Hey all, my car has plastic pieces in the dashboard that have degraded over time and have pretty much fallen apart and can’t be put back in the car. I’m looking to just “make” new plastic pieces to put in my car. I can’t find anywhere that makes custom plastic pieces. Any suggestions?
Make, model, year? Which parts?
2001 Chrysler Concorde LXi. The A, B, and C Pillars, dashboard (cracked), and the black plastic piece in front of the dash covering the center speaker and defrost vents.
I know I can get them online, but I was interested in custom making them, I just didn’t know how to go about doing that.
You get a 3D printer.
Tester
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Okay, if you think I didn’t think of that, you are mistaken 
That was the first thing I thought of when I though of making plastic parts. However, I don’t know of a plastic 3D printer that can 3D print something as big as I need.
And the supplies, equipment and time spent making pieces that don’t fit will only cost several times what the car is worth.
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You got that right, my car ain’t worth much. My end goal is to make it a sleeper car.
A 3D printer?
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No real option here besides buying replacement parts, seems to me.
The only sleeper part of an 01 Concorde is that it still runs.
To duplicate the part, you need a 3d laser scanner to map the part into a CAD solid model. You then need to process the model to fix the buggered up parts and make a 3d model that can be printed. Then print it. The finish is pretty poor so you’ll need to hand sand the part, fill any pits and then paint to match. There are probably shops that can do this work… an internet seach might find one or 2.
If the dash pad vinyl is bad but the base is still solid, that can be stripped and re covered in leather or vinyl. Upholstery shops can do this.
All costing more than the car is worth even when complete.
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The pillar moldings can be covered with cloth to match the headliner, upscale vehicle come this way from the factory. Buy a dash cover to hide the sun damage.
Dressing up the interior won’t make this a sleeper, which engine does this car have?
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This is the second post in the last week or so of someone wanting to make a sleeper car . What ever for ?
I think manufacturing your own trim parts will be a lot more troublesome and expensive than you can even imagine.
My suggestion for what it’s worth, scrounge parts off of eBay or a pull a part salvage and devote the trim manufacturing money to performing basic maintenance services to keep the thing moving.
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What? He needs to devote any money he saves for the purchase, installation and tuning of all the performance parts (because he will need a lot of both parts and money) he will need to make any kind of a performance car out of rolling scrap. I don’t think a scrap yard even wants something like his car.
There’s not enough room for a bed, toilet and shower. Although back in the seventies a friend did have a Plymouth Duster That the back seat did sort of fold out like a sleeper sofa.
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Do y’all know what a sleeper is? It’s a car that ain’t supposed to be fast, and you make it fast. I’m not talking about actually sleeping in it. Yes while my car isn’t desirable or pretty to look at, that’s pretty much exactly what someone needs to turn a car into a sleeper. And anyone would agree with me that if a car has sentimental value, you just can’t get rid of it no matter how ugly or worthless it is.
It has a 3.2L V6
What do you plan to do? Convert it to RWD and drop in a V8? There were kits to do that with Ford Focus’, I think it was around $100,000.00.
Have you had any luck finding performance parts?