My brother is a Mechanical Engineering student down at UVA, so when he bragged that he had access to CAD and a Plastic Printer, I gave him the (small) challenge of reproducing some clips for my inspection panels. Unfortunatly I didn't have access to an original, just my broken pieces. He's just got the first batch back, and I'm excited to see how it fits/works. From the photos I don't think it'll be strong enough, but he claims he's pinched it pretty darn hard without fail. Time will tell. Will report back if they actually work (though I know they don't look original).

I don't think pinching is the cause of breakage, at least it wasn't with mine on 721. The clips are just a leeetle bit too tall and do not line up exactly with the bar they snap onto, thereby breaking off one side or the other.

Are the parts SLA or SLS. SLA parts are usually fragile.

Too tall? Misaligned? Oh boy, those sound like challenges for an engineer! SLA vs. SLS... not a clue: But I'll find out!

Too tall? Misaligned? Oh boy, those sound like challenges for an engineer! SLA vs. SLS... not a clue: But I'll find out!

The rough texture is definitely SLS, white Nylon 12. I order these (SLS parts) all the the time. Rarely use SLA any more 'cause they are too frail. SLA would never work for inspection lid clip

He says it was FDM, or Fused Deposition Modelling. As for the material, perhaps it's SLS within an FDM process? Sounds like alphabet soup.

Does anyone have a complete reproduction part (or original? eh? eh? yeah right!) we could borrow to do some measuring?

I might have one. I know at least part of one is there. I'll try to get out to my garage and have a look. I have car #390.

Chuck

Thanks much, Chuck.

I have a partial and a full clip! I stopped out today after the Carlisle Chrysler show to drop off some Mopar parts. Here are some pictures for now.

Chuck

Thanks Chuck. That’s a lot better than the two partials my car came equipped with. I can’t ask you to take the complete one out to measure though – if it snapped in the process we’ll have done more harm than good. I know others have made reproductions of these clips before. I’ll have to either track some down myself or hope someone has a spare! Famous last words: How hard can it be?

I will check my clips, as I think they are in good shape. I can actually model them here and send you or your brother a .stp file. That would be all he needs to produce the part in his machine. FDM is very similar to SLS, just different material and perhaps a bit different process. Will try and get that done sometime this week if I can remember.

Best regards,

Rich