Operating manual
How Clutch works.
Files from contributors, printed by local printers, delivered to your door — with the money, licenses, and safety rules spelled out below.
Who's at the counter
Buyers
Find a part for your car by make, model, and year. Download the file free and print it at home, or order it printed and shipped by a printer you pick — and if it arrives wrong, report it for a refund or a reprint.
Find your part →Contributors
Upload your own designs. You keep ownership of the file, pick its license, and earn a royalty on every print order — 3% of the order total, or 5% on bounties you claim for parts people are already asking for.
Upload a part →Print shops
Run your printer as a job queue. Pick the work you want, set your materials and rates, decline anything outside your capabilities, and get paid out by Stripe after each delivery.
Join as a shop →One account covers all three — change roles any time in account settings.
An order, step by step
- 2.1
Find or request a part
Search the library by make, model, and year. Don't see it? Post a bounty — other buyers can pledge to sweeten the pot until a contributor picks it up.
- 2.2
Download or order a print
Grab the STL for free, or hit Print-for-me to order one shipped. You'll see the material options, lead time, and total at checkout.
- 2.3
A local shop fulfills
You pick a printer from the directory — nearest first — and they accept or decline. They print, QC, and ship. You get a tracking link, and you can confirm delivery from the order page; the printer is paid after your 14-day issue window closes.
- 2.4
The money splits three ways
Every print order divides into the shop's amount, the contributor's royalty, and a platform fee. No surprise charges after checkout.
- 2.5
Flag problems, get reprints
If the part doesn't match the listing, hit Report within 14 days of delivery, with photos. Clutch reviews it and either refunds you in full or has the printer reprint it. We follow up on the listing if the file itself is off.
Safety ratings
Every part carries one of three ratings, set at upload and checked at verification — so you know what you're printing before you install it.
Cosmetic
Trim and accessories
Interior clips, badge holders, vent blanks. If it fails, it's an annoyance — not a hazard.
Functional
Mechanical parts
Mounts, bushings, intake components. Print in the recommended material — don't substitute PLA where PETG or nylon is called for.
Safety-flagged
Proceed carefully
Anything touching braking, steering, restraints, or structure. Download-only — we don't sell prints of these and no shop here is paid to make one. Take the file to a professional who can stand behind the result.
Bounties
Can't find it? Put a price on it. Two ways to fund the parts you need — pool-based, refundable, and paid out to the designer who delivers.
4.1Two kinds of bounty
Wanted · crowdfunded
You need a part. Others chip in.
Free to post. You seed the pool with at least $10. Anyone can pledge more. The first designer to deliver an accepted part takes the pool.
- Free to post, min $10 seed
- Up to 5 active WANTED bounties per user
- Pledges only charged when a design is accepted — released if the bounty expires
- Any community designer can fulfill
Offering · printer-committed
A printer commits to deliver, if enough pledge.
A 3D print shop posts an OFFERING with a funding floor (min $10). If the pool hits the floor, the shop gets an exclusive 21-day window to deliver. Miss it and the bounty re-opens to any designer.
- $5 to post · up to 25 active per shop
- Floor must be set at post time
- 21-day exclusive window once floor is met
- Reverts to OPEN if the printer misses the window
4.2How the pool pays out
4.3What pledgers get
Funded-by wall
Every bounty-funded part page lists the people who made it happen. Your name and avatar, linked from the part detail page, permanently.
10% off prints, forever
Every time someone prints this part through Clutch, you pay 10% less. Pledge $50, make it back on a few prints, and keep saving after that.
Pledging saves your card — it doesn't charge it. We only charge when a designer actually delivers. Withdraw any time before settlement; expired bounties release automatically.
4.4Designers earn long-term
Every on-platform print order of a bounty-funded part pays the original designer a 5% royalty (independently uploaded parts earn 3%). A $50 bounty isn't a one-time payout — it's a revenue stream that compounds as shops print the part for years.
Example · you win a $100 wanted bounty
4.5Licenses for bounty-funded parts
Pledgers are crowdfunding a public good, so bounty outputs are restricted to two permissive licenses. Non-commercial, share-alike, no-derivatives, and proprietary licenses are blocked for bounty outputs — any license is still fine for regular uploads.
CC0
Public domain. Anyone can use, modify, and redistribute with no obligation.
CC BY
Free use with attribution to the designer. Default for bounty outputs.
4.6Shop upsells (OFFERING only)
Questions
Everything we get asked most. Didn't find it? Drop us a line.
- Clutch is a community-run marketplace for 3D-printable car parts. Contributors upload part files, buyers download them or have them printed locally by a print shop, and contributors earn a royalty every time one of their files is printed.
Set up an account.
Free. Pick a role when you need one — buyer, contributor, or printer — and change it anytime.