Got a little project almost finished today. I've seen this guy pop up on one of my Facebook parts pages selling some cup holder deals that replaces the ash tray. So I figured, why not. They only cost $25 and shipping from Australia. The cup holder clips into the center console instead of floating like some other designs, however the product came in a raw 3D printed form, and his print wasn't very good to begin with. Lots of filament delaminating, and he didn't print it with the face on the bed, so the face has a lot of finishing work required. I was a bit miffed, since it was advertised as being a finished piece, but I understand the dude's doing this as a side hustle. It just would have been nice for a heads up before smashing the order button.
Anyways, I've been building movie prop replicas for the past couple of years and doing some body work on my truck, so I figured this wouldn't take too much to make look less like a**.
On to how to polish a turd.
As you can see, very rough. This was gonna take a lot of cleaning up. With 3D printed prop parts, a lot of times you can sand them smooth and then wetsand the scratches out to get a good surface finish. However, the print job on this wasn't that great. You'll see in some of the later pictures.
Also, it sat high. It contacted the mounting bolt for the e-brake assembly. So I had to cut the cup down by about 3/4" to get it to fit.
The areas I had to remove to get the piece to sit in the console.
I chucked up my orbital palm sander with some 220 grit and got to work. The ridges were sanded down, but this is where things fell off the rails a bit.
The extrude head wasn't applying enough heat, or it was moving too fast, so there were sections that had not fused properly. Sanding in this corner exposed a void. The best solution at this point was to get my Bondo skim coat out and start filling holes.
Sanded back to flat, and then test fitting the clearance of the e-brake mount.
By this point, I knew I needed a base in the cup area. There was no point in seeing through the trans tunnel. I found a quart sized mixing cup had a perfect contour and matched up really close to the diameter of the opening.
I cut the bottom out of one, traced the circumference of the opening and then cut slits to let me fold up the flaps of the outer diameter. This would give me more surface area to epoxy.
The cup bottom epoxied in place with JB Weld Plasticweld. It was still flimsy, though.
So I plugged up the leak through holes, got it level, and then poured in some vulcanizing plastic resin to reinforce and seal the bottom.
I had this idea when I first ordered it that the SILVIA logo should light up. There's a light for the ashtray after all. So it would be cool to use that circuit here. I grabbed my dremel and nibbled the back of the SILVIA logo until it was thin enough to push out and then cleaned up the remaining with a utility knife.
Then it got a few coats of plastic bond primer. I had to add some more skim coat to the voids in the corner as they showed through on the primer.
After a few coats of flat black and some flat clear, I made a little reservoir for the plastic resin and then poured it in through the top. I added a bit too much to the VIA part of the logo and not enough to the SIL, but it still looks okay from quite a few feet away.
And here's testing the back lighting with a flash light. A few LEDs wired up underneath it should look perfectly fine.
And last but not least, it holds a can of soda well enough.