Nominations for the2021 3D Printing Industry Awardsare now open, have your say who is leading the industry now.
Popular British automotive TV showCar SOS, aired onNational Geographic, has used 3D scanning and 3D printing to restore the customized central console of a 1970’s Ford Cortina Mark III X.
Unable to find a replacement for the console, a common problem when sourcing parts to restore classic cars, the car SOS team turned to 3D scanning and printing to produce the component within the show’s tight timeline.
Having leveraged 3D scanning for previous projects, the team reached out to 3D scanner manufacturerArtec’sUK ambassador,Central Scanning, to assist with replicating the console, and printed the component using a Stratasys Fortus 400mc 3D printer.
Recreating rare classic car parts
The 1970s Ford Cortina belongs to historian and writer Bobby Singh, who bought the car back in 1999 with plans to restore it. Unfortunately, the project came to a screeching halt in 2002 when Singh suffered a stroke and was later diagnosed with heart disease and a brain tumor.
To see Singh’s automotive dream resurrected, his family contacted the Car SOS team to complete the restoration. After inspecting the vehicle, the team found that the center console was missing and sought to source a new one. However, the search proved unsuccessful and instead the team turned to 3D scanning to produce a replica of a console they managed to borrow for a few days.
Car SOS then brought in Central Scanning, who has past experience scanning everything from entire cars to chassis, engine parts, interior parts and suspension components for classic cars.
3D scanning and printing the console
Developed for us on the International Space Station, theArtec Space Spiderwas chosen to complete the 3D scan of the Ford Cortina for its ability to capture complex shapes and fine details with accuracy of up to 0.05 mm and ultra-high resolution of up to 0.1 mm.
The Center console component featured a glossy black finish, a surface that is notoriously difficult to 3D scan, and as such was coated with matting spray prior to scanning. Using the Space Spider, the team created an accurate, true-to-life model for 3D printing within the space of an hour from data capture through to CAD model in Artec Studio. Additional modeling was carried out in Autodesk Fusion 360 before being prepared in GrabCAD print and sent for printing.
The console was printed on a Stratasys Fortus 400mc 3D printer in eight hours to build an exact replica of the borrowed part which was accurate down below one mm.
“Quite a few of us at Central Scanning are car fans, and I have a few classic cars myself,” said Nick Godfrey, Managing Director of Central Scanning. “It’s always been nice to think that one day, Central Scanning may appear on TV, and so when the discussions started, we were very keen to support this project however possible.
“It’s great that not only were we able to be featured on the show, but that we helped to bring Bobby’s car back to life with the scanning and 3D printing we did. The car was a nice project, and one of the missing parts was the one that we were able to scan and reproduce to complete the interior.”
Renovating automotive classics
逆向工程,三维扫描,3 d打印have been leveraged in combination before to enable the redesign and manufacture of rare or discontinued parts within the automotive sector.
Stratasyshas had other previous stints in helping to restore classic cars for TV, partnering withBig Dog Productionsin 2019 to provide motor vehicle television series Jay Leno’s Garage withaccess to its FDM 3D printers.
Elsewhere, British restoration teamRedesign Sporthas used 3D scanning and CAD modeling toreverse engineer a classic Ferrari, while German luxury automotive manufacturerPorschebegan 3D printingspare parts for rare and classic carsin 2018. Similarly,Mercedes-Benzhas also previously leveraged 3D printing toproduce spare partsfor its classic models.
Most recently,Sauber Engineeringhas announced plans to establish a 3D printing business for producingon-demand classic car spare partsin a bid to address the needs of vintage automobile enthusiasts.
Nominations for the2021 3D Printing Industry Awardsare now open, have your say who is leading the industry now.
Subscribe to the3D Printing Industry newsletterfor the latest news in additive manufacturing. You can also stay connected by following us onTwitterand liking us onFacebook.
Looking for a career in additive manufacturing? Visit3D Printing Jobsfor a selection of roles in the industry.
Subscribe to ourYouTube channelfor the latest 3D printing video shorts, reviews and webinar replays.
Featured image showsCar SOS TV hosts (left and center) and Bobby Singh, owner of the restored Ford Cortina Mark III after the grand reveal (right). Photo via Car SOS.
