Reproduction A/C vents

[YellowThumper]

Reproduction A/C vents.
Okay...
I have been eluding to these for a couple years now.
Have finally reached a point with design and execution that they will be offered for sale.
After start of thread I will post many more pictures with descriptions.
Keen eyes will notice certain imperfections in parts pictured.
To keep this initial post "short" lol I will explain in future. But they will not be sold with same imperfections.
I plan on attending the Spring Fling this May in SoCal at Woodley Park if someone is interested in seeing them in person.

I am not normally a seller. There will not be any official site to purchase.
The only place I am discussing and offering these for now is on this specific forum. Need to have real world testing with only a couple sets to start.
I am still a working stiff so free time remains limited and printing a full component set takes ~40 hours to produce.
For those interested in actual visual, I will print a thin version of the faceplate only. These would then shipped with low cost envelope to allow seeing them in person.

$300.00 is asking price for both vents as a set (center and right side only). No cost difference for any of the varients noted below.
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Disclaimers:
1. Thru the entirety of this, there was no intention to make them exacting to original and are not being sold as such. Components as offered are not Interchangeable with existing factory components.

2A. All components are 3D filament printed. This means they are inherently weaker than injection molded components due to the layer lines when being produced.
However, the layers have been condensed significantly to help mitigate this weakness.
These are also full thickness prints.
IE, they are solid fill.

2B. As for the new designed doors, I have generously beefed up the small pivot post that frequently breaks. So I expect these to be stronger than factory.

3. Texture is close but not exacting to original. Can be seen in pics provided.

The Improvement positives:
1. Resin used is ASA with carbon fiber. This resin holds up well to heat and UV. It is paintable.

2. The entirety of the assembly components are 3D printed resin.
All metal components have been omitted.
3. The screw mounting posts have internal #8 machine screw threads already printed into them. No need for original metal thread cap.
4. Mounting post diameters and support gussets have been increased over factory for strength.
5. Additional items used for assemblies provided are Buna o-rings and RTV silicone.
Square profile o-rings are mounted on both ends of the swivel housings to center them and provide subtle resistance to retain user set positions.
RTV is embedded into swivel housing holes that the doors ride in.
This also provides subtle resistance so the doors remain in their user set positions.
Both items are expected to hold up to years of use.

Design iterations being offered:

1A. Factory style and size housings.
These are extremely close to all original dimensions. With mounting post exceptions noted above.
  I have not and will not produce the 70 only right side housing that has the integrated push pull lever to close rear shutoff flap. All year housings are same dimensionality with the exception of the lever connection and flap holes.
This was factory weak and i do not have confidence it would survive in printed version.

1B. Pivoting housing 70 wide face or 71-74 with narrow face. These are the faces that get painted silver. Immediate plan is not to provide them painted. These sub assemblies could be provided unmounted from outer housings if painting is desired. They slide and snap into place for assembly. Instructions would be provided.
1C. Both the 70 and 71-74 thumb door. 70 has ridges on face. Later versions are smooth.

Optional offerings of the housings:
1. Factory a/c dash sizing of housings but with added rear ellipse sized to accept the Vintage Air hoses (other brands may work but I do not have experience with them). This eliminates need for adapter to factory shape.
Only right side is shown but center vent will also have two of the same ellipses.

2. Flush mount with factory style housings for those who do not have original factory openings. All dash frames have the holes. In this initial post of pictures I show them added to my non-a/c dash.
These have longer mounting posts to compensate for the lack of padding recess.
They also have back cut tapers to allow them to seat slightly into vinyl. Remove foam from behind outer edge of vent housing and it will tuck in slightly. I erred to the safe side for pulling them in as all vinyl thickness is not the same on every padding. Shortening of mounting posts could pull it in further but at expense of possibly fracturing the part.

3. Flush mount with the modified housing to accept Vintage Air hoses.

[YellowThumper]

Pics of altered back end to accept Vintage Air hoses.
Center of top pic is actual Vintage air vent that mounts below dash.

[Cuda Cody]

That is SUPER impressive!      Makes me wish I had an AC e-body. 

[YellowThumper]

That is SUPER impressive!      Makes me wish I had an AC e-body. 

Thank you. It took significant time to reverse engineer them and then adapt as necessary for me to be comfortable putting it out there.
I am a plastic injection moldmaker by trade. It would be 200k-300k in tooling costs (offshore prices) to make injection molds for all the components.
So this became the alternative.

[ec_co]

I've been saying for a few years that this is going to be the future of the restoration parts industry. Things that used to be unobtainium can now be easily reproduced without the huge tooling costs. The great thing is, small timers can absolutely get involved with a little bit of time and investment.

[YellowThumper]

I've been saying for a few years that this is going to be the future of the restoration parts industry. Things that used to be unobtainium can now be easily reproduced without the huge tooling costs. The great thing is, small timers can absolutely get involved with a little bit of time and investment.

Exactly.
Offshore supplier for where it work now is utilizing 3D metal printing stainless steel for our cores and cavities.

Then there is this level