lets get some iX mudflaps made. Who can help?

[red baron]

This may have been asked before but are the front & rears the same?

I ask because my es had mud flaps when I bought it. The fronts are a little tore up & three states away in my parents garage but my rears are in pretty good shape.


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[mtnbimmer]

This may have been asked before but are the front & rears the same?

No

[2002tiiguy]

ok, so i got flaps, i have the front brackets, they are pretty much toast, the rears i dont have, does anyone have a set of rear brackets i can either have, or borrow as a template?

[ndfspd67]

The rears are universal dont bother. The fronts are whats important

[2002tiiguy]

lol thats fine that they are universal, but i dont have any, what am i even looking for? also need the clamps

[EyExR]

Might as well delete this thread. It's a lost cause...

[bradnic]

Indeed. So many false starts. Hell I have a commercial grade 3D printer at my office. Somebody send me their front flaps and I'll get some scans done and print samples made

[2002tiiguy]

if your serious ill send mine

[bradnic]

I am serious, but need to research the available materials to confirm they are suitable. We'd all be better off with someone making a mold, not 3D printing parts.

[flyboyx]

I am serious, but need to research the available materials to confirm they are suitable. We'd all be better off with someone making a mold, not 3D printing parts.

i spent a lot of time looking into this a year ago. there was no suitable 3d printer material available at that time that was flexible enough and able to handle the temperature extremes from say -30 to 120f. getting dies made for injection molding will be an expensive proposition. depending on the quality of the dies, they could cost a lot.

3d printed dies would be about 12-1500 dollars. apparently they won't last very long. machined sets would cost over 3 grand.

[ghatid]

i spent a lot of time looking into this a year ago. there was no suitable 3d printer material available at that time that was flexible enough and able to handle the temperature extremes from say -30 to 120f. getting dies made for injection molding will be an expensive proposition. depending on the quality of the dies, they could cost a lot.

3d printed dies would be about 12-1500 dollars. apparently they won't last very long. machined sets would cost over 3 grand.

I work with 3d printing stuff on a daily basis. I think the cheapest way to do it would be to get the flaps from someone, make a silicone mold with them, and cast urethane parts. You don't need to do any kind of 3d printing, and the parts that come out won't be amazing, but they'll be better than a 3d printed part that was printed using a part file someone CADed by making measurements off of the actual part.

Something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs9SBpday84

Except, I would make the top half of the mold first and then mold the bottom half of the mold so that I can control the parting line.

Cost wise, it would be very reasonable. The cost of Silicone is expensive, but not crazy. I've worked with Oomoo 30 and I've gotten good results:

https://www.smooth-on.com/products/oomoo-30/

And then you would use some kind of urethane which mud flaps are often made of (of course there are about 1.25 million types of urethane so they aren't all the same).

Maybe something like this?

https://www.zoro.com/devcon-liquid-rubber-1-lb-15800/i/G1048756/?gclid=Cj0KEQjwhtO7BRCtwuO9gfTH-fQBEiQAdJ8FY5xudaFcdGa0nwZREH3cHZHZEgzxYkn4uOmoG3WRH6saApj28P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

That last one I'm the least sure about.

One of the problems with this route is that whoever makes them can probably only make 1 set a day per mold. Also, the material cost per flap is not negligible (as most things are when you mold them, but it's a bigger part). But other than that, it should be pretty easy to do, if you have a set of flaps.

Hrm, I guess I can offer my services if someone wants to send me flaps. I have a sand blaster (I'd use soda blast for the plastic), so I'd be able to get anyone's set pretty clean, and I am kind of between jobs right now. Anyone looking for a medical device mechanical engineer?

Also, how complicated is the hardware? From the photos online, it looks like we'd be able to make do with just a laser cut sheet metal and nuts/screws.

[2002tiiguy]

I am in the process of rebuilding the brackets for the front, they are the same as the regular ones but they have a spacer, once i finish the bracket i can show you pictures, the brackets for the rears can be had but as far as i know, you can only get them with the rear flaps as a set. pm me if you have any other questions

[z122643]

So... is this dead?

Also who has scans of the front mudflaps? Otherwise I have to design them from scratch, and I'm lazy.

[ghatid]

So... is this dead?

Also who has scans of the front mudflaps? Otherwise I have to design them from scratch, and I'm lazy.

I think so, but I still think the easiest way would be to make a mold out of someone's relatively decent shaped flaps.

Designing them from scratch would be pretty neat. You could make them however you'd like and then sign your name on the back:).

[Chris Spiegl]

just saying i would pay a good amount for a nice set of these