I tackled the Porsche and Westfield logos this week. Both were surprisingly easy to trace, but the printing was time consuming, taking nearly a full day. For the Porsche logo, I opted to max out the Bambu's print bed and went with 5" tall letters that result in a 6' long logo. The constraining factor to print size was the width of the stylized letter E -- it's wide! Taking a cue from Porsche dealer signs, I went with red filament. 

The Westfield logo was a little more involved. Their logo is two colors: silver on a black background. Although I considered printing it as a single part, I opted to break it into two 9-3/8" (238mm) diameter pieces, plus the Westfield name, then press fit everything together via pins and mating holes printed into the surfaces. This gives it more dimensionality and it was also a new thing for me to try. Unfortunately, I am out of silver filament and had to substitute light gray, which isn't ideal. It looks fine, but the logo really needs silver for the starburst and name to pop. I'll treat this as a POC for now and will reprint it when I receive my next filament order. 

UPDATE 01/29/25: I ordered a silver PLA Silk+ from Bambu Lab and reprinted the Westfield logo. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware until after the initial test print that the Silk is finicky to print and is not recommended for use with my 0.6mm nozzle. As a result, the finish is a little inconsistent. Fortunately, it's not something you notice from a few feet away and the bright finish looks much better than the gray. Photos were added to the gallery below to show the difference.

I decided to try my hand at tracing a couple of car logos and printing them from PLA. My first attempts were the Caterham written logo that uses their custom font, and the Lotus logo using the font style and layout from the logo used until the early '70s. For scale, each letter in the Caterham logo is 4" tall (100mm) and spelled out is a bit under 50".  The Lotus logo is a little smaller, with the diameter of the C in the ACBC portion coming in at 6.5" and the letters a little over 3" tall (80mm). Each piece is attached to the wall with a non-hardening adhesive putty which makes it easy to make slight adjustments. Photos below include close ups of the finish. Next up, are attempts at the Porsche written logo and the Westfield starburst logo

If you're a car enthusiast — and if you're reading this blog, then you either are or you're horribly lost...or you're my mom — you really need to investigate 3D printing. Learning enough CAD to make interesting parts is surprisingly easy, and with a good 3D printer, the printing process is very straightforward. 

Although I show a number of the 3D parts created for my Caterham throughout this site, it's not the complete list, and those photos are spread across multiple pages and blog posts rather than cataloged in one location. I also haven't discussed the CAD software and 3D printer used for these projects. With this post, I hope to correct those shortcomings. 

CAD software
When investigating CAD options, my objectives were simple: it should be free or inexpensive, easy to use, and should have a good support base via forums or YouTube videos to help me learn how to do various things. After a lot of research, I settled on OnShape. Is it the best software that currently meets those criteria? I have no idea. Do I regret my choice? Not at all. It's been easy to use, there are a ton of good YouTube channels that explain how to do different things, the forums are vibrant, and I've been able to pound my way through various design quandaries to produce things I had initially assumed were out of my reach. 

3D printers
There are a number of choices today and a lot of YouTube reviews that dig into the pros and cons of each. After whetting my teeth on a Prusa Mini +, I graduated to a Bambu X1C for the Caterham parts and I love it. The Bambu can print engineering materials like Nylon, which require higher print temperatures and an enclosure to prevent warping, as well as various features like lidar for the first layer that make printing really easy. I also love the fact that the camera allows me to monitor a print while I'm in the house or my office. I have absolutely zero regrets with this choice.  Bambu's printers just work and they're easy to use.

The gallery below contains the various 3D prints I made for the Caterham that I remembered to photograph prior to installation. Click on a photo to launch the annotated slide show which describes each item. Hopefully these will give you some ideas and inspire you to pick up this skill to supplement your car hobby. Afterall, if I can do it, well...you have no excuses.

The electric windows in the Elan are notorious for their glacial-like pace. When I bought the car six years ago, the passenger side upheld that reputation, but the driver's side needed a helping hand to close. Rebuilding the pulley system on that side improved things, but like the passenger side, it was still slow. In the intervening years, both windows have regressed, with driver's side once again requiring assistance. This year, I decided to replace the old motors with modern units using the excellent conversion kit from ae_mike on LotusElan.net. The new GM motors are much smaller and even with the mounting brackets save over 1.6 lb. per door. That's good. The bad is they made virtually no difference to window operation. 

​Troubleshooting commenced which included alternately bypassing the ground and 12v+ in the harness with straight connections to the battery (the switches control motor direction by alternating which motor wire receives 12v+ and which connects to ground.) This showed that although the 12v+ wiring was definitely slowing things down, it was the ground wiring bringing things to a halt. Cleaning the three chassis grounding points made no difference. A look under the dash revealed a rat's nest of wires that didn't inspire confidence given the combination of changes made by previous owners and 57-year-old wire insulation. But as bad as that appeared, the wiring in the nose of the car was worse. Insulation was brittle from the age and heat, and repairs were made using nasty connectors.  Ugh.

Next, I began the tedious process of removing the dash to get better access to the wires and the back of the window switches. Checking resistance of the ground between the switch and motor showed about 3 ohms even after cleaning the connections. At this point, I realized rewiring the dash was the right long-term fix. Based on what I saw in the nose, that quickly devolved into a decision to rewire the entire car.

​This is where the slippery slope rears its expensive head. First is the wiring harness decision. Do I go with the replacement loom made by Autosparks in the UK, which is faithful to the factory loom, or do I go modern? The stock Elan only has 2 fuses for the entire car, the old school relays are spread around the car, and the wire is PVC coated: thick and subject to age and heat hardening. All these shortcomings remain with the Autosparks harness. Going modern would provide added protection in the form of multiple fuses, a single location for fuses and relays, and the option of using modern wire with thinner, lighter, more robust insulation. The downside is more opportunities for me to screw up the wiring (um, why do the hazards flash while braking with the wipers on??) and the onus is on me to create and document everything for future troubleshooting. Enter Advanced Auto Wire.  

​AAW has been doing upgraded looms for MGs and Triumphs for years. They now make one for the Elan. It's not perfect though. The fuse and relay box (AAW calls it the powerblock) is bulky at 7" x 7" x 2.75", and the harness doesn't have provisions for either the headlight flasher or the headlamp pod limit switches which prevent the headlights from turning on when the pods are retracted. However, neither of these are issues for me. I don't use flash to pass and the limit switches are frequently disabled by owners given they can be problematic. The benefits though seem significant. The loom should be much lighter and simpler than stock, it uses modern GXL wire in standard British/Lotus colors (except for replacing Brown with Yellow), there are twelve fuses, including four in the headlight circuit, X relays, and AAW provides excellent documentation including a color-coded wiring diagram. To top it off, support through the sales process was top notch. As a one-man shop, you are always dealing with the business owner, and Steve genuinely seems interested in customer satisfaction. The loom should be here in 8-10 weeks.