you wouldn't download a car

>he doesn't know how to use an English wheel!
>he doesn't know how to sand cast his own parts!

>>28526401 (OP)
The future is now

High end restoration for older car places have been using 3d milling machines and 3d plastic printers for repairs for a while now.

>>28526442
Ok print something that isn't useless

>>28526447
Everything that's not "useless" I can walk into a dealer and still buy. Printing the oddball, NLA parts that not even the dealer sees as important is very much "saving" old cars, is it not?

Layers of a metal stacked into a component won't be nearly as strong as a cast aluminum version.
I don't think it would work for most engine and drivetrain stuff that see forces, vibration, and heat cycling. I've never looked into 3D printing and I'd love to be proven wrong.

>>28526501
>I've never looked into 3D printing
I can tell.

>>28526442
NGL that is a great idea for intake air.

>>28526506
I can tell you like cocks in you're mouth.

>>28526401 (OP)
>How long until 3d printing be the savior of old cars?
At the exact point every boomer can afford $600k to restore a chevy nova i.e. it already available, just not affordable.

>>28526401 (OP)
when the ayy lmaos give us molecular assemblers

>>28526520
No, just in my ass.

>>28526438
Lost PLA sand casting, nigga

>>28526401 (OP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqc5po7k2Uc
Today.
The problem with 3D printing being used for car parts isn't the technology, it's that 3D printing requires engineering. You can't just scan part-print part and will never be able to (not like most people are running around with , you have to reverse engineer it and then take material properties and printing specifics into account when designing a printable version. Sometimes it's as easy as "make it extra thick", but cars have many places that are dimensionally constrained. There aren't many actual engineers with free time running around, much less ones that are willing to share their efforts for free.
Another problem is that there isn't really a good repository to share these parts. There's like a dozen 3D printing sites and they all suck for the task at hand, particularly for categorizing parts. If there was an automotive-specific site with a Rockauto-like catalog, something might've taken off, but so far most people either keep what they design to themselves or dump it onto Thingiverse where it gets lost among the sea of articulated dragons and DnD dice with mildly different fonts.

>>28526998
>not like most people are running around with
3D scanners)

Octoclassic.com
The future is now. Commercial design and printing services exist. These guys pretend to be in the UK but ship prints from Poland.

>>28526438
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vCpCnPbgBk

>>28526941
Okay, that's a legitimate use. That's all that needed to be said. I remember in freshman uni doing lost foam casting and it makes sense you could do the same with a 3D print. You'd want to do it in a well ventilated area for sure.

There's a guy printing a jag xke piece by piece so there's that

>>28526998
I've thought about trying to scan every single object, I know cad programs so could try measuring with calipers, in practice pretty hard and prone to errors even with something simple like a break light. I've seen people do it scanning with their phones but I don't have one that can do that. I think there would be many cars that not popular enough to save that may only have a handful left that its important to save before people ruin them or they are junked because only 2 door American coupes from 57 to 69 are worth saving according to some people.

>>28528027
With some time it shouldn't be out of reach to make a machine that takes a scan and is able to stamp some sheet metal into the body panel. We have 100 core cpus now so it should be possible to create simulation software to determine where to move actuators and how much pressure to create something like that.

I feel like for the scourge upon humanity that ai will likely turn out to be, it'll be extremely useful in automating the scan to ready to print model pipeline for projects like this. The #1 biggest barrier is cost, availability and feasibility of large format printers however, especially sls (or even resin, despite having a bathtub sized reservoir sounding like the most expensive and horrendous thing ever conceived) as the inherent downsides of fdm make it less than idea for large and thin parts which sucks because it is by far the easiest and cheapest to scale.

>>28526401 (OP)
You can already 3D print almost any non load bearing plastic part as long as you either find a good STL file or can do CAD yourself.

I reverse engineer parts for aerospace, it is a different space but for us 3d printing is great for checking fits and making jigs to hold things and to aid in assembly. I also know a guy that runs a few printers that he makes one specific door component for a specific classic car and he is getting orders through word of mouth in the community. So it is not like there are not uses.

The problem was brought up earlier in the thread that any print is going to be it's own little engineering project and it either needs to be something that is common enough that a whole group will need it, at which point other manufacturing methods become viable, or it is so niche that you have to do the work yourself since you are probably the only person to ever need it.

Now I would love to use my printer to make molds for composites, but I will probably need to spring for a cnc router to cut foam or board for that.

>>28528444
You can totally make 3D printed molds for composites. In fact it is probably the #1 method for small parts.

>>28526401 (OP)
And how long before the manufacturers put DRM on their parts to prevent it? Even the older discontinued ones.

>>28526447
here's some 72D bushings I made for a motorcycle.
You should learn cad and heterosexuality.

>>28529247
Considering the incident with that one $5k Ford f150 tail light a year ago, we're not too far off. Currently they try to remove anything from the repository sites that uses their name or models.
https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/honda-issues-printables-with-takedown-notice-for-all-honda-related-3d-models-207886/
The only one that was for a short time promoting and posting cad files was skoda(or Dacia?) iirc or some other euro manufacturer we don't get in the US. They were posting things like AC vents, armrest latches, manual window winders, and the like for older models on their site.

>>28526501
they 3dprint combustion chambers for rocket engines. I’m sure everything but the most stressed engine/transmission components can be 3dprinted.

>>28531016
>3dprint combustion chambers for rocket engines.
... you do realize that's just repeated plating over several days/months until the desired thickness is achieved, rather than your typical fused thermoplastic.

>>28526401 (OP)
I already design and 3D print spares for my cars. I even made a door handle for my buddy's AMC.

>but you have to reverse engineer it and get all the measurements reengineer it for a non isotropic material and and and and
get fucking good, man. it takes 20 minutes.

China is already making full car bodies for classics.

>>28531004
Fuck I hate that shit

>>28526401 (OP)
It's already happening, people just don't understand the real advantages of 3D printing. You can make some direct use parts but the way bigger deal is what it can do for traditional manufacturing methods, it can cut years and huge amounts of money out of the R&D and prototyping process and we're getting to the point where it's starting to be able to make tooling., which massively changes the economics of producing parts. In a few years it might be possible to print things like press dies for trim, where in the past you would've had to make 100k parts to justify the tooling but now you'll break even with only 100 or whatever.

Bugatti is 3d printing suspension components