New one on me too, here is one for sale at £17k, so not silly prices.
http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/...2/1972/251326/

A bit silly for a car that looked okay but wasn't very good and was technically out of date when launched...

Maybe 3D printing is the way forward!
http://www.wired.com/2013/07/3d-printed-aston-martin
http://www.designboom.com/design/3d-...y-ivan-sentch/
Love the shape of the DB4 too.

There's a link to a much nicer VW based coupe on that page -

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/...n/1970/167407/

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/...psf2a2596d.jpg

Here's a direct quote from the ad -

full renovate, everithing aboriginal, banjo wheel, becker monza radio, no rust.... If you want more details and fotos please email.

Must've been an Aussie import...

Although the Karmann Ghia coupe body has already been done in fibreglass, the lowlight model is very rare and sought after so it could be worth putting into production. Anyone know if the beetle chassis needs shortening for the KG body to fit? That would mean no iva if it doesn't. :)

Found somewhere on the web that the dvla now need beetle chassis and floor pan to count as 5points

3D printing will no doubt be the way forward for many things.
Here's a commercial car builder that will build you a buck, parts, or a complete car
www.3dengineers.co.uk

Just followed the links to the 3D printed Aston - 4" x 4" pieces of body shell?

Really?

Wouldn't it be quicker and easier to do it the old fashioned way with ply, foam a craft knife, a steady hand and a bunch of reference photos?

3D printing really is in its infancy at the moment, I see NASA just e-mailed the Space Station a socket set, which has become the first tool ever made 'off-Earth', but that's about the limit size-wise for 3D printing.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2...rench-in-space

Once Currys stock a £60 printer that can churn out a 356 Speedster body in one chunk then I'll start taking notice.

Then Mr T you'll want this one. Though it's not £60 yet
http://www.3ders.org/articles/201406...ct-houses.html

Just looked at the 3d engineers link. There is a Mitchell Special that looks a lot like the Z300S. Sounds like he went through a similar process as I did with Chris.

The bloke gave them a load of pictures of cars he liked. Ditto
He showed them pictures of what he didn't like. Ditto
He asked them to create something in the style off, but not a copy. Ditto
They created the shape. Ditto
He requested minor tweaks. Ditto
They built it. Ditto

Just seems they charged a bit more...

Wouldn't it be easier to print a 3d replica of Chris?

You could keep him in your garage a feed him fibre glass resin (that's what he eats I think!) and throw him the odd photograph now and then.

So they want to use it to provide post-disaster emergency housing, but it'll take eight months to print a house.

Hmm, I hope they have a good crystal ball to predict where and when the next disaster will strike. Mind you, my first (90's) computer/printer combo felt like it took eight months to print anything and inevitably ran out of ink while printing important work documents.

Have you see this build?

http://www.rodsnsods.co.uk/forum/gar...-project-83285

This guy's work reminds me of the old 250 SWB buck that Tribute bought.

Cheers, Paul. :)

Wow, inspirational stuff.

Need to thoroughly read that build (just skim-read it), did he really mould his own tail light lenses?

And his cnc router seemed a handy bit of kit, at 500 quid not too pricey either.

3d printers. Er...... Would it be good to be able to make panels that can be bolted on like wings and bonnets,roofs,boot lids. Wheel centre caps custom ones of course . Bonnet vents and wing vents and grills and headlight buckets and dashboards. Custom gear knobs. If they get that far in the future. If what they make can be sanded and sprayed that is.

I've been involved in a project with Stuart at 3D Engineering (though not directly working with him. I built the 1/5 scale model of my design and he scanned this and the full size chassis / roof then scaled up the model to fit over the chassis and then produced the buck on his router.
Impressive stuff! and whilst expensive, probably not when compared to the time it takes to do the same process the old fashioned way.

3D printing certainly has its place for small components, but at this stage it's not there for the larger parts on a commercial scale, but it's only a matter of time. I recently saw film of a 3D printed chassis

Al

Al your project sounds very interesting.

Do you have a build thread anywhere?

It's a car called the Okrasa Special. I'm sure I've linked to it before, but here it is: http://www.ddk-online.com/phpBB2/vie...hp?f=3&t=28047
Be prepred to loose a few hours though, the thread is over 70 pages long..... I got involved about half way through, and the 3D engineering stuff is in the last few pages.

Al

Thanks Al, certainly interesting stuff.

I've seen something similar over on the locostbuilders site but wasn't aware of this company who seem to offer a great service.

Out of interest do you have any idea how much they charge for their services? I work at a college and students love 'case studies' like these where they can see the full evolution of a design, but I'm never able to give them an idea of cost for example scanning a model, or turning a full scale model into a 'jigsaw' buck.

I'm not sure, but I'd guess it will have been in the ball park of £4-6k to scan, manipulate and then produce and fit the buck to the chassis. In terms of paying an hourly rate to measure the model, scale it up, transfer to plywood and then make the buck, there is a lot of hours....

If you are interested in Case studies, I work on a few daft projecst like this (I'm an Ex patern maker / product designer) and currently have another similar old car project on the go; my own clubmans car for wich I produced the buck in my single garage at home; and also have developed (& patented) a safety rail system for van roof racks (Google 'Vehicle Edge Protection System') also in the garage at home for which I've had prototype extrusion sections 3D printed. If any of these are of interest / use in getting youngsters interested in Design or engineering, PM me and I can give you some info for future case studies

Al

Any thoughts on fiat 8v. Quite a sleek design.

Thanks Al, that's really helpful.

I'll take a look at the items you mentioned and come back to you.

How bout the fiat dino. 1966-.took on the looks of the Alfa Romeo gtv. Some nice examples with double lights at the front with a muscle car grill. I think one was used by the Italian mafia in the Italian job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uv6jS1LAjY

Not the smoothest driver in the world but the road (Amalfi coast?) and the car more than make up for it. :)

Good find Towed, I enjoyed that. Nice to see some positive acknowledgements from on-coming bikers.
Perhaps a Tribute Tour visit could be arranged? Where are you Nick :boink:

Nice road. Rubbish driver.

I am happy to arrange a tour round the UK where various people join for various stages as the tour gets near them. If I am going to do it I would hope to get a better join rate than I did for the BBQ last summer.

Maybe we could link a few of these together : http://www.greatestdrivingroads.com/great_roads.html

Talking of touring how bout the Alfa Romeo 1900 ss touring coupe.

I saw a car magazine a few years ago which featured Alfa Giulias. Turns out that the Sprint Speciale in poor condition (no windscreen, doors inside the car) on Sardinia that I considered bringing home about 30 years ago is now worth £150K...Presumably so is the one that commuted daily past us in Heston down to Teddington back in the day.

http://www.seriouswheels.com/pics-ab...iale-ra-lr.jpg

Here's a lovely article which explains to me why we try and build tributes to these cars.

http://www.gizmag.com/100-most-expen...ll-time/32237/

Fwoarr :smile:

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...384D51AB4D.jpg

Mk4 Toyota Supra as the donor, check the roof line/glass area and rear haunches. Jaguar xf headlights. Nice.

Or the 2015 Supra would be a good donor, if funds allow!!:

http://blogcarinfo.com/2015-toyota-s...supra-concept/

Nothing happening any time soon but I have bought a possible future donor

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-f...no/Navarro.png

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Na9CbjMHpw...ic%20Coupe.jpg

Nick, look at the floor level of the RR vs the one on the Nissan, not much in it.

I prefer the period original over this:

http://www.gizmag.com/rolls-royce-jo...oupe-ll/25479/

2015 model may be a little expensive but I'm up for a mk4 Supra version once the two SWBs are built :wink:

Can you build the woman if I give you a fat, old, ugly one (not Mrs Y Cymro (Y Gymraes) I hasten to add, in case she reads this and takes the knife to my knackers again)

Well this is what I would like, similar wheelbase to the Z3 as well:icon_wink:

Haven't quite figured the picture upload yet

Although I love the cars from the 1950/60s era I think that a bit of diversity would be a good thing and if I could get a finished product that looks half as good as the Alfa at a reasonable price then I would certainly have one!

Although one of these would also be very high on my list!
http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8bgwh5jk.png

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/view...php?tid=196352

You know you want to........

Don't take this the wrong way but the Hyundai coupe 3litre v6 window line is quite nice . Needs some curves to give it some character. 2003 shape. I know its not rear wheel drive but still a donor to start from. Plus it would drive a bit easier during the winter and all year round. Or z4 quite good lines. Think they did a cc version as well.