Top headlight repair panel

[kev100]

So my top headlight panel is trash, full of holes .. so armed with my scanner, 3D printer and 20 ton press, began making repair panels.

I had previously bought a repair panel, but it only covered the front half of the rotten area, and wasn't a great fit, I thought I could do better.

This first press is just a test press, the mold will be made out of 6 sections, 3 top and three bottom glued and screwed together, so I can try and press one full panel

Not sure how well it will work, it may fail spectacularly, but the test print is a test of the middle section press, and came out pretty good.

I still have 2.5 sections to print, hopefully will be ready for a weekend press.

Some pics

20240325_141200.jpg

[kev100]

I will say the test panel is pressed out of 0.8mm steel, but I think the original panel is 0.9 or 1mm steel, so how the thicker steel will press is unknown at the moment as I dont have any that thick

I also made the plastic molds thinner, with thinner walls and infill down from 30% to 20%, so they may fail with thicker steel due to lack of strength integrity, but more plastic would have meant a lot more printing time, and 30% more plastic filament

[flying farmer]

Thats a seriously frilly panel there Kev, I am glad non of my rebuilds have needed that much work

[kev100]

Thats a seriously frilly panel there Kev, I am glad non of my rebuilds have needed that much work

It looked fine until it went for the dip, in fact the dip has uncovered a lot of rot that couldnt be seen before, or probably I wouldnt have known about, in that respect, I'm glad I had it dipped, so I can sort it all now. There is a lot more work than I originally thought there was going to be, but thats usual I guess, just glad I cancelled the body guys who were originally going to repair it, would have cost three times more I reckon to do it right

[ramjam2005]

Looks like more good reproduction work in progress like your A-post panels Kev - following this thread with interest.
I've yet to remove the front top apron to see what's lurking underneath but peering through the headlamp/ radiator apertures the underneath view of mine doesn't look too bad, just some surface rust patches (fingers crossed).
I made a start at the weekend on the RH visible corner / end sections whilst preparing the new battery tray and supporting panels and accessible having removed the rotten ones. Once again previously botched wing replacements had butchered the small raised support for front wing attachment.

RH_Wing_Mount-2.jpg IMG_7452.jpg
Ray

[kev100]

Once again previously botched wing replacements had butchered the small raised support for front wing attachment.

I have a few botched repairs on mine too, and those repairs were done by a rover garage back in the day .. hidden areas so clearly they were not bothered about doing a good job, just a quick job ..

[new to this]

James paddock sell the head lamp repair sections

Dave

[jakesmig]

I'm most impressed with the 3D printing of your moulds. I was in Civil Engineering and was well versed in Cad systems but was out of the loop when 3d printing started to become a usefull tool.
With my background I would be using the 3d print as a mould for a cast concrete mould which may be tougher and take repeated presses of the finished panel.

[kev100]

James paddock sell the head lamp repair sections

Dave

I know, I bought one, if you see my comments in the post above and the photo's, its not a great fit, and only covers half the area I need it to cover, hence the need for an alternative, Unless I missed another part they sell which is a full repair panel, but I didnt see one.

[kev100]

I'm most impressed with the 3D printing of your moulds. I was in Civil Engineering and was well versed in Cad systems but was out of the loop when 3d printing started to become a usefull tool.
With my background I would be using the 3d print as a mould for a cast concrete mould which may be tougher and take repeated presses of the finished panel.

To be fair, the plastic is pretty strong, I have reduced the infill and the wall thickness to save time and materials, as these are at the moment just kind of one off's for my own personal use, but of course for more mass production, the molds could be used to cast a more durable mold out of a different material, I am already learning several new skills, including 3D design (which i am not great at admittedly), learning to cast would be a great new skill, but I have no spare time to learn, or want to spend the money on casting equipment.

I think if the infill was increased to 50%, the molds were thickened up a bit and the walls thickened up, then I guess properly mounted on maybe a thick wooden base, they would last a reasonable amount of time, (especially the smaller molds).

I'm just an enthusiastic amateur with zero panel beating skills, thinking outside the box to get to the same result in an "easier" way

[jbuckl]

To be fair, the plastic is pretty strong, I have reduced the infill and the wall thickness to save time and materials, as these are at the moment just kind of one off's for my own personal use, but of course for more mass production, the molds could be used to cast a more durable mold out of a different material, I am already learning several new skills, including 3D design (which i am not great at admittedly), learning to cast would be a great new skill, but I have no spare time to learn, or want to spend the money on casting equipment.

I think if the infill was increased to 50%, the molds were thickened up a bit and the walls thickened up, then I guess properly mounted on maybe a thick wooden base, they would last a reasonable amount of time, (especially the smaller molds).

I'm just an enthusiastic amateur with zero panel beating skills, thinking outside the box to get to the same result in an "easier" way

3D cad is my area of focus.

if I can assist with your efforts just say…

for making panels, there are specific packages available… but they are proprietary & cost way more than a few hand made panels would, sorry to say.

amazing progress here Kev

[kev100]

So finished printing the second press for one of the end sections, so decided to try it, I was unsure if this would work as there are some major forming to be done on this section, my fears were correct, although I am going to call this an optimistic fail.

The photo's show a fail in the metal (circled), and a fail in the molds (circled), essentially the mold collapsed, and also split lengthwise, a couple of reasons for this, I reduced the infill to 20%, and reduced the wall thickness by 50% (mostly for speed of printing), and of course in that section there would be a lot of stress on the molds, and also the split in the molds I think was caused by both the above, but also the hole I put in to line the molds up causing a weak spot, and also I had to change the filament and it seems to have split at that point.

So what have I learned, the molds need to be stronger for sure, whether that means more infill and thicker walls, or using the 3D prints to then create a mold out of stronger material as Jakesmig mentioned

From the scans to the printer I have to go via a 3D program to create the molds, but the 3D scans pick up all the imperfections in the scan, from rust to holes, these also need to be cleaned up, but my limited knowledge of 3D software means I am just able to do a basic clean up and smooth over, which ultimately looses details, not a lot though, but a better and cleaner mold would also benefit.

So need to think which way to proceed now, I guess ideally creating a better cleaner mold from the scan, and then printing a mold that could be used to cast a stronger mold from different stronger material is probably the best option for these larger panels. that option would also mean a quicker print with less filament as strength in the 3D printed mold would not be necessary.

An alternative could be to print some molds with minimal infill, then fill the prints with some kind of resin to make them sold, although i thionk when resin cures it does give of heat, and that could cause the molds to deform

So any suggestions as to how to proceed next would be welcome.

Julian, are you able to clean up a 3D scan better than me (I'm going to say thats a given) ?

I just want to add, I am actually quite pleased with the way the panel came out, even with the fail, if not for that I think this could have been very usable.