And Now For Something Completely Different

 Ah, showing my age there I know.

It's not completely different - it's still car mods.

Winter gives me a problem at my girlfriends house, The only practical way of us both parking outside is if I reverse my car in, But as her house is at the end of a short private drive past two other houses, there are all sorts of hazards from bushes to cars at odd angles. It's not a problem in the summer when I can see, but when it's dark, it's VERY dark & one of the TinTop's few downsides shows up - the reverse light is rubbish for seeing where you're going & there's no reversing camera.

This isn't the best pic!

So what to do? I considered fitting after market reverse lights, but they are mostly chrome, meant for '50s cars & would look stupid on the Cactus. Then I found an LED bulb that would do the job light wise, but how to mount it? The last post was singing the praises of the 3D printer & this one will too. I drew up a "cannister" & printed it in hard plastic, then in soft rubbery TPU I printed a seal ring & in harder (but still flexible) TPU I printed an end cap with two tiny holes to let the wires through. My first thought was to print a housing which would fit into a hole cut into the rear bumper, but then I saw the 10mm thick plate the bike rack slides onto & a plan hatched.

I drew up a "sleeve" to slide over the plate & hold a pair of the bulb barrels, each pointing down & outward. I ran a wire from the fuse box via a switch on the dash, back to the boot where I fitted a relay triggered by the reversing light, then down to the tow hitch where there's a "SuperSeal" connector.

So - the "light pod" fits over the bike mounting plate & is triggered by the reverse lamps, but I can also switch the whole lot off to avoid dazzling folk in "normal" reversing.

Blanking Plug - in case you were wondering

If the MoT man objects or I want to fit the bike rack, it just comes off & unplugs & I have another SuperSeal plug blanked off with another 3D printed sealing cover to keep the weather out of the socket.

 

Aren't 3D Printers BRILLIANT!?

 It's been a while, but a coming together of several circumstances led to a little garage time this weekend & my attention turned to the Stylus' airbox.

I made it when I put the blacktop in the car as the existing foam filter was tight up against the trumpets & was breathing engine bay air. Some time later, on a road trip I discovered that the flat face opposite the trumpets had broken up - the resonance of the air pulses I expect, so I mended that, this time also on a road trip I found the airbox was loose, I suspected the lower bolts had torn through & took it off to investigate.

If fact the airbox was still intact, but the bolts had fallen out. Easy fix, but there were more repairs to be done.

Repair 1 was to one of the upper mounting holes, that had pulled through, so an aluminium plate was made & bonded in place. A hole was later drilled.

Yes, it's on my kitchen worktop - what of it?

Repair 2 was the intake. This had originally been bonded on with Tigerseal - usually a very reliable means of attaching stuff. but not this time.

I had carried out a (ahem) "temporary" repair some time ago with a yard & a half of duct tape, could I come up with some thing better? You betcha!

I fired up the laptop & the very useful (& free) CAD system "OnShape" & effectively drew up an "N" - an internal groove, joined to an external groove, the first goes round the flange at the end of the intake, the second fits to the edge if the airbox

Having fed this into the 3D printer & given it some nice soft shore A90 TPU filament to chew on - and a couple of hours, I peeled this of the bed & after a little cleaning up - you can see it's a bit hairy still - I fitted the edge of the Air Box into the outward facing groove.

You can't see anything else though, because it's BLACK! (sorry, my girlfriend & I are a little "Fast Show" obsessed at the moment.

The intake slides through the big hole in the middle locking it in place & when slid fully home, the flange on the other end of the intake is trapped in the inward facing groove (after a brief struggle).

So the outside looks all neat & tidy like this ...

... and the inside looks all neat & tidy like this, the airflow is undisturbed & the intake has a little "give", but is VERY tightly held.

On the car it looks like this. Practically invisible - at least compared to a yard & a half of duct tape.

So there you are - 3D printers - not just for miniature figures of Yoda & sex toys, they have real world practical uses.