Can you 3D print old car parts?

By Asked 3D Content TeamPublished Last verified

Can you 3D print old car parts?

Yes, for the plastic interior and trim parts that are no longer made: knobs, bezels, clips, vent louvers, switch caps and small brackets. Carmakers do it themselves: Mercedes-Benz Classic added 3D printed polyamide sunroof rollers for the W 123 in 2018. Chrome-plated die-cast trim, rubber seals and anything safety-related (brakes, steering, restraints, fuel, wheels) are not home-printer jobs.

3D printed classic car parts from the carmakers

Program Example part Process and material Year
Mercedes-Benz Classic Inside mirror base, 300 SL Coupé (W 198), part A40 198 811 00 25 3D printed aluminum alloy, then chrome plated 2018
Mercedes-Benz Classic Spark plug holder, 300 SL tool kit, part A198 580 00 65 3D printed polyamide 12 (PA12) 2018
Mercedes-Benz Classic Sliding sunroof rollers, W 110, W 111, W 112 and W 123, part A110 782 00 30 3D printed PA12 2018
Nissan NISMO Heritage Parts Wiring-harness protector, R32 Skyline GT-R HP Multi Jet Fusion in HP PA 11 nylon, produced by SOLIZE 2021
Porsche Classic Clutch release lever, 959 (originally grey cast iron) Selective laser melting of tool-steel powder; Porsche’s plastic parts are made by selective laser sintering 2018
BMW Group Classic No part named; components of very old collector cars are 3D scanned to make spare parts that were unavailable Reverse engineering from a scan 2015

Figures from the Mercedes-Benz Classic, Nissan, Porsche and BMW Group releases, plus TCT Magazine’s report on the HP and SOLIZE process for the Nissan part.

Why discontinued parts suit printing

A molded part needs a mold. Mercedes-Benz says printing suits small quantities and cases where the genuine tools no longer exist. Porsche Classic stocks some 52,000 parts and reruns the original tools when stock runs low. It prints the parts needed in tiny numbers, such as a lever for a car built 292 times.

Every printed part in the table is an industrial print: powder-bed nylon or laser-melted metal, then tested. Porsche load-tested its lever at almost three metric tons, scanned it by tomography for internal faults and drove it on a test car. Its plastic parts must resist oils, fuels, acids and light. Nissan redesigned and performance-tested its parts for printing, and its heritage range has grown from 80 to 300 parts. A home print copies the geometry. It does not copy that testing.

What you can and cannot 3D print for a vintage car

  • Plastic cabin trim: yes, in the right plastic. A dashboard averaged 157 °F (69 °C) after an hour in the sun in an Arizona State University study. Prusa says PLA (polylactic acid) deforms above 60 °C (140 °F). It rates ASA (acrylonitrile styrene acrylate) for use up to 93 °C (199 °F) with high UV resistance. The filament table for replacement parts covers the other materials.
  • Chrome-plated die-cast trim: no. Bright trim on many classics is a zinc or pot-metal casting under copper, nickel and chromium plate, and Products Finishing calls restoring it specialized work. A print can serve as the casting pattern instead. Polymaker makes PolyCast, a PVB (polyvinyl butyral) filament for investment-casting patterns, and says it leaves 0.003 percent ash after burnout. A foundry casts the metal part from it, and a plater chromes it.
  • Rubber seals: no. Dow markets its EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer) rubber for car weatherseals on its resistance to heat, UV, ozone and aging. TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) filament is a different polymer: NinjaTek gives NinjaFlex a heat deflection temperature of 60 °C at 0.07 MPa. Parker rates polyurethane rubber in water only to 50 °C and EPDM to 150 °C. Printed gaskets covers where TPU does seal.
  • Safety parts: never. Brakes, steering, suspension, seat belts and restraints, airbags, the fuel system and wheels stay with original, new-old-stock or reproduction parts made for the car.
  • Badges and logos: reproducing a maker’s mark is a trademark question, covered on is it legal to 3D print replacement parts.
Three parts from an old car side by side, a plastic knob, a chrome-plated trim strip and a rubber door seal in sectionThe plastic knob prints in ASA, the chrome trim needs a printed casting pattern, a foundry and a plater, and the rubber seal is not a filament job.1Plastic knob: print in ASA2Chrome trim: print the pattern3Rubber seal: no
  1. Plastic knob: print in ASA
  2. Chrome trim: print the pattern
  3. Rubber seal: no
The plastic knob prints in ASA, the chrome trim needs a printed casting pattern, a foundry and a plater, and the rubber seal is not a filament job.

How to 3D print a discontinued car part yourself

  1. Check supply first. Look for the part from the maker’s classic division, reproduction catalogs and owners’ clubs before modeling it.
  2. Measure the original or a donor part. Glue a broken part together for measuring, or borrow an intact one from another car. Calipers and a profile gauge do most of it; the method is on measuring a broken part without a scanner.
  3. Pick the plastic for where the part lives. Sun and dashboard heat point to ASA. A shaded clip has more options, listed in the filament table.
  4. Fit-test in cheap filament, then print the final part. Orient it so the load runs along the layers, as the replacement parts guide explains.
  5. If it fails: a part that sags in summer was printed in a plastic whose heat limit sits below the cabin’s, so reprint it in ASA. A clip that snaps at its base needs a tapered snap-fit arm printed flat.

Sources

  1. Future meets Classic: next generation of genuine Mercedes-Benz replacement parts from the 3D printer (Mercedes-Benz Classic release, via Automotive World) (accessed October 13, 2026)
  2. Porsche Classic supplies classic parts from a 3D printer (Porsche Newsroom) (accessed October 13, 2026)
  3. Nissan uses new technologies to expand NISMO Heritage Parts range in Japan (Nissan News) (accessed October 13, 2026)
  4. HP and SOLIZE Corp provide 3D printed replacement parts to legacy Nissan vehicles (TCT Magazine) (accessed October 13, 2026)
  5. 25 years of 3D printing at the BMW Group: pioneers in additive manufacturing methods (BMW Group PressClub) (accessed October 13, 2026)
  6. Study: Hot cars can hit deadly temperatures in as little as one hour (ASU News, on Vanos et al., Temperature, 2018) (accessed October 13, 2026)
  7. PLA (Prusa Knowledge Base) (accessed October 13, 2026)
  8. ASA (Prusa Knowledge Base) (accessed October 13, 2026)
  9. Restoring Zinc and Pot Metal Castings (Products Finishing) (accessed October 13, 2026)
  10. PolyCast (PVB) (Polymaker Wiki) (accessed October 13, 2026)
  11. Automotive Sealing Materials for Weatherseal (Dow) (accessed October 13, 2026)
  12. NinjaFlex 3D Printing Filament Technical Specifications (NinjaTek) (accessed October 13, 2026)
  13. Parker O-Ring Handbook ORD 5700 (Parker Hannifin) (accessed October 13, 2026)