DB 4 Replica/kit - getting built here in NZ - with the help of a 3D printer

[nzeder]

I thought I would share these links with you guys.

They were posted on the local Z Club website by one of our committee members. The guy building the kit built a 250GTO kit on a Datsun 240z 10 years ago using a Skyline RB25DET as the engine.

Looking over his site he plans to use the same running gear in the DB4 kit is building.

Anyway I will let you read the info your selves but here are links and some pictures from the site and a quick quote I have copied from the site (hope he does not mind - will remove if he does)

Body

The fiberglass body I will make by first making a plug, taking a mold from that plug and casting the body from that mold.

So the plug, I investigated a couple of options for this, the first, quickest and easiest was to get a big bit of foam CNC cut but the local CNC cutting shop said about $12,000 to $15,000 NZD, no thank you.

I then tried to find how other people have done this and found an interesting series of you tube videos "Bailey Blade" where the guy sliced up his drawing, printed it out onto MDF, cut and attached these together with foam in-between, then shaped it with elbow grease and time.

However I had a better idea (well we'll see anyway) of 3D printing the parts, this required the design to be given a depth and then sliced up into sections that will fit the print envelope. Then attach these together on a simple frame work (to keep it all true), so how much would that cost? (how much did that cost as this is what I ran with)

$499 USD printer from solidoodle, $35 NZD per 1Kg spool of plastic and calculating the m2 I would get from the average filament density (1.04 g/cm3) for that 1Kg (0.26m2) I will need 64Kg's to print out the 16m2 body at 2mm depth. this comes in at $2250 NZD which is cheap enough.

However once I got printing it turns out I needed 5mm depth as 2mm distorts too easily, but fortunately because it only prints 20% of the inside (it uses a honeycomb mesh to keep the strength) it still ends up being 0.26m2 per 1Kg spool so back on track.

Here's some pics, it takes ages to slice these things up and prepare them for printing but it's sitting down on the couch stuff so I don't mind:

http://www.replicadb4.com/page/Project_Overview
http://www.replicadb4.com/page/Body

[Bruce302]

What an amazing project. The builders previous project is pretty neat too. I will be following this build for sure.

Thanks,
Bruce.

[kiwi285]

There are some real clever people here in this country. I will certainly keep an eye on this one.

[Russ Cunningham]

Absolute magic! Can I order a copy of Raquel Welch aged 20?

ps. 3D is okay.

pps. Two! McKinney wants one as well but will settle for her mother.

[Steve Holmes]

^ ^ Thats funny. Russ, maybe you should opt for the 60 year old Raquel Welch. You might not be able to keep pace with the 20 year old version.

[Steve Holmes]

I thought I would share these links with you guys.

They were posted on the local Z Club website by one of our committee members. The guy building the kit built a 250GTO kit on a Datsun 240z 10 years ago using a Skyline RB25DET as the engine.

Looking over his site he plans to use the same running gear in the DB4 kit is building.

Anyway I will let you read the info your selves but here are links and some pictures from the site and a quick quote I have copied from the site (hope he does not mind - will remove if he does)

http://www.replicadb4.com/page/Project_Overview
http://www.replicadb4.com/page/Body

This is awesome!

[nzeder]

Turns out I know his brother via the Z Club - so I will arrange a visit to see his work in the flesh soon. Just an outstanding idea to use a 3D printer to help make the base for the Fibre Glass mould.

[John McKechnie]

This is in todays NZ Herald.

[Russ Cunningham]

^ ^ Thats funny. Russ, maybe you should opt for the 60 year old Raquel Welch. You might not be able to keep pace with the 20 year old version.

Yeah! nah! yeah................................NAH!

[Limezed]

Firstly I can justify any criticism that I write by saying he is my younger brother, therefore I am right and he is wrong (those are the rules of the world - always have been, always will be).

It's pretty impressive to see what can be done and what he has done to date, I would not even consider doing a full car this way. From the 3d print he still has to fill and form the print, make a female mould and then the actual body from that. And then you are still a million miles away from the finished item (complete car). That said he’s a determined little bugger and will no doubt finish this project off.

Where I do see great applications for this type of technology is for those of you that have rear and un-obtainable parts or replacement body panels for some of those mad backyard creations (OSCA) that may now only exist in photos.