At a glance
| Best for | Interior plastics on vehicles out of manufacturer support |
|---|---|
| You send | The original part, a damaged original, or one borrowed from a club member |
| Material | PETG — tougher and more heat-tolerant than PLA, which is what most repair parts need |
| Typical price | From £45 to draw, plus the print. Complex bezels and surrounds are quoted individually |
| Lead time | 3–5 working days to draw, longer for pieces with fine detail |
| Maximum part size | 256 × 256 × 256 mm in one piece; larger parts split and joined |
What we take on
- Switch bezels, surrounds and blanking plates
- Heater and control knobs, including splined and D-shaft fittings
- Vent housings, louvres and demister ducting
- Interior handles, escutcheons and small brackets behind trim
- Club runs — several owners of the same model splitting the drawing cost between them
How it works when there is no file
The hardest part of classic work is usually getting hold of one good original. Everything after that is straightforward.
- Find the best original you can. A sound one from a club member beats your broken one; a warped or shrunken part will be faithfully reproduced warped and shrunken.
- Send it, or send photographs with a rule. We post borrowed originals back before anything is printed.
- We draw it, including the fixings. The spline, the clip and the screw boss matter more than the visible face.
- You check a render, then we print. For a part with a splined fitting we normally print that end alone first.
Where this works well
- Parts where at least one sound original survives somewhere
- Hidden and semi-hidden fittings where a printed finish is acceptable
- Club and owners’ group runs, where the cost per person drops sharply
- Pieces that no longer exist at any price
Where it doesn’t
- Show-standard visible faces — a printed surface does not match a polished moulded finish, and a concours judge will see it
- Clear or translucent parts such as lenses and light covers
- Chromed or metallised trim
- Anything structural, and anything in the engine bay where heat is a factor
Be honest about the finish
This is worth saying plainly, because it is where people are most often disappointed. A printed part has a layered surface. On a hidden bracket or a bezel behind the dash that does not matter at all. On a facing panel in daylight, next to original mouldings, it will be visible unless it is finished properly — filled, sanded and painted, which is work you or a trimmer would do afterwards.
We print at 0.12 mm for visible parts, which helps considerably. It does not make the part indistinguishable from an injection moulding, and we would rather tell you that now than after you have paid.
Club runs are much better value
Drawing the part is the bulk of the cost and it happens once. If four owners of the same model need the same bezel, the drawing cost splits four ways and each of you pays for one print. Owners’ clubs and model registers are usually delighted to coordinate this, and it is how most of our classic work reaches more than one car.
What we will not reproduce
We do not copy badges, marque emblems, wheel-centre motifs or anything carrying a manufacturer’s name or logo. Those are trade marks and they belong to someone. Functional and trim plastics made to repair a specific vehicle are a different matter, and that is the work we take on.
Questions people ask about this
The only original I can find is warped. Can you correct it?
Often, yes. Drawing a part is not tracing it: if we can establish that a face was flat and a hole pattern was symmetrical, we draw it that way rather than reproducing the distortion. Tell us what you believe is wrong with it and we will say what we can straighten.
Can you make it in the original colour?
We print in black or white. Period interior colours are best achieved by painting the finished part, which is also how you get a surface that matches surrounding mouldings. We can leave a part unfinished and lightly textured if you intend to paint it.
Will it survive in a car that is used?
PETG is durable and copes with normal interior conditions better than the brittle originals it usually replaces. Direct sustained sunlight on a dashboard top is the harshest case, and a part in that position will have a shorter life than one in the footwell.
Can our owners club arrange a batch?
Yes, and that is the cheapest way to do it. One good original, one drawing charge split between members, then any number of prints. We are happy to invoice members individually.
Tell us what you cannot find
Vehicle, part, and whether you have an original to work from. We will tell you if it is worth doing.
Other repairs we take on
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