MORLEY’S WORKSHOP
DAVE WONDERS WHETHER 3D PRINTING COULD BE THE SAVIOUR OF MODERN CLASSICS
Afew years back, I was having a beer and a yak with an old mate of mine who’s into his classic cars. He put forward the theory that there was a definite build-date point in time, after which cars would simply cease to appeal to blokes like us. His theory was that cars built after that point would simply not be restorable, in either a financial or practical sense and that, he reckoned, would be that.
That point in history? Somewhere around the 80s or 90s, when most manufacturers had switched to injection moulding for everything from bumper bars to interior fittings. From then on, my mate’s theory went, it would not be possible to recreate those often-mangled parts. A skilled ding-beater, he reasoned, could always fix or reproduce a metal bumper bar with materials and techniques a Roman soldier would recognise. But small-time restorers like those of us who read UC would never have the funds nor the expertise to repro those plastic injectionmoulded bits and pieces. And therefore, he continued, the whole car would be scrapped, regardless of what other merits it possessed. Thankfully, he turned out to be wrong.
Where did he go wrong? Not his fault, but he didn’t foresee the advent of 3D printing. I saw a story on the idiot-box last night where good old CSIRO in Australia had 3D printed a titanium sternum for insertion into the chest of some poor bloke half a world away who needed it to stop his ribs flapping about. Somehow, these geniuses in white coats took powdered titanium and simultaneously shot and melted the dust with an electron beam as it built up the layers on the printer. I think. Look, I struggle with a timing-light, so I’m not going to pretend I know how 3D printing works. The point being that Spanish Matey now has a titanium breast-plate with an Australian compliance plate.
And believe me, if the medical world is happy to bolt 3D-printed spare parts into humans, I’m perfectly okay with having a replacement dash-pad made the same way. In fact, it’s already happening, I had lunch with fellow UC contributor Jon Faine the other day who told me about a car project he’s involved with that is using 3D printing to make casting moulds for major, ancient, unobtainable engine parts. I won’t steal his thunder, but you could see by the way his eyes lit up telling me about it, that this is the way forward.
In a few years from now, I reckon this stuff will be common practice. You’ll go to a website, pay your money to download the program for the dashboard, door handle, bumper bar, whatever it is you need, and then email that program to your local 3D jobbing shop where it’ll be printed, ready to be picked up the next day. In the material of your choice. Who knows, maybe you’ll be able to recreate a plastic bumper in steel. Which would, of course, mean my old naysaying mate was right all along. Kind of.