Charge Port Cover Dent Prevention – 3D Printed DIY Solution

[HuntingPudel]

The better move for Ford would be to have the door swing upwards instead of sideways.

I was thinking that a pivoting door like on my Fusion Energi would have been a great design.

Regardless, I probably won’t be getting my MME for a while (still in “Order Accepted by Dealer” status), but I might start getting stuff like this soon for it.

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[Shayne]

Received and installed. 30 second install. Slips in pretty easy once you get the door at the right angle. Thank you.

 

[GrisGris]

Yes. Definitely tighter than the one I printed myself, but if you fit one edge of the top tab first it's doable. You should be able to finesse it all the way down/in. Worst case wait for winter and it will press right in. I was able to press mine all the way flush on a not too hot day, a few weeks back, before I posted the JawsTec link. Just be patient and take care with it. Cheers.

Hmmm...or put it in the freezer (the part, not the car!)? May try that when I get mine (and, er, my car...hopefully in about a week).

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Hmmm...or put it in the freezer (the part, not the car!)? May try that when I get mine (and, er, my car...hopefully in about a week).

I used a couple of good squirts of speed shine. Water would work as well too though.

 

[Tyldum]

I think there is some variation on the mounting or shapes of the hatch. In order to risk a dent in mine someone has to run into it full force...

 

[Wendenator]

Amazing work, you are a lifesaver! Many thanks.

I just finished printing the guard on my own Kingroon KP3 printer. I don't know if it is a direct drive printer but it does have a Bowden tube. I had to do a bunch of test prints first to get the correct temperature and speeds but it turned out ok. I just sent it to my dad and I'll post more once he receives it to let you know how it works out. If you are interested in the actual settings I entered in my printer so you can replicate it and not have to go through what I did to test it, just reply to this thread and I'll enter it.

 

[Wendenator]

Quality looks good. IIRC, your friend has the same printer as mine. If he is printing the TPU directly on glass he may from time to time experience some bed adhesion problems at the skinny end that is the actual wedge. I uploaded a version with an in-built partial brim, which solves the problem without making it hard to clean up (vs. a normal slicer generated brim, that can sometimes need to be razor-knifed off).

I used a KP3 Kingroon Bowden tube printer and used blue painter's tape on my print bed for the best adhesion. Then I set my temperature at 230, bed temp at 50 and beginning layer at 5 mm/s, the rest of the layer and shell speeds were in the range of 10 or 15 mm/s and my travel speed was set at 25, retraction speed at 20 mm/s and retraction distance of 4.5 mm. It took around 3 hours to complete and I had to cut off a lot of stringy-ness, but it came out ok. I used the non-support version of the model file. I made it for my dad who just got his Mach E so I'm waiting to hear how it fit.

 

[Wendenator]

As far as my expectation, any of these nice people offering to print these are not looking to turn a profit, but merely to recoup costs. And that's fine. The part is posted with a proviso that it's there for non-commercial use.

The most straightforward approach under the non-commercial use provision is that each person downloads the part and uploads it to a print service. Some nice folks have offered to print these, since I don't have the time to do it, and that's great. Hope they're not breaking the rules. :-/

Bear in mind the quality of parts will vary, whether printed from filament on a typical direct drive extruder type 3D printer vs. a Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) process.

My advice is hold out for a SLS version of the part over any extruded filament printed part.
I'm expecting to receive a sample of just such an SLS-printed version of the part in a couple of weeks. If it works out there may even be a "storefront" offered so people can order a very high quality part just by pushing a button and without paying a huge premium like the one site someone already mentioned.

Stay tuned.

You should definitely patent your design just in case Ford wants to mass manufacture it. Great model by the way, this is how the little people can come up and make a little money off of the big corporations.

 

[Chuck]

BTW, this printed just fine on TPU on my Ender 3 Pro. But I have the SeeMeCNC EZR Struder Extruder installed which helps with TPU.

 

[RickMachE]

I found it puzzling that Ford designed it this way. My Fusion Energi door pivoted. Not mine, but here's what it looks like.

 

[jparduhn70]

Hot off the press, if you'd like to get the highest quality possible part with the black vapor finish, you can now just go here and place an order with JawsTec.
$20 plus $10 shipping on quantity one.

https://www.jawstec.com/product/wedge-mme-chargeport-door/

Got my part today and it took me about two minutes to install. Looks great in black and fits perfectly! The shipping was a little steeper than I'd hoped, but at least it was UPS and trackable. Any way I cut it, at $30 total it's a lot less than I'd spend on a 3D printer setup. I haven't been able to justify buying one yet.

 

[Kabish]

That is actually pretty slick, amazing what people can do with 3D Printers... Might have to look into getting one of these, just received my MME yesterday.

 

[HDer]

Got the Jawstec printed one and unfortunately the part that goes into the top hole was just a sliver too big. Wouldn't sit flush so would interfere with the door opening. Ended up scuffing the charging door plastic a little prying it out with a key and then sliced off a sliver on the right side and bottom which helped it sit flush. Also, the main connective piece between the wedge and the two arms feels just a tad bit too wide. Not sure if this is an issue with the original CAD or if it's just a 3D printer dimension variance issue.

Otherwise it works pretty well. Given the amount of give I see in it, I can still see a serious hit to the charging door denting the panel, but it's certainly a nice reinforcement.

 

[GrisGris]

Got the Jawstec printed one and unfortunately the part that goes into the top hole was just a sliver too big. Wouldn't sit flush so would interfere with the door opening. Ended up scuffing the charging door plastic a little prying it out with a key and then sliced off a sliver on the right side and bottom which helped it sit flush. Also, the main connective piece between the wedge and the two arms feels just a tad bit too wide. Not sure if this is an issue with the original CAD or if it's just a 3D printer dimension variance issue.

Otherwise it works pretty well. Given the amount of give I see in it, I can still see a serious hit to the charging door denting the panel, but it's certainly a nice reinforcement.

Interesting, just installed mine over the weekend and had the exact same problem with the top wing. Definitely cut differently than the bottom which went in with zero resistance. It didn't seem to be interfering with anything, so I left it as is, but may try to shave it at some point.

 

[HDer]

the extra material is also causing it to bunch up and the door to not spring open entirely when opening. Although maybe I stretched it when prying it out.