75' Door window plastic bracket

[_Cap_]

The plastic guide brackets on my eldo were shot and falling apart, using some spares I made a model a printed me some replacements because I wasn't able to find any new ones for sale and I don't wanna put back 50 year old plastic if I can help it
Would these be worth it to put up for sale and make for people? Or is there someone else making these already that I couldn't find?

[Big Fins]

Excellent reproduction!

I wonder how long the modern materials used in the making will hold up against the pressure exerted by the window going up and down. I'm finding 3D printed stuff breaks a little easier than injection molded material due to the fine breaks in the material as the printer builds the part.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

These originals seem to have been made of a really good quality material.

If I was going to reproduce them, I would be making the whole outer frame from steel, and insert a nylon liner in the hole.   This way, the nylon acts as the lubricated slider, and the steel holds everything in place.

Bruce.

[_Cap_]

Yeah this is true, when put under high stress 3D printed things can fail. For resin printing there are types of resin that are resistant to it and can hold up very well, but of course those are more expensive
The spare 2 guide pieces I have are in good condition, however my problem is in the center whole, as its not as tight as it really should be, causing the window to wiggle while going down. Same issue is with the ones in my car currently, they are just worn down, also mine are partially broken where the screws hold them down.

The good thing is there pieces are simply a guild and don't support the whole weight of the window, the only really stress I would be worried about is where it mounts, as resin cracks with enough pressure, so if i tighten them down too much they might crack.

I may try some injection molding, wouldn't take much to make a mold by printing, any recommended materials for the injection?

[TJ Hopland]

I'm no real expert on this stuff but I would not think it would be worth the trouble to do an injection mold sort of process for a part like this.  If a home/enthusiast grade printer and material doesn't hold up there are services that are reasonably priced where you can just send the design and they can print em in just about any material you can afford.  Looking at the pics it also looks like this could also be a CNC machined part which there are also services that will make things that way.

Anyone got a parts book and can see what all this fit?   Was it just Eldo or was it like most GM's in the 70's?

[Big Fins]

If you really want to put your talents to use, make the front and rear filler sections. If you can get your hands on a good set of originals and can make them exactly like the originals, chances are, you have plenty of orders for them. I'll place my order now, thank you.

Most of the repops don't have the crisp points and creases the originals do. They are rounded to a degree and to the owner, they stand out like a sore thumb. Many GM car used these types of fillers and they used to be able to be found. What you get now is really poor imitations.

[_Cap_]

@Big Fins The only problem with printing those is there size, FDM printing cant print at a high enough quality, and resin printing is usually limited to a small build volume. My resin printer for example is limited to a 7 inch by 10 inch base and i think 14 inch height
Otherwise I would be printing me a new set of fillers, my original ones are in ok condition but it definitely needs some new ones, but even the repop ones are hundreds of dollars for some reason

[_Cap_]

actually, i could print them in sections, but youd need to use some kind of bondo or other filler to get rid of the seems between pieces. That's about the only issue i can see, other then designing prototypes would be expensive because of how much resin it would use

[_Cap_]

@TJ Hopland I not too sure how far this part spreads, I know its used in all Cadillac's in 1975 through 1978, maybe except the seville, but i would assume its also used in Buicks from those years. Be weird if they had a window mechanism strickled for Cadillac, especially in the 70s

[Big Fins]

You would need to look that up in an interchange manual. I bought one years ago with my Eldorado in mind. It seems like just about everything I tried to look up was specific to this car. Things that you would think crossed with Toronado's didn't. They were all specific parts. Only some major components interchanged.

[_Cap_]

Update on the replacement guide piece. I installed them on both windows today, they both seem to be working perfectly, and got rid of the window tilt that the old and worn out guides were causing. Only problem I've had with them is that they are a tight fit on the guide "pole" and can fracture around the smaller end's edges, however this doesn't have an effect on the operation.
I will use them for a week or so to make sure they hold up good with repetitive use, but otherwise they seem to be a perfectly good replacement!