10mm Automotive Body Trim Rivet

thingiverse

I was in a tight spot, having a bunch of broken rivet teeth and missing male rivets that needed to be finished for a car repair late at night after the local stores had closed. So, I decided to model both parts of the rivet so I could reassemble the trim panels. This is an almost exact copy of the rivets from a 2016 Subaru, but will work for any car requiring a 10mm (3/8") fastener. These parts work interchangeably with their counterparts that came with the car. Printing Considerations: The female prints best on its side for strength at the base of its four teeth and will require some build support for such in your slicing program. Printing it upright is easier, but the strength will be lost, and subject to the layer-to-layer bond strength, and the teeth will easily break. I use Simplify3D for the ability to customize support structures. The female part seems to print better rotated 45 degrees so that two of the edges of the teeth are parallel to the bed and the narrow part of the head touches the raft/bed. Look at the image with the support and see where the head contacts the bed/raft. Also, it seems like printing at 0.1mm/layer is counterproductive and 1.5mm or thicker is better. This part prints more reliably with a raft under it to anchor the narrow edge of the head disk feature. The male part seems to print better facing up with its head on the bed. Experimentation tells me this part requires no support, and I'll change the images that show support when I have a spare moment. It's so chunky and non-critical that the print orientation is not an issue. In an effort to print the nicest version of these, I printed them both facing up. They absolutely look and feel perfect, but the female version will quickly break where the teeth meet the base. I was recently told by a user of this model that the female part prints well in TPU, and that the flexibility overcomes the brittleness of the PLA or ABS and allows the female part to be built facing up with minimal support. The results are strong enough parts. I'm not sure about the "shore" value of the TPU from the user who reported this. Please add a like if you think you will print and use this part!