Delrin VW Bug wind screen fix

#1

My next door neighbor has this wind screen for his convertible VW Bug . Recently a small ABS part on the wind screen broke off. He found the part no. but when he tried to purchase a replacement from VW they informed him that they did not sell that piece separately from the rest of the screen. A new wind screen runs about $500. So, I made him some replacements out of black delrin.

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#2

Sorry but which one is the new part? :grin:

Great job!

#3

Yep the delrin looks good. How’d you get it molded…that surface looks curved.

#4

The original part is curved so I engraved both sides with gradients to match it. Delrin starts to melt a bit the deeper you go so I had to sand it a bit to clean up the parts farthest from the center.

#5

Nice job helping a friend.

#6

I hate that “Next higher assembly” BS, especially when it is a $2 part that fails rendering a $500 part inoperable.

The bright spot is the opportunity to flex your maker prowess and solve the problem cheap for a little “I can do that” tinker time as you did. Nice work.

#7

I have this exact problem for our Nissan Rogue. Clip that holds the back-up camera broke. Camera is in the housing so housing could theoretically be replaced… Can’t buy housing separately, new camera is $1,100. Proceed to repair the clip using PC-ABS and a soldering iron.

#8

And of course the actual camera probably costs them around $15. Nice markup.

#9

That’s the kind of thing Sugru is good for too :slight_smile:

My motorcycle had a flashlight clip built into the underside of the glove box lid. If it breaks (it’s a U-shaped piece of nylon) you have to replace the whole door - and then get it painted the special BMW blue.

Or you model it in Fusion 360 and send it to your 3D printer and print a new one you can glue into the square foot where the old one breaks off :smile: