3d printing a trd pro grille

[drtyjerz47]

OK ...700$ for a grille is b.s. u know it, I know it, they know it

Haven't found any info on this yet but has anyone tried to 3d print one?
A Marine at my unit has one in his room so I'm thinking about asking him to print one out. He's got all the smarts to measure and figure out all the fine details

 

[Tlowe]

OK ...700$ for a grille is b.s. u know it, I know it, they know it



Haven't found any info on this yet but has anyone tried to 3d print one?

A Marine at my unit has one in his room so I'm thinking about asking him to print one out. He's got all the smarts to measure and figure out all the fine details

3D printing something that large and relatively complex is going to be extremely difficult. The easiest way to do that would be to 3D scan it with a high res scanner and then print it in sections but because of its curves, angles and edges it would be very hard to model it with just some measurements. Honestly I'm thinking of taking this on as a summer project, buy some resin and fiber glass mat, make a mold and then having the ability to pump them out as I please. I know [MENTION=115941]Apex Overland[/MENTION] might have something in the works... but has been for a long long time.


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[GearJunkie88]

Wow. Quite the undertaking. I'll tell ya, for $700 and 15 minutes of time, the TRD Pro grille is installed. Sometimes easy is worth the money.

 

[Ride4Runner]

I posted this in another thread, but you can get the TRD garnish and grill cheaper than $700. If you can get your local dealership to price match save you on shipping.


PZ32335056 - TRD Bumper Garnish
List: $567.64
toyotaparts.mcgeorgetoyota.com: $375.04

PZ32735053 - TRD Grill
List: $239.00
toyotaparts.mcgeorgetoyota.com: $157.92

List total: $806.64
McGeorge: $532.96

Still a lot $ for a piece of plastic :mmph:

 

[Northern 4Runner]

I don't understand why it's so much money, you can get the entire trd pro grill for a Tacoma for $400. It's a lot more plastic than the bar and upper grill we get for our 4runners

 

[Liquidmantis]

Saw this in the side bar

and thought, "Well, that's ambitious..."

Yeah, the TRD grill is stupid money, but if you aren't going to do it "right" just do something else. I get that people don't want to support Toyota's stupid price on it, but then I can't get the huge effort they'll go to to make something similar that looks like a cheap copy anyway.

3D printing one is not going to be the way to go. Maybe on an industrial unit, but definitely not on a consumer-grade unit. For one, the print quality is going to suck compared to an injection molded piece. Secondly, the trim will be well beyond the build volume of any consumer printer and you'll have to do at least two pieces (I'm being generous, I don't know of any consumer printers that could do it in two), probably four.

 

[dustinmj]

I've been thinking about this since reading other's ideas on another thread...

I made a quick and dirty cadd model and uploaded it to some printing sites (I guessed dimensions since I was too lazy to go downstairs and measure): way too much $ if they can even do something that size, so I'd guess it's going to have to be a diy project for printing. Not my thing, yet.

I got some injection molding quotes... I would need to buy many units in order to get the cost down below Toyota's cost. Counted that out. Group buys around here don't get into the 1000s

I'm thinking the appropriate method for this particular piece (and for the valance too) is thermoforming, which is simpler to DIY than the large format 3d printing and/or injection molding. I came across this video of some guys DIYing a bike tail section in ABS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utm5ymA-9dA

Seems like a good top/bottom sandwich/press mold and the method of heating the guys in the video used above could work great to heat/press/trim a bunch of these things at once.

That said, I bought mine from Toyota so I'm not likely to begin this quest. I may be able to get a good scan of the part(s) and get a CNC mold made, but that's going to depend on whether one of my clients wants to do me a favor.

 

[Apex Overland]

3D printing something that large and relatively complex is going to be extremely difficult. The easiest way to do that would be to 3D scan it with a high res scanner and then print it in sections but because of its curves, angles and edges it would be very hard to model it with just some measurements. Honestly I'm thinking of taking this on as a summer project, buy some resin and fiber glass mat, make a mold and then having the ability to pump them out as I please. I know [MENTION=115941]Apex Overland[/MENTION] might have something in the works... but has been for a long long time.


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Still waiting to hear back from the place about it. If this company falls through like the last 4 I'll probably give up on this project.

 

[Tlowe]

I've been thinking about this since reading other's ideas on another thread...



I made a quick and dirty cadd model and uploaded it to some printing sites (I guessed dimensions since I was too lazy to go downstairs and measure): way too much $ if they can even do something that size, so I'd guess it's going to have to be a diy project for printing. Not my thing, yet.



I got some injection molding quotes... I would need to buy many units in order to get the cost down below Toyota's cost. Counted that out. Group buys around here don't get into the 1000s



I'm thinking the appropriate method for this particular piece (and for the valance too) is thermoforming, which is simpler to DIY than the large format 3d printing and/or injection molding. I came across this video of some guys DIYing a bike tail section in ABS:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utm5ymA-9dA



Seems like a good top/bottom sandwich/press mold and the method of heating the guys in the video used above could work great to heat/press/trim a bunch of these things at once.



That said, I bought mine from Toyota so I'm not likely to begin this quest. I may be able to get a good scan of the part(s) and get a CNC mold made, but that's going to depend on whether one of my clients wants to do me a favor.

The issue with this is you can't really do that to the whole bumper so you end up needing the piece to begin with. So for those of us who don't know anyone willing to do it and want to DIY the piece this is somewhat out of the question. I'm looking more into fiberglass as we speak. Seriously thinking about giving this a shot.


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