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My 3D-printed Lip Kit.

73K views 300 replies 71 participants last post by  GK27V6 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello everyone,

I'd like to share with everyone a project that I have been working on it. It started summer 2012 when I thought of a design for a lip kit that would complete the exterior of my car, along with other plans. So I made a quick photoshop image of what my plans were at the time:



I got some of the modifications as pictured complete already, including lowering the car and new wheels.

I did go to school for industrial design which I am very passionate about so I have a good understanding of design in general, especially with automotive applications. But anyway, originally I thought I would produce it strictly out of fiberglass. I had access to a CNC machine for which I could have made a very rough mold. I never got around to doing that as my final year of school started and got very busy with my work as I had to work on my final thesis project. Now things get interesting: For this project there was a requirement to produce a hard model, and I have decided like many to get it 3D-printed. Unlike most who had their 3D printing outsourced, I went ahead and bought a printer, the Makerbot Replicator 2. Quite an investment. At first it was wonderful, I made a handful of Tiburon parts in my Christmas 2012 break. But then I had to go back to working on my school stuff when the final semester came about. As well, I have encountered many problems with this printer, so times were stressful. Anyway, school was finally out at the end of spring which meant I finally had some free time. So I went and acquired this CAD model of a GK Tiburon from the interwebs, and then designed my lip kit as a CAD model around that. I as well have modelled eyelines off of this model which I am currently working on at the same time.




As you can see I based my lip around the GK1 bumper, but I believe both it and the FL bumper share the same curvature along the bottom so modeling around that should be fairly successful. You will also see in my design I essentially combined a splitter into the lip. This splitter section will be gunmetal in color like my wheels, and will likely be a solid piece of material (e.g. thick aluminum sheet or similar) bolted directly to the frame on which the splash guard is fastened to, and the lip kit can "clamp" around that for added support. I am no aerodynamicist but I am convinced my design will aid aerodynamic efficiency. Even if it doesn't I don't care, I think it'll be sexy :) One of my goals with this mod is to keep the appearance fairly OEM if that makes sense. Those who have seen my other self-constructed projects probably know what I am talking about. Every modification I make on my car I make them appear almost as though the car was originally designed that way, without being boring. So this lip kit will essentially be an "extension" of the original body lines among the bottom of the car, but will transition into my fender flares in more refined fashion. I will reveal the side skirts and rear pods later on, for now I am focusing on the front to ensure the rest of the kit "matches up".

With this printer though I am limited to just a 11 x 6 x 6 inch printing volume so I would have to print out the lip piece-by-piece, fiberglass reinforce it from behind, and give it a nice coating of body filler on the outside surfaces. Some of you may think, why not just print out a mold and lay-up fiberglass to that? Well, while that would work, I am curious to see how the printed PLA material holds up to driving conditions. I am convinced it would work out really well as the material shares many properties to those of ABS plastic, but is a bit more "tougher". Plus as far as I know this method has not yet been tried by anyone so it makes for a good experiment.

Here are the results so far:









About a month ago I printed out two pieces for the front lip, and then cut up with the dremel a bit to make it fit better. I know there will probably be a great deal of trial and error with this project and that's ok. As you can see these pieces look a bit gross with the brown spots. My printer hasn't been the most reliable and right now it had a problem with the insulation material coming off which has been causing that happen. As of right now the nozzle shooting out the material got so clogged that it's no good anymore, so I am afraid I'll have to order new parts and get back to printing a week or so from now. Between waiting on printer parts, doing the actual printing, going to work and having a social life this project will take the next several months to complete but I will get it done because I need this kit to complete the exterior on my car. I as well have 90% finished my interior so come 2014 my car will be complete appearance-wise which is rather odd to think about. As we all know, our car projects never finish! lol. Oh well, time will tell.

Alas, I am very excited :)
 
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#7 ·
Wow that's ****ing awesome as a future engineer and someone who has built countless things on a 3d printer good ****ing job that is sick... What program did you use?
 
#11 ·
Thanks everyone! I really wish I could advance further right now but it won't be until a couple days that I order my new printer parts and then there's the shipping time :/

For those interested I imported the mesh file in Solidworks and generated my lip with that program.

And yes, 3D printing will certainly make a lot more mods accessible. So far though I have found that the PLA material starts to warp from heat at fairly low temperatures so that cuts out any parts in engine bay or ones left in the hot sun all day :(
 
#13 ·
You can always use those parts as a mold for fiberglass or carbon fiber? That way you can do engine bay parts and not worry about the temperature.
 
#14 ·
i would love that front lip kit done in Carbon Fiber.:cereal-guy-cereal-g
 
#20 ·
Hi!
Your work looks very nice and aggressive :good: it is similar to mine (i have CF in the middle),
so waiting for your end result pictures!

Here is a picture of my finished work:
 
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#22 · (Edited)
hahaha and i always wanted to get those fender plastics like yours but could never find them so i finished my without them :muching_out: I can't wait to see your car finished!!!
It will look very mean! I love the wide body look and the red color :cool:
 
#29 ·
That thing is f-ing nice. Really lookinf forward for the result.

My first (and only) time at 3D printing was a pipe wrench printed in one piece (and it was working! Ok it was plastic, but whatever haha).

And yeah, working surfaces and 3D isn't that complicated, the trick is to know all the possible festures of the software. There is always more than one way to do the same thing, so the more features you know will make things much more easier.

And having a 3D printer at home is SICK!!
 
#31 · (Edited)
I heard you guys like lip kits :p






So that's my very first test-fit and I am overall satisfied with the results. Had to cut down some sections with the dremel (this PLA material is very easy to work with) and the majority of it fit decently well except for where the bumper curves around from the front to the side. You can see in the last photo I am 15mm away. That's all ok, I didn't expect a 100% fit the first time, so now I am going to go back to the CAD, make the adjustments and reprint and then fabricate the lip together. Once that's done, it's time for the side skirts which I am super excited about! :)

Stay tuned.
 
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