Bonnet buffer to carry the hood of a Dacia Duster from 2011.

Background

So my Dacia Duster from 2011 started rambling when driving. Turned out that the rubbers in the assembly supporting the bonnet (or hood) where a bit squashed. New ones where expensive so I challenged myself to model and produce replacements.

By increasing the height of the body of the assembly and re-using the rubbers the problem was fixed. No more rambling for about a year, at least until this BLACK car was sold. You should have seen the expression on the face of the salesman when I pointed out 4 beautiful ORANGE objects carrying the hood. Anyways, I do not have pictures of the pimped car but fortunately I did produce a spare.

As you can imagine the required support is more than standard e.g. 50% as there is quite some load to carry. Printed in PETG to withstand the occasional tropical temperatures in The Netherlands.

Some details

• The assembly is divided in parts for minimal or no support at all.
• The print direction is important because of the miscellaneous forces.
• The top and bottom halves of the body are carrying the weight of the bonnet.
• So for printing it is best to place the models on their top or bottom side.
• The clips however need to flex inwards and outwards when inserting and fixing the assembly in the body of the car.
• Therefor all three clips need to be printed perpendicular to the flex direction *1).
• The provided gcode file has all parts arranged properly so no worries.

*1): You will be corrected if you forget about this detail. The clips will snap off immediately at your first attempt of inserting the assembly …