3D Printing Specialist needed

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Blobsta

Active Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2013
Messages
373
Location
Maidstone, Kent
Car
S202 C43 Wagon
Anyone have any recommendations for a 3d printing company? I want to get one of these made as I just can't find one used. It is quite rare to have all switches populated as well as digital climate in the S202. Mercedes don't list a part number for it either and there are no less than 8 variations for my car apparently. SO I was thinking that I could ask 3D printing specialist to recreate this for me without the centre bar and the top bit slightly lower or just as a blank that I can cut out.

IMG-5079.jpg


Anyone have any better ideas? I have already bought a fascia that I have cut the additional switch holes into and then cut the top part out but it had the analogue dial heater controls so there are massive gaps everywhere. It was just as a PoC to make sure it was potentially viable. I've moved the heater controls to just above the ashtray and so again, ideally, I'd like a panel made for that too.
 
I'm in conversation with them and one other company now so we await to see what they come back with. I really think this is going to be the way to achieve what I want though, the technology is amazing now and so available, we are very lucky.
 
I'm in conversation with them and one other company now so we await to see what they come back with. I really think this is going to be the way to achieve what I want though, the technology is amazing now and so available, we are very lucky.
All the best with this project. I might have not understood correctly but I was just wondering whether the purpose of this exercise is to create a new part from scratch because one does not exist that is easily obtainable or whether it may be to replace an existing part that perhaps is functional but somewhat deteriorated due to age. If the latter, I was wondering if perhaps some sort of vinyl wrapping company may be able to assist in helping to restore an existing trim piece perhaps.
 
I need to cut the one I have and I refuse to do that. It's not available from Mercedes and they are very rare in the first place so I can't bank on getting a used one.
 
I need to cut the one I have and I refuse to do that. It's not available from Mercedes and they are very rare in the first place so I can't bank on getting a used one.
Couldn’t you make one from a sheet of plastic?
 
Just got the first quote for the reverse engineering and CAD work. £475.00 plus a cost for each item printed. Ouch! That's an expensive bit of plastic.
 
Couldn’t you make one from a sheet of plastic?
Possibly but the back part is the issue when being able to clip all of the switches in. I may well mount a sheet of plastic over the front of the one I butchered and then blend it along the swage below the switches. That might be my best bet but I haven't done the best job of the cutouts around the additional switches. I can see a MK2, 3, 4, 5, 5.5 version on the horizon here :).
 
Possibly but the back part is the issue when being able to clip all of the switches in. I may well mount a sheet of plastic over the front of the one I butchered and then blend it along the swage below the switches. That might be my best bet but I haven't done the best job of the cutouts around the additional switches. I can see a MK2, 3, 4, 5, 5.5 version on the horizon here :).
Those trim kits might do the job in that case provided they can supply the right style, I think they just stick over an existing fascia.
 
Just got the first quote for the reverse engineering and CAD work. £475.00 plus a cost for each item printed. Ouch! That's an expensive bit of plastic.
If you can get an STL for it im more than happy to try knocking some out on my printers. I dont have experience in reverse engineering stuff but printing i can do.
 
That quote is a lot but these days “designers / cad operators" get well paid.

If you have a contact that is any good on “autocad”, that looks like a pretty easy design to replicate (judging by what I can see).

I’m a self taught amateur (cad) and reckon I could draw that but it would take me ages - an experienced operator would have no problem.

Once the drawing is done the "autocad” program will create a file (typically .stl) that can be sent to any 3d printing house for printing and it will be a lot cheaper (cost/effort is in the reverse engineering). It is not easy to judge the dimensions but if it is less than 200x200x200mm, most home 3d printers could cope. A resin printed version would probably give you excellent results but in either case you probably have to do some finishing & painting / wrapping.
 
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Found the following for sale, think it needs a couple more switch holes either side, looks a reasonably straightforward modification job perhaps:

 
Found the following for sale, think it needs a couple more switch holes either side, looks a reasonably straightforward modification job perhaps:

I love these forums.

Post a question and you are immediately “out sourcing” your problem for research and products to 100s of helpful people.
 
I love these forums.

Post a question and you are immediately “out sourcing” your problem for research and products to 100s of helpful people.
That's the community spirit. I appreciate all of the responses too.

To answer some of the questions, No, I can't get the AutoCAD work done but I will say that I have no objection to skilled people earning good money doing their job. I had naively thought that it could go into a machine that scanned, measured and generated the cut file. I'd be happy to invest the money in doing it if I thought there wars enough of a market to recoup a fair chunk of my investment but I don't think that's the case.

The carbon trim kit - I simply won't be dong as I am slightly changing the shape of what is there so it won't work but I'll wrap the unit as I did with my CLK trim but in a carbon that is as close as I can get to OEM, obviously it won't match but hopefully won't be too obvious. Great find though and I appreciate the thoughts.

The C230k trims are a great find however in order to use them, I need to cut the centre bar out and add it above the double DIN unit which I don't think can be done seamlessly and so will need some finishing/wrap work sadly.
I've ordered some 1mm ABS to cover over the fascia now which I'll blend in before I wrap it and I'm fairly confident this will work really nicely.

I have got the climate unit relocated today which fits very neatly above the ashtray. I even cut the cubby out to take the original locking tabs, photo is the test fit before I cleaned the edges up so please forgive how rough it looks here.

21-DACC0-B-23-E1-419-E-9388-321-BBD67-F7-CF.jpg


When the 1mm ABS arrives, I will probably make a trim panel to close in the small gap either side of the top of the climate control but even as it sits now, it's not obvious there is a gap there at all when you sit in the car.

AB6-D972-A-432-B-490-D-959-D-4-E22-E8747-A39.jpg


IMG-5121.jpg

Took me quite a while to realise that the screws were still in the "Carbon" fascia and that's what the top of the cubby wouldn't locate properly :rolleyes: I got there in the end and without any help from anyone else... Felt very special at that point!

Might need to change the title of this thread now as it's misleading since I've kind of gone off topic.
 
That's the community spirit. I appreciate all of the responses too.

To answer some of the questions, No, I can't get the AutoCAD work done but I will say that I have no objection to skilled people earning good money doing their job. I had naively thought that it could go into a machine that scanned, measured and generated the cut file. I'd be happy to invest the money in doing it if I thought there wars enough of a market to recoup a fair chunk of my investment but I don't think that's the case.

The carbon trim kit - I simply won't be dong as I am slightly changing the shape of what is there so it won't work but I'll wrap the unit as I did with my CLK trim but in a carbon that is as close as I can get to OEM, obviously it won't match but hopefully won't be too obvious. Great find though and I appreciate the thoughts.

The C230k trims are a great find however in order to use them, I need to cut the centre bar out and add it above the double DIN unit which I don't think can be done seamlessly and so will need some finishing/wrap work sadly.
I've ordered some 1mm ABS to cover over the fascia now which I'll blend in before I wrap it and I'm fairly confident this will work really nicely.

I have got the climate unit relocated today which fits very neatly above the ashtray. I even cut the cubby out to take the original locking tabs, photo is the test fit before I cleaned the edges up so please forgive how rough it looks here.

21-DACC0-B-23-E1-419-E-9388-321-BBD67-F7-CF.jpg


When the 1mm ABS arrives, I will probably make a trim panel to close in the small gap either side of the top of the climate control but even as it sits now, it's not obvious there is a gap there at all when you sit in the car.

AB6-D972-A-432-B-490-D-959-D-4-E22-E8747-A39.jpg


IMG-5121.jpg

Took me quite a while to realise that the screws were still in the "Carbon" fascia and that's what the top of the cubby wouldn't locate properly :rolleyes: I got there in the end and without any help from anyone else... Felt very special at that point!

Might need to change the title of this thread now as it's misleading since I've kind of gone off topic.
Good effort, keep pushing! Just something to maybe consider if perhaps you may come to feel that the pioneer double din unit is protruding out a bit - I’m wondering if it can go back further in the dash somehow or perhaps it’s as far back as it can go by the time you’ve got all the wires plugged in… Double din units are not all created equal in size - if you got a ‘lower profile’ double din unit from JVC (Kenwood) JVC Double DIN Multimedia System KW-M565DBT (check the side profile pics) I think it would/could sit more flush once installed. Then again maybe it is not the unit that is making it protrude out slightly but the housing it is sitting in or perhaps combo of the two.

Climate unit looks to be sitting in nicely.

Also came across the following thread, forum member here seems to have a w202 amg with a double din sitting quite nicely indeed, climate unit is located above the double din unit in this example though:

 
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Just one thing to note, somewhat annoyingly the c43 carbon is slightly different to the facelift sport carbon, which is also different to the prefacelift sport carbon just to add to the headaches. When I had mine dipped, despite going to the biggest dipper in the country they couldn't do an exact match so ended up getting the surround, the ashtray and the gear surround dipped to match it up. Was going to get the door card inserts and dash top done but started costing lots of Dosh so didn't bother as not in the same eyeline as it were !
 
Good effort, keep pushing! Just something to maybe consider if perhaps you may come to feel that the pioneer double din unit is protruding out a bit - I’m wondering if it can go back further in the dash somehow or perhaps it’s as far back as it can go by the time you’ve got all the wires plugged in… Double din units are not all created equal in size - if you got a ‘lower profile’ double din unit from JVC (Kenwood) JVC Double DIN Multimedia System KW-M565DBT (check the side profile pics) I think it would/could sit more flush once installed. Then again maybe it is not the unit that is making it protrude out slightly but the housing it is sitting in or perhaps combo of the two.

Climate unit looks to be sitting in nicely.

Also came across the following thread, forum member here seems to have a w202 amg with a double din sitting quite nicely indeed, climate unit is located above the double din unit in this example though:

I won't be changing the unit as I just love it and its still retails at £700. But I know what you mean about the protrusion. The cage for it is rubbish and when it was in my CLK I bought an aftermarket cage that allowed me to move it around as you suggest. If I could only find where I bought it another would already be on order! I have a feeling it came with another surround too so that will help me out a bit there.

It's all a work in progress currently and I've no doubt it will change over the coming weeks. The car had a stupid little aerial in the roof that didn't really work so that has been replaced with my powered DAB antenna which went straight in thankfully but of course the cables were too short so the extensions arrived today to sort that out. I also fitted some Focal components to the front doors and original tweeter locations as well as some more Focal 4" speakers in the rear doors today. It sounds crap still :-( Theses cars were designed before manufacturers started investing in enclosure design so they are just some speakers shoved in the doors. I expect I will end up with a very small sub (8" of pair of 6.5"s) in the boot to make up for some of that with my mice 8 channel DSP amp but the main problem as always is that I don't want to cut/change anything about the original car and I don't want anything on show so a lot of thought needs to go into this. All that said, I bloody love the car.

Just one thing to note, somewhat annoyingly the c43 carbon is slightly different to the facelift sport carbon, which is also different to the prefacelift sport carbon just to add to the headaches. When I had mine dipped, despite going to the biggest dipper in the country they couldn't do an exact match so ended up getting the surround, the ashtray and the gear surround dipped to match it up. Was going to get the door card inserts and dash top done but started costing lots of Dosh so didn't bother as not in the same eyeline as it were !
Oof. My head! Thanks for that PmP!
 

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