Exclusive interview: 3D printing for classic car restoration

Posted By Kat Plewa on Nov 20, 2019 | 0 comments

We always love to hear from our clients and today we have a chance to showcase for you real 3D printing application: classic car restoration. Sounds surprising? Indeed, Additive Manufacturing has truly innovative executions. We have a pleasure to work with Additive Restoration, an American business that brings back to live parts for artisan cars. Why did they choose 3D printing? Let’s find out!

1. Could you introduce yourself to our readers?

We are Additive Restoration; we help classic car owners and restoration professionals by making parts they can’t find anywhere else.  We primarily use 3D printing to make our parts but also utilize machined and subtractive manufacturing methods.

2. What’s the story of your business?

Additive Restoration began in October 2016. Steven has been a mechanical engineer for 25 years and was ready to leave the corporate world behind. By combining his love of classic cars and his experience as an engineer, we came up with Additive Restoration as a business idea. We ran the idea past some friends who ran a specialist garage and came home with a box of broken Ferrari parts to make! They loved the idea and continue to be a client. 

3. How come you had the idea to use 3D printing?

Steven has been working with 3D printing for over 20 years as he primarily worked as a product development professional. 3D printing is the perfect match for our low volume production needs. We’re able to produce parts that look and feel like the originals but typically outperform them. 

Alfa Romeo 75 intake runners
https://www.additiverestoration.com/store/p32/alfa75runners.html

4. Is Additive Manufacturing more beneficial than traditional manufacturing methods?

Absolutely!  A lot of our products are for hand-built or low volume cars. We run a very lean inventory using additive manufacturing and especially, Sculpteo for on-demand manufacturing. This fits our business model perfectly.

5. Which technology and materials do you use?

We use Sculpteo’s multi-jet fusion a lot. The material properties and surface are often a perfect match to original manufacturer parts.  We also use SLS and occasional DLMS parts when certain physical properties are required. 

6. How durable are the parts?

3D printed parts are very durable! We select technologies that we know will match or exceed original material lifespans. 3D printing technologies have matured to the point where I have no concerns using them for production parts.

ISO Rivolta window regulator gear week (‘62- ‘70)
https://www.additiverestoration.com/store/p14/ISORivolta-Window-Reg-Gear-Wheel.html

7. Why did you decide to use our service?

I came first because I wasn’t satisfied with the quality of parts that our previous vendor produced. We stay with Sculpteo because the quality, customer service, and support have been top-notch.  We’ve been super impressed by Sculpteo’s service.

8. How do you think 3D printing can change the automotive industry?

We see it already happening. Mainstream car manufacturing companies are beginning to use 3D printing for part manufacturing. Initial tooling costs are minimal and there are far fewer manufacturing constraints for part design. This allows for fast revisions to address issues discovered after a new model release. 

The example of Additive Restoration shows us just how much potential lays in 3D printing. Classic car parts are not produced anymore and Additive Manufacturing supports spare parts production as well as offers high customization options. If you think some of your devices are useless, maybe you should take another look at it and find a solution in 3D printing.

Do you already have an idea in mind? With an online 3D printing service like Sculpteo, you can produce fully functional parts within a few clicks. Upload your 3D models or contact our 3D printing experts in case of any doubts.

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