This is the most common email I get. Not engines, not bodywork, just some small plastic thing nobody makes, holding up the whole job.
Manufacturers typically keep spares for around a decade after a model ends production. After that the warehouse is gone, and so is your particular cover, clip, bracket or flap. On the used market the same part is the same age and often broken in the same place.
When this works
Best of all when you still have the broken original, even in pieces. Then the geometry exists and there is something to work from.
- Interior parts: covers, flaps, brackets, knobs, vent louvres, glovebox hinges
- Clips and fasteners that are only sold as part of a whole panel
- Badges and trim that are long out of production
- Parts where the other side survives intact: a mirror image is easy
- Small runs: the same part for five people in the same club
If only one fragment survives and the rest is gone it is still possible, but then it is reverse engineering rather than a copy. The missing geometry gets modelled back from photos, measurements and logic.
When it doesn't
An honest answer matters more than a sale.
- Safety parts. Belt anchorages, airbag components, brake system parts. I don't do these at all.
- Load-bearing metal. Plastic does not replace steel and I won't pretend it does.
- Parts living in constant engine-bay heat. Possible, but the material choice gets expensive and has to be agreed in advance.
- Parts protected by a design right or patent. By ordering you confirm you have the right to have the part reproduced.
How it actually goes
- Send a photo and say what the car is. Usually I can tell from the photo whether it's simple or not.
- The part comes to me, by post or in person. Broken is fine. In pieces is fine.
- Scanning and model repair: break lines get rebuilt, dimensions get checked.
- Material is chosen for where the part lives. Inside a door there is no sun and no heat; on a dashboard there is both. That decision matters more than anything else here.
- I print it, finish it, send it back. The original comes back with the new one.
Material choice is the single most important decision in this whole job, and it happens before the work, not after. There's a separate piece on it: what the part is actually made of.
What it costs
Scanning a small object starts at €120, printing at €45, and most interior parts land between €200 and €300 for both together. Exact figures are in the price list. A batch is cheaper per piece. If five people in your club have the same problem, say so up front.
The same logic applies to anything else made of plastic and no longer sold: household appliance and furniture parts take exactly the same route.
Send a photo of the broken part and tell me what car it's from. I'll tell you if it can be done.
Ask for a quote