Good morning All,
I understand the reasons for using plastic parts on modern vehicles: weight savings, ease of manufacturing complex shapes, economy... but as a sometime restorer of ancient heaps, I've wondered what future restorers would encounter with these vehicles. After all, plastic eventually becomes brittle and cracks; I have a couple of pick-up trucks dating from the '90s whose dash boards have cracked into several pieces under the daily ravages of the desert sun. Where would replacement plastic come from? The answer my friends is in the development of 3-D printers! For a rather small investment, 3-D printers that can manufacture complex ABS plastic parts from a digital file are readily available, additionally, if you don't want to mess with it yourself, entreprenuers in many cities have opened shop who will print up whatever you've got a file for. My bet is that 30 years from now, when your great-grand-kid is restoring your vintage 2014 Indian, they'll just down-load a file for the needed plastic bit and print it up.
--- Randall
