Early last year, I bought a 3D printer. There are many different models out there – I have a Creality Ender 3 Pro. During lockdowns and other restrictions, I have extensively modified the printer and constructed an enclosure for it.
My system:
Perhaps not surprising, but clear acrylic sheet was in short supply last year and prices increased.
The relevance to MX-5s is the ability to print plastic parts for the car. These can be designed yourself (using purchased apps or using free on-line tools such as Tinkercad), or you can download designs made by others (see Thingiverse). You can also modify designs made by others.
Recently, a couple of people have appeared on Ebay selling 3D printed parts from designs taken from Thingiverse. The door bushes have been discussed elsewhere and I mentioned the hood latches in an earlier post for this topic.
There are 2 designs on Thingiverse I found useful. One is a seat belt extender, the other a hinge to repair the broken armrest on early NBs. There are 2 seat belt extenders on Thingiverse:
I created my own design, based on both of them:
The hinge from Thingiverse is for a LH drive car, but is easily reversed in the apps.
On my Roadster, someone had already repaired the armrest using a small brass hinge. It worked but was not very elegant. You will need a rod for the hinge. I used some 1mm rod from my this-may-come-in-useful-one-day box.
I’m surprised no-one has tried to sell these on Ebay.
If anyone’s thinking about 3D printing, the important thing to remember when making items for a car is how hot it gets in summer. The most common (and easiest to print) material is PLA (polylactic acid – basically corn starch). This material will soften in the heat of the sun (as I soon discovered with the seat belt extender). An alternative is PET (or PETG) which, although not as resilient as ABS, seems to be OK for my part of the UK.