Rear door buffers
Decided to have a go moulding some rear door buffers as there doesn't appear to be any for sale anywhere.
Bought some silicon moulding rubber, made a wooden box from odd bits laying about and with a genuine rear door buffer, lent to me by Steve Parkes, made a mould.
Suspended the original buffer upside down in the box and filled the existing two fastening holes with wooden dowels and plasticine and the main cavity at the back of the buffer with plasticine. Left sufficient witness of fastening holes so they could be drilled out on the finished buffer moulding. (See blue silicone mould pic below.)
Used a 2 mix rubber moulding compound for the buffers. Measured the quantity needed to just fill the mould to the top surface without overflowing.(see pic below for 60 shore rubber used)
Had several goes until I got a couple of good ones. They all released from the mould very easily but the surface finish was not great. The surface was better if the rubber was mixed and poured very slowly. Never did get a perfect one before I ran out of rubber mix. Did get six from the amount of rubber used.
The consistency of the finished rubber was fine, quite hard but still flexible.
To finish off I then drilled out the fastening holes, with a conventional drill, leaving a step about 10mm from the base to suit a small washer, inserted from the top, for a screw head to bear against, to fix the buffer to the door. Also drilled the centre indent with a countersink tool to give it a bit more depth.
Finally to get a better finish I sanded and applied a flexible black paint finish. If the surface had been better I may have not painted.
Anyway fairly happy with the finished items. Still have the mould if any one wants to have a go?
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