[Steve_v6]

Looks like a part that could be 3d printed.......

 

[Steve_v6]

Agreed. But I know nothing about 3d printing nor how one even gets accurate dimensions.

its a pretty small part so if i were making one id measure it with calipers, create a basic ball park design and do a test print of it, alter and re print.

With something like that i would start with the spline part and just print that on its own as a test and work on the other end once i had the spine nailed, you can print fast test prototypes if you dont print the whole thing

I had a look on thingiverse to see if anyone had already designed one but there are blender flap control 3d models for the ford escape and the mustang but no mondeo

 

[Steve_v6]

I have FDM and an SLA 3D printer. Brilliant things but they have limitations. FDM is like layering hot string to build the
part. Issues being in the heater area some of the filaments may get soft with the heater.


Does it need to be hollow or can it be solid?

PLA might get too soft from the heater but id give it a try, then the more fussy to print PET-G, i dont have any ABS but im sure that would be fine though a pain in the arse to print as you will know if you have gone deep enough down the rabbit hole to own a resin printer!

looking at the part i think it can be solid and thats how i would make it for strength reasons.

 

[Steve_v6]

When I was working in the film/TV special effects industry, 3d printing did not exist (yet.) What i would have done, fast, strong and could make as many as I would like.

Stick to a bit of wood or perspex, put a length of pipe around the part and fill with silicone. When set, remove the original and pour a two part high density polyurethane foam into the mold. The foam is very high density, no bubbles and pours like cream. Ten mins later, would have a perfect copy.

I was one of two people who built the Black Cabs for the film 28 days later, that was an interesting project.

We made 3 cabs, one was a hero cab and had no modifications, then there was the interior shot cab and we modified it so the entire center partition could be removed for certain shots and then there was the stunt cab which had modifications to the suspension, underside protection to make it flat as well as skids and off road tyres.

In the scene where the Cab drove over a bunch of cars and other stuff in a tunnel, it really did do that, everything it drove over was wrapped in a mesh and objects also placed strategically in the gap between roof lines.
With the flat underside of the cab, the skis and the chunky off road tyres allowing it to tackle the still pretty uneven path it had to take.

The mesh was then edited out later.

I was not and never have worked in film, i was working for a black cab maintenance company who got the contract to build the vehicles.

 

[Steve_v6]

Certainly way off topic, but a few photos of the sort of thing I was making:


View attachment 259978
1/10th scale kitchen

That miniature kitchen is a work of art!

 

[Steve_v6]

The kitchen was not just me, there was a team on the job. Had to make a bathroom and loft. Was for heating / energy saving before it became the hot topic; the camera pulled upwards from the kitchen, through the bathroom, through the loft, to the whole house, street, town, etc and into space. Most of the later was CG but the closeups of the rooms had to look real.

View attachment 259982

View attachment 259983

Mesmerized at the detail again its amazing!

My loft looks nothing like that however, my loft is pretty small but i have a mini Mk3 Mondeo breakers up there and its rammed full of parts stripped from two Mk3's, suspension, brakes, cooling, glass inc electric sunroof and electric window drives, lights, mirrors plastics, switches and so on and even a full V6 exhaust system, its an assault course to get to anything up there lol.

I remember that Skoda advert, it was impressive!

 

[Steve_v6]

Expletive Deleted!!!!!!

Can only assume that the actuator is faulty. Things were looking good for a while but now, I only have air from the cabin and or footwell, nothing on the screen. In fact, hit the screen button or the screen override, the blower fires up and the cabin and footwell give a nice blast.

Guess the drive shaft is broken again. Have ordered one from eBay, coming from Lithuania so hope that it is not faulty. Picture shows actuator and drive shaft so trust that the drive will be with it.

Annoying; you bet!!!

When i broke my old Ghia X it never occurred to me to take the flap actuators, i will kick myself if i ever need one!

 

[Steve_v6]

You cannot take all the parts that you 'think' you may need in the future.

I had a fender bender some years ago and needed at least one door. As the breakers had a good car in the same colour (how lucky can you be), I bought three doors (paid for by the guy who hit me!!!) I don't really need three doors, but one of mine is rusting nicely at the bottom and the breaker car was in much better condition.

Having replaced two of the doors, and re-used all my original window / lock gear, I subsequently had a lock issue. Sounded like all the doors where locking but one was not. Fortunately, never had anyone try to get in.

But as luck would have it, I had the spare parts from the breaker door and exchanged them; voila, lock working again. So it is worth holding onto various bits and pieces.

If my loft was bigger i would have had everything including the doors but i have a small house so the loft area is small and i have a really low roof and a strange box section support structure across the whole thing limiting what will fit and to top it off, the low roof is so low i cant stand fully upright in any part of it and much of it is so low its a nightmare putting anything heavy there as your on your knees reaching out to put it in a place you cant get to with your whole body

Had a full set of 17" Ghia X wheels hidden behind stuff outside because they wouldn't fit but someone spotted them and stole them and there was scaffolding up at the time and my CCTV was Blind

 

[Steve_v6]

i dont know but at a guess, could the mystery actuator control whether the airflow passes though the air con block or not?

 

[Steve_v6]

Guess that is a possibility but i don't think so. The a/c has not worked for a few years but the winter heating has been fine until recently. Now, the heating seems to have a mind of its own. As for Automatic Temp Control, there is none, either fully cold (outside temp ) or max hot, which very quickly gets the interior much too hot.

The blower is working correctly, just the footwell/cabin/screen and temp control actuators not responding.

Not sure what the demist actuator does. Problem is, with the actuator fitted, it is not possible to watch the mechanism turning. And if I remove the actuator but have it connected, I can watch it turning but almost impossible to fit it again, as the driven shaft at rest, will not match the flap position. It is probably very simple as it cannot be this complex to manufacture and set up.

my Aircon hasn't worked the whole time ive had this car, it worked in my last mondeo but i never used Aircon other than as a dehumidifier on exceptionally wet winter days as i like my windows and sunroof open and also hate the performance hit you take when its on so i haven't been bothered with it not working in my current Mk3.