Tail light plastic sockets

The plastic tail light sockets that hold the bulbs are disintegrating, causing the bulbs to fall out. As I understand it, that are not available independent of the tail light assembly. These sockets would be easy to 3 D print. Has anyone had one of these scanned? My grandson tells me that is the difficult part and the printing is easy. If no one had done it, then I will and let you know.

 

Verell Boaen (Unobtanium Supply Co.) also has a molded replacement -- see page 8 of his catalog:

http://www.unobtaniumsupply.com/UnobtainiumSupply_Product_List.PDF

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Verell is also molding from modern plastic materials so expect better lifespan vs. OEM

 

do we know that for a fact? If it's a urethane cast part then it's not necessarily better because it will be more brittle and with less strength. If he created an injection mold for it then I agree it will be a lot better. A lot of the "repop" parts I have seen are NOT better than the originals. Fog light lenses for example.

 

I don't want to trash anyone here but I bought some and consider them worthless. I will be happy to give them away.

 

I have been universally impressed with all the reproduction lenses, and it is many, I have purchased and installed from Squadra Nouvolari.

 

I think we are at the point with the Testarossa where there is a financial justification for companies doing a better job on these parts. It's something I've had a lot of personal/financial interest in myself. I bought the 3D printed connectors for the fuse panel that a vendor offers and was so so so unimpressed. These kinds of "good enough" solutions just aren't good enough. I believe there is justification for actually injection molding some of these parts, especially considering the markup these boutique vendors are charging for their urethane cast replicas...

If anyone could tell me what plastic parts are in sufficient demand to justify a $5k investment, I'd be happy to look into it myself.

 

Several years ago a client who was the liaison engineer between his employer, a huge high tech company and their producers in China investigated reproducing fuse panels. It was a very expensive minimum order and would have required huge sales to make it worthwhile. Most of that though was for the multi stage die sets for making the metal parts. At $5000 it needs to be something you can sell a lot of. There is always a great response until the time comes to write a check. You need to be selective. Someone is making very high quality aluminum hood releases. I'd say good tail light sockets is a no brainer as is good door seals with and without the fuzzy covering. I think the "Testrarossa" script for the engine cover is NLA too. It needs to be high quality concours grade to be worthwhile and best if it fits multiple models. Id talk to Ricambi and Brian at T Rutlands for parts needed. I am just not interested either for my own car or customer cars unless it is very high quality. I am just not into making junk work.

 

Brian- If you ever need an alternator shroud, please consider my reproduction. It is 3D printed, which I don't normally love, but is a good application of the technology. In theory I could prime and paint it matte black to make it exactly the same look as original on the outside (for concours). Thanks to a couple of generous TR owners for working with me on fitting it, I can now say its a total bolt on no hassle experience. Pics are not mine...
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Looks like a nice part. How much are they? That is something I could sell to nearly 100% of the TR services I do. You should be getting Ricambi, Rutlands, AW Italian etc to sell them. Very few will even know it is available otherwise. If those guys are not selling them it may as well not exist. Don't be fooled into thinking people will discover it here. In reality few of the cars are being fixed by anyone here.

 

My grandson has a 3D printer and found a file for printing slip rings with tabs for fixing the tail light holder that have the tabs broken off. He made some for me and they work perfectly on my 87 TR. If anyone needs some, let me know.

 

can you post some photos please?

 

It would be great to see how they look and how they are working out for you? Do you have a 3d printer file that you can share or details of where to find one? Thanks