Trim

 It's less than a week before the 2026 Road Trip, so what am I doing to the car? Checking important items? Topping up fluids? Testing electrical circuits?

No, I'm making door handle trims.

When I got the car it had Fiesta inside door handles - broken Fiesta inside door handles. I made up a plate & modified the release so it would hold together & work - which it has - but it's not a pretty thing & with the increasing "gentrification" of the Stylus' insides I thought something better was required.

Here's a picture of the passenger side handle, because - yes - I didn't think to take a "before" picture.

As you can see, it's  "serviceable" but not a nice thing to look at.

And yes - you just know the 3D printer is going to appear in this story, don't you?

Here's the 2D model I drew & you can see it has the same grooves as the handbrake boot / trim & the gearstick trim. I had to re-work it a little as it's all curves & angles, but the second print was very close, so after a few more adjustments I set the printer going again.

So there it is, all printed & in place. When I originally made the handles work I just put a countersunk bolt with a nut on the Ford bit, but that now has a riv-nut to save my knuckles, the hinge is all hidden & I'm quite pleased with the result. I may improve on it a little more yet, but it's a lot tidier than it was before.