could be made that's not already available for purchase.

I know that eventually I want to make some center caps for my Enkei PF01 wheels, but that will be a while as I have no experience in designing things. There are some center cap designs on Thingiverse that I may try to modify and see if they will work eventually.

B serious

I design my own stuff a lot.

My friends own, or have access to 3D printers and CNC machines.

Center caps are surprisingly difficult to size up properly lol. A few trials should do it.

Tons of possibilities for the interior. Double din "JDM style" bezel for a navigation system. Holders for all types of stuff. Maybe a shift knob.

etc etc etc.

You can get solid modeling programs for free (legally) now. Fusion 360 and Onshape come to mind.

treimche

Cool thanks for the info. What types of things have you designed? What program do you use?

roel03

Check out my site: baero.tech for some examples.

I've designed/printed hundreds of things over the years. One of the first things I did for the S2000 is center caps for my old Advans. I refused to pay $100 for center caps.

If you're doing anything that's inside the car or sees sunlight, make sure to use ABS. I go the extra mile and heat treat my stuff in the oven, then coat it as well.

I use Creo for design and stress. Solidworks for CFD.

treimche

Yeah I'm planning on painting and finishing the center caps once I figure them out. I've only used PLA so far, but my printer will do ABS also.

b_ron

I actually thought of designing my own side strakes (reverse engineering the OEM as a start). I have a strong CAD background but I never got around doing it.

Car Analogy

While hobby 3d printing currently only makes plastic parts, some have used it to make a mold for casting metal parts. You 3d print the exact part shape, then a foundry packs it in sand and heavily compresses it. Then they heat it so plastic melts away, they leave a drain hole for this. Then they pour molten metal into the mold through fill hole. Let it harden, then break away the sand. Then machine the metal part as needed.

Typical metal casting has been done this way forever, except with wax parts initially made in a reverse mold. Here you're replacing the wax part with a 3d printed plastic part. Only really useful for an otherwise unobtanium one off part. But interesting nonetheless.

hecash

I'm having a double gauge mount made for the steering wheel upper-rear garnish in front of the gauge assembly. Are you able to scan it and then reproduce it? Perhaps add material at weak points to enhance it? If so, what would that cost.

F1 S2K

Very nice front brake cooling ducts!

stupkid

I've done this in my car, designed on solidworks. And printed in abs on my custom built prusa i3 clone.
Hardest part was getting the curve on the top surface to match the rest of the console.