Glove Box Repair

So I'm starting to address my interior issues. As seems to be the case, no project happens without creating a secondary project. I learned that the hinge of Square bodies are trash and not meant to last 50 years.

Replacing is easy enough but I'm on a budget so let's repair it!

Searching around it seemed like the popular answer was piano hinge. Well that was putting me half way to buying a new liner. Wait! I have a 3d printer! Now, I've never tried to print a part to go inside a car, but it melts at about 200 degrees and if it's bolted in several places to a metal object, it should be ok. So here's what I came up with. It lined up with the glove box much better than a piano hinge. Below is the original on the right, and the new version on the left. I had a piece of 1/10" brass rod that slid right in. It's meant to have an offset for better alignment.



Here are the parts all printed. It might have worked out extra cool because the printer has a texture on the bed that looks very automotive-like. My original design had the holes already in it for mounting but then I realized there's no order to the factory holes. They range in position by about 3/8".

Note: this is printed solid. No hex infill or anything. I figured that would be the least likely to warp in the heat.


And here it is fully assembled. I was so excited that I was prepared to start taking orders! Not really, but you know what I mean.


To be continued...

Continued...

Well the alignment wasn't great. There wasn't room to push it quite flush and it had a creaking noise when you opened it that I didn't like. I'm sure it would've been noisy going down the road.

SO, while this project haunted me I was replacing a BBQ cover and it came to me...fabric.

The old cover was very UV resistant. It also didn't have any stretchiness to it. What if I just contact cemented this cloth over the original hinge and repaired it that way. It had some spots on it that weren't in bad shape.


I taped the fabric down tight and put the bottom piece on first. Then I pressed it on to the cemented liner.

It cutout easy after gluing and it has a metal cover that will cover the bottom part. If I knew it was going to work so well I probably would've looked for a cleaner piece of fabric, but you won't see any of it.

The alignment is perfect. It shuts way better than before since I cleaned out the latch removing it multiple times.


I'll keep this thread posted if it fails but as of now I'm super excited with this fix.

I wonder what that vacuum line goes to...

I like the color of your interior. Is that like an avocado green? Oh and good job with thinking outside the box. I've been contemplating buying a printer just for experimenting.

Here's it from an angle nobody should ever be at. Just so you can see the final product. After it's had time to dry I'll probably put something on the fabric to darken it but you really can't see it. Also, it was missing a screw already. Of course. My list never gets smaller.

SquareRoot said:

I like the color of your interior. Is that like an avocado green? Oh and good job with thinking outside the box. I've been contemplating buying a printer just for experimenting.

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It's (517) Lime Metallic. I've decided it's ugly and I like it.

I was able to safely remove the glovebox sticker with the code. I'm trying to decide if I should maybe attach it to a decal sheet so it can be more easily removed if I do have to replace the glovebox.

I used 3M Glass Cloth tape on mine because we have a ton of it here at work. 2 years in and no issues so far. It is white though so it's more visible than your repair, but my truck is (mostly) white so it still blends in fairly well. I've got about half a dozen different colors going on with my truck anyways

Great job of thinking outside the box and trying multiple options. I hope to get a 3D printer one of these days...

I replaced mine with a strip of harness leather.
Been on there for 9 years now.

I ended up using 2 small utility hinges and low-profile screwheads going through the original plastic on both sides of where it fatigued apart, which left the threaded end of the screw sticking out visible. I put acorn nuts on them to prevent injury and you don't really notice them but I like the idea of gluing fabric - next time I revisit this issue that may be the plan. I ran the screws through the already-broken plastic part so that there was no modification or damage to the sheet metal of the dash.

All great ideas. I bought a new Glovebox liner and it is stiff and doesn't line up too good when it is closed on the bottom due to how stiff the hinge is. I saved the original one as it still has the sticker on it and I wanted to somehow save it. Maybe it's better to repair the original with the sticker attached......

JT58 said:

All great ideas. I bought a new Glovebox liner and it is stiff and doesn't line up too good when it is closed on the bottom due to how stiff the hinge is. I saved the original one as it still has the sticker on it and I wanted to somehow save it. Maybe it's better to repair the original with the sticker attached......

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I would take a high quality photo of the original with sticker (or scan it if you have the equipment); print a replica to attach to the new liner and keep the original somewhere safe. If the rest of the liner is totally trashed, carefully cut the plastic a half-inch or so outside the sticker to preserve the sticker.

I went to LMC and bought a new one.

Very timely thread, as I have a broken hinge as well, and was seriously considering the fabric or vinyl idea. Glad to see you guinea-pigged it for me, thanks!