Rear Storage Boxes

There are two storage boxes located behind the seats. I got to state up front that I have NEVER used these in the entire time I have owned the car – most of the time I have forgotten they were even there. Still .. at some point a hinge broke on the one behind the driver’s seat. I took it out and glued the broken hinge back together and then found that the locking tab had broken off and was long missing. I decided to try and see if I could 3D print this missing tab.

Broken Tab

Here’s the place the tab broken off. It appears to me that the tab was a seperate part since there is a nice, clean rectangular hole where it came from.

Good Tab

A look at the tap on the passenger side rear storage box. I used my dial calipers to get measurements off of the good tab.

3D Replacement Tab

Printed this on my Prusa i3 MK3 printer. I printed it in PLA at .05mm layers, no fill with a .4mm nozzle. The rectangular base on the right fits into the rectangular hole. I sanded a chamfer on the curvy bit to match the good tab (forgot to add that in the CAD). I superglued it into place.

PLA is not by any means the best material for this but I figure it will be “good nuff” as I simply want the door closed and doubt I will ever use the storage compartment.

Finished

Here it is .. called this finished. It should be “good nuff” for closing the door once. Opening and closing I imagine it’s lifespan would be short – I could be wrong but as I stated, I have never used these storage compartments so that’s just fine with me.