Maybe you watched one of those Star Trek episodes in which the replicator produces a piping-hot cup of Earl Grey tea out of thin air and thought, I could devise far better uses for that thing—like creating an entire 1964 Ferrari 250 GTO SWB. That capability is a lot closer to reality than the show's faster-than-light travel. Thanks to the rapid advancement of 3D printing tech, crafting new car parts through additive manufacturing is becoming routine, and companies are even starting to consider 3D printing complete re-creations of classic cars.

In 2009, when uberenthusiast Jay Leno wrote in PopMech about using a 3D printer to replace rusted old parts, this trend was just getting off the ground. Today GM uses 3D printing to quickly build and test prototype parts for even mass-market cars like the Malibu. And now shops can scan entire irreplaceable cars for reference and use that information to print identical replacement parts in case of catastrophe. This ability means that they could also choose to print all the parts to create an exact clone of a priceless gem. In some cases they can print complete functioning assemblies, provided the printer can handle all of the materials used in the part.

"We have had customers who basically have what would be considered a priceless vehicle," says David Kettner of Fused Innovation, the 3D printing subsidiary of famed classic restoration shop Motion Products Inc., in Neenah, Wis. "We can laser scan their entire vehicle as an insurance policy in case of damage."

And if the car is crashed subsequently? "We can bring it back to its original construction," said Kettner. "We've had to do it already."

Yes, a shop like Kettner's could build an accurate GTO replica today without 3D printing tech. But it would be a modern car, given away by the condition of the sheet metal and the perfection of the castings. It would be like a GTO—it wouldn't be a GTO.

A scanned car reproduced by 3D printing techniques, on the other hand, would reproduce all of the original's idiosyncrasies and imperfections. "We can re-create the actual component with all the flaws that were built into it the first time," Kettner says.

A shattered Rolls-Royce privacy curtain motor housing (left), and a replacement made with a 3D-printed replica (right).

Piece by Piece

A common example is the plastic windshield-washer fluid bottle found on priceless classics like the aforementioned Ferrari GTO. The bottles were made without much thought, given that cheap plastic gets brittle with age and exposure to heat until it collapses in a pile of dust. Before that happens, Kettner can scan the bottle and reproduce an exact duplicate from a better, modern plastic using one of Fused Innovation's four different 3D printers.

Sure, any container of similar volume would work, and for most restorations providing water to the washer nozzles is all that matters. But for special cars the replacement must be exactly the same, and 3D printing permits that.

It is such plastic parts that have given restorers headaches as they contemplated the shift from brass-era cars circa World War I to cars containing plastic starting in the 1930s. "The fear has always been as soon as we get into these plastic cars, it is going to become completely impossible because of the cost of making molds," says Garrick Green, associate professor of automotive technology at McPherson College, a school that trains students to work for top restoration shops.

The 3D printers aren't limited to creating plastic parts, either. Some machines can now build metal parts, which will be a boon to the auto restoration industry. Furthermore, the machines that can produce only plastic ones can be used to craft plastic models that will help to create the molds for metal parts.

Green cites the DeSoto grille that is a popular hot-rod modification for 1950s Mercurys as a place where the new tech will come in handy. The grille's teeth are die-cast zinc parts that deteriorate over time. Worse, none of the nine teeth are identical. By scanning the teeth individually, a shop can precisely re-create each of them.

Recently, Kettner had a more complex challenge with a shattered cast housing for a privacy-curtain motor drive in a classic Rolls-Royce. His team reassembled the part from the pieces, gluing them together so they could be scanned. Then irregularities in the scan were manually cleaned up, resulting in a perfect CAD model of the original cast housing. From this, the 3D printer was able to create a wax form for investment casting of a new part that was a perfect replacement.

For exotic cars, even mundane parts like rubber boots on wiring connections are candidates for 3D re-creation. When originality is crucial, Fused Innovation can make an exact duplicate for about $1200. "Would you make a $1200 rubber boot for a '73 Nova?" Kettner says. Probably not. "For a multimillion-dollar Ferrari, you just do it." And that $1200 might even be a bargain compared with the cost of finding an original—an original that would be as fragile as the one it's replacing.

The New Classic Car Shop

Fused Innovation has four 3D rapid prototyping machines: a 3D Systems stereolithography machine; a Z Corp fused-powder machine for making casting molds; an Objet polyjet machine that uses inkjet-printer technology to make solid parts; and an Optimax machine originally designed for creating lenses that the shop repurposed for making solid metal components. With this battery of machines, Fused Innovation is able to re-create nearly anything.

Don't expect all garages to start looking like this, though, Kettner says. Few cars demand such perfection, leaving plenty of work for traditional shops that can't afford the capital expenditure of buying fancy machines. When those shops encounter the need to have a part 3D printed, they could use scanning and CAD tools themselves to create computer models of the needed part.

Green says that's why he has been studying Fused Innovation's techniques: so McPherson College can start teaching the CAD classes needed for capturing and correcting images of old parts. Then a shop could send out the CAD model to service shops that have 3D printers, and pay them to print the occasional part.

There's a lot more to come as shops where the public and print 3D models spread around the nation. Congressman Bill Foster of Illinois recently introduced a bill proposing the creation of a nationwide network of such labs, one in every congressional district, where people will have access to 3D printing technology for their own projects.

"It's very empowering for a young person to actually build something," Foster told The Boston Globe. "Kids no longer take apart automobile engines. You can't realistically take apart an iPod, like you could a radio. This is giving kids the opportunity for innovation."

That goes for kids and expert car restorers both: For that 3D printer to produce a Ferrari, you're going to have to provide the model for the parts. So get coding and hacking.

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