Upper Cab to Door seal project

It sounded labor intensive from the beginning, I can understand not wanting to do this as a side gig without the price being understandably super high. Did you create 3D scans of the parts? I'm wondering about 3D printing off the seal shapes in plastic and then making my own molds. Neither of my truck bodies have the seals left, unfortunately.

Regardless, you did some top notch work and it's super impressive! Thanks for sharing it!

I looked through the post again and saw your 3D print from CAD, lol. If you're willing to share the pattern, please let me know.

Funny, I was just discussing what Gonz has mentioned with a 3D printer yesterday, to someone that had a 3D printer at one time. On this very seal project. To make a mold buck that was reusable. To restore the molds after they got worked and needed replacement. I hope the pattern gets shared so those that want to do the work and effort can do just that. There is a need but the details are very intensive.

Where can we get the bumper?? Found them .....

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Originally Posted by Angry_Truck

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The process was then repeated for the other side of the truck, ending up with the front door seal, rear door seal and several round bumpers. Here they are with some of the originals.
https://i.imgur.com/PbUgvIAl.jpg

So a few of you asked about making some more. Honestly, I am not too excited about trying to make a bunch of these things. It is a fun "can I do this?" hobby experience but I want to be done with it. For the front and rear door seals, I am happy with about 1 out of the 4 or so that I have made. The molding process isn't too terrible but making the metal inserts isn't fun and takes some time. The urethane material I use also just went up in cost by about 30%, which means doing it even as a hobby is getting expensive.

So what to do?

I can add more details to the process so people can make their own parts. It doesn't take any special equipment - just some clay, hot glue, and whatever you want to make the metal parts. The patterns could be made from simple materials (wood, clay) but I chose to do the front seal by 3D print.

The front seal could also be 3D printed using "TPU". I have no experience with this material but it is supposed to have "rubber-like" properties. Note that this wouldn't have the metal insert, so I am not sure about how well this would stay put on the actual truck. I quoted this TPU material at the same place I had the front seals 3D printed (Shapeways). Pretty spendy for an obscure rubber seal but it could be an option if somebody wanted to try it.
https://i.imgur.com/xMD3dv9l.jpg
This 3D printing process won't work for the rear seal since it requires the metal bracket to mount it to the truck.


Sorry guys - I want to help out but cranking out a bunch of these things myself sounds miserable and expensive.

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I am totally up for this. Is your seal uploaded on the site already. Do I just order it from them? How does this work? Will you provide the plan? $$?

Sent PM.

No response.

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So here's the update.
Shapeways allows people to make a "Marketplace". The Marketplace would then have the part available and you could directly order it from Shapeways - nice and easy. So I went through that only to find out that Shapeways doesn't allow the TPU material on the Marketplace (no idea why).
http://i.imgur.com/26Tpy3Ul.jpg

So then that brings me back to just providing the CAD model so folks can upload and order the parts individually.
I can do that, just not sure how. Maybe send me an IM with your email and I can send it to you?

Some notes about the design:
https://i.imgur.com/FKPQPo9l.jpg
The parts I made have the overmolded reinforcing plate like the original. That requires a different design than if you want to use a part directly from the 3D printer.
If you are going to try and print a part using TPU and use it directly, I would use the part with the 4mm thickness in the mounting areas. I have no idea how well this will work, my guess is that it could be "floppy" and not hold its shape well. Maybe some adhesive between the part and the body would help? Also, this type of part will just squish if you use a screw only to attach it to the body. If I was doing this method, I would add a compression sleeve (like a short piece of tubing) to take the compression load of the screw. That will help keep the TPU from splitting or squishing and the screw from loosening.

First person in over 50 years to try and tackle making any of these and with all the obstacles, you pulled it off and are trying to help others do the same....

Tech legend...thats who you are!!

Hats off to ya...amazing work!

PM sent!!!! Thank you for doing this!!!! I'll order right away!!!

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That is crazy awesome, A.T.! Thank you for being willing to share-

OK TPU Prints are on their way! I'll post when they arrive! Again thanks Brian!! Oh and Brian .... do you have the STL files for the rear door/cab seals????

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