3D printing needed for a small part

So got my Lancia Scorpion on Saturday from Washington State. Long dirty trek on an open 10 car hauler, but made it in one piece.  Car was covered in road dirt, probably salt and grime. Ultimately does not matter as it will be completely disassembled, stripped and resprayed with epoxy primer and new paint once any rust that is found is eradicated. I'll start a build thread on it once it actually gets worked on, right now it is behind a few other projects. Car has some nice features, rebuilt 2.0, Ansa exhaust and 40 DCOE's,  upgraded brakes with a front/rear bias adjuster and a double bubble top. Lowered with 15" wheels, it looks like it will be a bunch of fun once it is ready to go.  Definitely a budget Italian exotic!

One thing I am learning on these cars is that many small trim parts are just unavailable. The 76 cars have a solid panel for rear sails on each side of the mid-engine, but on the 77, they have glass sails. The glass is held in with these little rubber "clips" that are inserted into a hole in the sail deck. The glass is pushed into an upper channel and over the ramp in the rubber clip and then it sits in the groove. Anyone think they could reproduce these? If so, I know a bunch of us need them and would pay you for your time and materials. They are very small, and made out of a rubber like material, so they would need to be similar if 3D printed. Since I have two, I could send one to be modeled for making up the CAD file. 

Or steer me in the right direction as it looks like I could make a silicone mold of the part and then model these from liquid rubber?

I like the mold idea as I'm not sure if there is a soft filament for printing.  My 3d printer guy just asked me about modeling something for him, I'll ask about a soft print material.

There are soft materials and while I have done quite a bit with the normal PLA, PETG, etc, I haven't worked with those. Judging by the size and expected application though, I would bet that a rubber part from a mold would hold up much better. I would be afraid of splitting at the layer lines or other forms of failure that could lead to a short lifespan with a printed part. 

I've 3D printed many things.  For those I would make a mold and cast them.

In reply to akylekoz :

Well that was quick! So, ask your guy if there is an appropriate material to use if you don't mind. The issue here is these hold in a piece of glass that is as unobtainum as the rubber that holds it. The really cool thing about these cars is they only imported 1800 of them, but that is also the not so cool part about owning one!

Mr_Asa said:

I've 3D printed many things.  For those I would make a mold and cast them.

You could probably 3D print the mold correct?

Kendall_Jones said:

Mr_Asa said:

I've 3D printed many things.  For those I would make a mold and cast them.

You could probably 3D print the mold correct?

Easily. Done many times at previous jobs.

dherr (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to akylekoz :

Well that was quick! So, ask your guy if there is an appropriate material to use if you don't mind. The issue here is these hold in a piece of glass that is as unobtainum as the rubber that holds it. The really cool thing about these cars is they only imported 1800 of them, but that is also the not so cool part about owning one!

Kinda hard to give a good material choice solely from pics over the interwebs, ya know?  I'd recommend having someone that can poke at the pieces and the car take a look and give an idea.  Barring that, I'm pretty sure you can usually order samples of cured silicone in various durometers from various places.  I'll try and look some of those places up.

What file format do we need?

To print is usually .stl, then it gets converted to gcode via a slicer program

TPU would probably work but if you're doing more than one or two I think a molded rubber part would probably be a better choice.

Not sure how you get the appropriate dimensions but here is another picture with a quarter as a reference to the size. This also shows that there is a kink that allows the rubber to press down to insert the glass into the track and then spring back up to hold it in place.

I’ll model it closer to scale, make a print with dimensions.  You can compare that to the part.  May need some cheap calipers and a protractor.  Sixth grade math class quality.

Is this a bit closer?

Yes, that looks like the part :-)

So I can measure the length and width with a calipers as well as the depth of the rubber "ball" and width. This is not a critical part so a little overside in a few dimensions won't hurt, as long as it is thick enough to hold the glass from falling down.. I'll take this drawing and add the dimensions.  Thanks!

Love it when a plan comes together.

In reply to EDT (Forum Supporter) :

Did you spend more than two minutes on that?

Looks great.  I’ll probably end up with a printer some day, haven’t thought about making molds.  

So here are the dimensions, had to get a new battery for my HF digital calipers. The dimensions are not critical, expect for the bulb that holds it in the panel and the dept of the notch to hold the glass in place.  I know little about 3D printing, so I just need the drawing to scale with the dimensions added and then see if someone can print them for me?

APEowner said:

TPU would probably work but if you're doing more than one or two I think a molded rubber part would probably be a better choice.

that would be my suggestion and SME advice. any service bureau can help you with that

Stratasys Direct MFG or Forecast 3D or Xometry or Goproto etc etc

select MJF TPU if you can 

I've updated my model with the given measurements, however I don't know the first thing about mold making. If anyone does and wants the model file, let me know.