Lighting the Way
I run a thread on the Jeepforum CJ Section and was approached by a member who was in need of an electrical connector that could not be found anywhere but already picked over junkyards. When dealing with vehicles 30+ years in age, you're bound to run into this very issue with one part or another. Unfortunately this connector is made of plastic and prone to melting during a short. It's also part of the vehicles electrical harness, so if you needed a new one you were fairly out of luck when it came to an easy fix... until now.
Making Connections
The whole reason I run the Jeepforum thread is because I daily drive a 1983' Jeep CJ7 and the few plastic parts that need replacing are not easily found or are shoddy in quality. I'm not one to settle so I decided to start replicating parts to OEM specifications and getting it done the right way.
With this particular part I had to take measurements from within my Jeep which made it a bit difficult so by using silly putty I made an impression mold and then an epoxy replicate. Now I could measure the epoxy part at my desk as I translated everything over to a basic 3D model. Once the base was formed I used my personal Formlabs printer to prototype and fine tune it to fit properly.
Prototyping
After the main inlets were formed I started building the rest of the connector in layers to achieve the ability to use self locking terminals. Last but not least the side clipping mechanism was formed and the first full connector was ready for a prototype print.
