Like many I have two broken yellow brackets on my door card for my 2004 XK8. Near the corner of the corner bracket you can see a hole in the panel where the remedy was to add a screw in the seam on the outside of the door card. It was not a bad job as I never noticed it. But it didn't do a good job of holding the door card tight to the door and left a centimeter gap along the rear of the door card.


I also have a 3D printer so I though I would try to custom print a part to see how practical it was. First task was to cut down the corner bracket to be something fairly uniform that could be built on. I used a utility knife to trim it down.

After removing the broken bits top of the corner bracket I was ready to try fitting a part on top of it. After a few tries I got the correct fit. Then I went on to the other bracket which I thought I could get on the first try. But no, I made a reverse piece (doh!) and had to do it again. This Pic shows the progression for the corner bracket (top) and the middle bracket (bottom):


Now that I had a part with a good fit I added a hole in each side because I didn't trust the glue to hold structurally. The holes were made to fit #4 screws. I then fit the parts in place to guide the drilling of screw starter holes in the yellow brackets:


With the holes in place I was ready to glue. I used Super Glue but don't have any idea if that was the best choice. Glue was liberally placed on the contact surfaces. The screws were then added while the glue was wet. A drop was then added to the top of each screw head to hold them in place. Here are the finished brackets:


Fitting the door card back in place went perfect. The door now sits flush and is snug.

This project took me about 6 hours. Mainly due to all the printing time. The verdict is that using 3D Printed parts to repair structural plastic parts works, but is very time consuming. With this part the 'fir trees' that fit into the bracket are supposed to squeeze into place which required precise sizing. One question I have is what kind of glue should be used to prevent the need for adding structural hardware like I did with the screws? Any ideas?
The finished part with the 'fir trees' in place:

 

I'm pretty sure they are ABS plastic, so if you've printed with ABS then plumbers' pipe cement works well.

 

Another forum member, ccfulton, has 3-D printed the entire bracket. If you do a search you might find the topic showing his work.


Z

 

Well done....

 

Good work, Brotha!
I'll take a couple, if your into that sort of thing...?

 

I found his post after I made this post. Here is a link to it: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/xk8-xkr-x100-17/door-panel-clips-133754/page2/
That technique is a little more involved as it involves reattaching the bracket to the door card fiber. I'm not sure how difficult a job that is, but with this method you don't have to do that. Different approaches.

 

I've attached the SolidWorks (Version 2006) and stereolithography (.stl) files in a zip file here. You can get them printed at an online service bureau easily enough. I made my files for a drivers side (in the USA) door. In the attachment I included files for the passenger side as well assuming that they are a mirror image of the drivers side. Good luck.

 

the old bracket pulls off easily without damage to the door card. The new 3-D replacement was made sturdier so hopefully it will last another 20+ years.

Z

 

Cool, John... Thanks!

 

I never made repairs for the other clips besides the upper corner one as an all out replacement. Kind of a crown vs root canal sort of conversation, both have their place, depending on the damage, as I’m sure our resident dentist giandanielxk8 can explain.

It’s great to have these different options available and published on the forum.

 

None of my other pin “holders” have given up, only the rear top corner.

It looks to me that the top rear corner bracket gets the brunt of the inertia force when the door is shut. After about 15 - 20 years and thousands of impacts the corner bracket gives up & the pin pulls out taking the weak part of the bracket with it.

Many thanks to the forum for being the melting pot of knowledge on these cars.

Z

 

I printed the parts above in PLA since that is the material for which I'm familiar. They didn't last. they broke in one spot and bent in another. I reprinted them in Nylon 6-66 and they have been holding for one month now. I also improved the design by making the part walls thicker and added holes. Attached are the final revised parts.

 

Thx a lot, just placed an order at the local 3D-Printer-Shop and will report, how they fit !
Cheers, Christoph (Germany)

 

The great thing about the ones johnjfjfds has made is that you won't have a locating problem

Jack

 

are they out of stock? i‘ve bough oem ones about 2 years ago with no problem.

 

with the right stock material, it appears that a 3-D printed part will outlast the OEM Jaguar part