Nice looking mud flaps for our cars come by on the internet or other marketplaces every once in a while. Some have even been made by club members. I wanted to try my hand at making them from a 3D printed mold. Here I explain how I went about doing this with pictures below. I used a slighly different method from the one I used for the heater gromet. I will also talk about the pros and cons of doing it this way.
I copied the overall look from existing mud flaps, but gave it my own twist.
The striped apearance I liked so I kept that element.
The Logo is slightly altered to follow the original Flying-A more closely.
The actual mold is 3D printed. This is before I smoothed it out with filler. It works well enough, the only downside is that the PU rubber does adhere very well to the plastic. To make the mold release easier, I would make the next iteration of the mold in Silicone Rubber. The insert goes in before every pour. This is a 3D printed logo that I print from white PETG. The little tapered pegs protrude from the back of the rubber, capturing the PETG Printed Logo. I found that this works really well, the logo is firmly held in place. Rocks hitting the pegs cannot damage them, and the logo is flexible enough to allow the flap to sway without breaking.
This is my workshop "where the magic happens"
I added this in all the ones I sell. It is a small maker's mark, with my logo.
The finished article, after trimming the excess material around the logo. (The rubber does seep through the cracks). The details of the mold are captured very well in the rubber. In this picture, there is still residue on the rubber from the mold release agent. This can be rubbed off.
The finished article looks very good on the car, if I say so myself.
