kauai1800

My car's antenna had been broken off by a previous owner. The tiny bit that's left has rust-welded itself to the car and no amount of PB blaster could get it off. Rather than either take more drastic measures, I decided to simply design and 3D print a 'nubbie' to cover the broken bit. I really have no need for an antenna here on Kauai since there's only about 4-5 radio stations and I never listen to them anyway.

The nub covered the damage and cleans up the car's appearance. It perfectly fits the OEM part and I glued it on with some epoxy.

I'll put this up on my Thingiverse page later today for download. I'm pretty sure this would work for about any vehicle that has a 20mm antenna mount. I also made a design to fix a broken sun visor clip - I'll post that as well.

icer5160

iTrader: (4)

Glad to see the repairs are coming along! You seriously need to do some before and after shots as you continue to make progress. Very happy to see you save this car from the parts bin.
-Icer

kauai1800

Good idea Icer! I'll try to pull together what I have a make a post sometime soon. I'm still working on redoing the dash console. Plus I need to figure out how to fix the gas cap lid and the passenger door (which doesn't open from the inside).

There's a few 'before' pictures here:
https://my350z.com/forum/2003-2009-n...ce-hawaii.html

Here's a "pro tip" - if someone uses an Instagram filter on a picture of a car they're trying to sell - that's a red flag

and here's a couple recent "after" pictures thus far....

blue08

Could you please provide a link to your Thingiverse page you mentioned in your first post? Ive already asked a friend to 3d print the flip cover to the power outlet in the passenger foot well. I'd like to see what you already have and possibly add whatever it is he will do.

kauai1800

Sure! Here you go...

https://www.thingiverse.com/Bathys/designs

blue08

3d printing opens up a whole new world....

kauai1800

As someone who's done a LOT of 3D printing, I can say it's really good for some things, and not so great at others. It's fantastic for making small plastic parts for things like that power socket cover - and many people have placed their designs up to use for free. Some very creative stuff out there! Lot's a "fix it" bits for cars too.

I've made designs to fix vertical blinds, and my meat grinder for example. There's tons of "Ikea Hacks" where you get something from Ikea, then 3D print parts to turn it into something completely different...so that's cool.

The fact that the 'easiest' plastic filament to use, called PLA, can't take a lot of ambient heat is a problem for some applications. The diffuser I printed *did* start to warp a little bit but so far it's still looking good.

I'm currently making the switch over to ABS plastic to see how that works. It's the same plastic used in things like DSLR camera bodies and key fobs, so it doesn't warp until it gets really hot. But it smells bad and is harder to get good prints with.

For all the hype, 3D printing is still not the be-all/end-all technology it's made out to be. The printers can be finicky. You can usually only make 1-2 colors per piece. Some shapes and designs are not good for 3D printing (although others are truly amazing and can't be made any other way). One fun thing is you can do stuff like print out 10x 350Z keychains (design on thingiverse) for under a $2 worth of plastic and then give em away to your friends. So there's that.

There's a 350Z model I found and I might tweak into something easy to print and out that up...kinda like a "solid shape" model of the 350Z coupe. Something to put on your desk or something.

Ah yes, "the future"...

icer5160

iTrader: (4)

Very Nice! Regarding that broken off antenna stud. I would say keep at it. Continue with the PBlaster and maybe try using a "grabbit" kit to back it out. If that doesn't work, then drill it out.

Going to some drastic measures I know, and because of the danger of a drill bit slipping and injuring your fender, I would recommend removing the antenna mount completely from the vehicle to do the work. I'm not sure how involved that job is, but I can't imagine it being very difficult.

Too bad you can't use a torch on it. That would probably make short work of the seized stud.
-Icer

blue08

Would you be willing to 3d print the part I'd like? Your enthusiasm is contagious, lol.

kauai1800

Nah, it's too time consuming to do for other folks...sorry.
However if you ever need to have something printed, try shapeways.com

Also if you ever want to try and make a model, there's a free program online called Tinkercad and it makes decent .stl models.

Cheers!

blue08

Thanks!

Voboy

iTrader: (58)

Just a tip when you feel like fixing the problem for real, Kroil (penetrating fluid) and left handed drill bits on an wired drill gun for the torque should do it. I did it for a friend before, but it wasn't rusted too bad. Might want to grind the stud smooth and then punch it so the drill bit doesnt walk too.

Arrtus

Looks good! I'd sand the top a bit to smoothen it out though.

kauai1800

Thanks for all the good suggestions guys. I'll probably just leave it for now though. I still have much larger fish to fry - such as getting the passenger door to open from the inside.