Discontinued twenty years ago, or never made at all because your build is one of a kind. We scan what is left of it, redraw it as a real engineering model and make it again, usually as a 3D printed car part in an engineering plastic.
Parts that are no longer made
Scan, reverse engineering, print
On-site scanning in Calgary & Alberta
Owners, restorers and custom shops
Test print before the real part
The part is out of production. The dealer has nothing, the salvage yards have nothing, and your mechanic has spent months looking. We do not search. We measure what you have and make a new one.
You need a piece that does not exist: a panel to cover a factory vent, a side for a seat you built, a console that carries switches, an adapter so two things bolt together. You hold the car, we hold the scanner and the CAD.
Photos of the part and of where it sits. If you still have the old piece, even broken, say so.
You drop the part off, or we come to the car. A scan takes the shape with the detail calipers cannot reach. More about our 3D scanning services.
A scan is a cloud of points, not a part. Reverse engineering turns it into a solid model with real surfaces, holes and thread centres. This is where the hours go, and why the part fits. See reverse engineering and Scan to CAD.
A cheap test print goes against the car first. Then the real part in carbon fibre PETG, glass filled ABS or TPU. Or you take the files to a machine shop.
We do not sell printing by the gram. The hours are in the scan and the model.
Every part is priced on its own: the hours for scanning, for reverse engineering or modelling, and for printing. Send a few photos of the part and where it fits, and you get a detailed estimate, step by step, before any work starts.
People picture a part going into a printer and coming out an hour later. Printing is the last and shortest part of the job.
The Audi grille below printed for 28 hours as the frame alone, and over 40 for the grille. Both were second and third attempts, because the thin walls split in the first material. Before any of that there was a scan, a reverse engineering pass and a mirror of the surviving side.
If the part is still sold new for sixty dollars, buy the new one. We will tell you that for free.
Real 3D printed car parts from the last two years, each one for a car or a build where the part did not exist any more, or never had.
The Gear Shop, rally build | Scan, design, print
The problem. The Gear Shop was preparing their Bronco Raptor for a desert rally in Morocco. The race-issued navigation tablets had to sit in the dash without eating cabin space, and that meant deleting the factory right-side air vent. In a rally car the airflow still has to go somewhere.
What we did. Scanned the dash and designed a custom center console with integrated tablet mounts. Then a ducting system: a splitter and tubing from the original HVAC outlet to two new vents, one on top of the console and one by the glovebox.
Making it. The factory panels are thin and warp easily, so we built jigs to hold them still for the scan. The long, thin-walled parts took care to print.
Result. The prototype is finished and has already run in the dunes of Morocco.
Private owner, Calgary | Scan, reverse engineering, print
The problem. The owner’s wife drove into a snowbank and the grille came off somewhere. His mechanic looked for six months and found nothing. Canadian cars of that year used a different grille from the European ones, and the European part does not fit.
What we did. He brought in the surviving side. We scanned it, reverse engineered a solid model and mirrored it for the missing side.
Making it. Glass filled ABS split along the layers, the walls are too thin for it. Carbon fibre PETG worked and came out at least as strong as the original. The frame took 28 hours of print time, the grille over 40.
Time. Print time 28 hours for the frame and over 40 for the grille.
Restoration at a Calgary custom shop | Scan, modelling, print
The problem. The car is ninety years old. Three pieces do not exist at any price: the trim frame that closes the joint between the window and the interior, the lid over the battery compartment, and the covers for the grab handles on the centre pillars. The shop had been hunting the trim frame for a long time.
What we did. Scanned the body and modelled all three parts to it. The battery lid is large and we had no large printer then, so it was printed in sections, bonded and welded together.
Result. The shop wrapped the parts and fitted them.
Private builder | Scan, engineering, aluminium
The problem. A client who builds his own cars wanted a Subaru manual gearbox bolted to a Volkswagen 1.9 TDI, with the engine tilt adjustable.
What we did. Scanned the engine and the gearbox after he degreased them, because scanning spray does not stick to oil. Printed thin trial plates and checked them against the real holes: a scanner catches only the first turn or two of a thread, and two holes came out off. Corrected, then modelled the plate with the shafts in line.
Making it. Drawn so he could cut it from solid aluminium plate on a laser or plasma table and stack the pieces as spacers. That took a long way off his cost.
Result. It went together with no adjustments.
Custom builder | On-site scan, CAD, print
The problem. A restored frame and a modern 7.3 Godzilla going in. A modern engine means a drive by wire pedal, and a 1984 cab has nothing for it to bolt to. The owner was going to cut a cardboard template and weld up a bracket.
What we did. Came to the shop, scanned the mounting area and the new pedal, set the pedal in CAD against the body and the brake pedal where he wanted it, and built an adapter that uses every hole already there.
Making it. First part in cheap plastic. Under a boot it flexed a little, as we told him it would. Thickened two areas and reprinted in glass filled ABS. The second part does not move.
Crown Automotive Interiors, Red Deer | Scan, design, prototype
The problem. The owner was cutting a tablet mount out of wood and could not get it to come out right. The shop also wanted its own headliner with lighting, because the factory one was poor.
What we did. Scanned the headliner on the way back from Edmonton. Then scanned the tablet and the wooden mount and designed a pod with a ball and collar tilt, like a phone holder. He did not want to cut the one cable that feeds it, so it runs through a slot underneath instead of through the leg.
Making it. A prototype in ordinary plastic went by mail so he could try it against the car. After a few changes the shop printed the final pod on their own machine.
Result. The truck is going to a show.
AutoMarine Custom Upholstery, Calgary | Scan, design, print
The problem. The shop’s customer wanted the door cards to look like the ones in a BMW convertible.
What we did. Scanned the original BMW doors and the truck doors, and carried that shape across. Also designed the pocket that slides out, with detents so it stays open or shut instead of travelling on its own over bumps.
Making it. No large printer at the time, so the cards went out in small pieces, bonded and welded. The shop sanded them, wrapped them in leather and set in the metal insert.
AutoMarine Custom Upholstery, Calgary | Scan, design, print
The problem. The shop was wrapping a dash in Alcantara. The defroster vent is moulded into the dash, and nobody can wrap those small slots cleanly.
What we did. Scanned the dash and designed a cover that sits over the vent and hides it. The shop painted it and bonded it on.
Making it. The part is thin, long and curved, so it printed at about 45 to 50 degrees. Finished part, about 100 grams. Support material holding it up while it printed, close to a kilogram.
Private owner | Scan, reverse engineering, print
The problem. The owner wanted heated seats, and there was nowhere in the cab to put the switches.
What we did. Scanned the removable ashtray insert, reverse engineered it, and added a pass through for the wiring and openings sized for his exact switches. The openings are keyed, so the switches sit one way only and the icons cannot end up sideways.
Result. It drops into the same slot the ashtray came out of.
Detail you cannot measure by hand. The scanner even picks up a chalk line drawn on a seat, which you can barely feel with a finger.
Carbon fibre PETG, glass filled ABS, flexible TPU, and plain plastic for test parts. Large parts in sections, bonded and welded.
When plastic is the wrong answer, you get files for a laser, a plasma table or a machine shop.
3D printing car parts works best for interior trim, clips, bezels, vent covers, consoles, switch panels, brackets, housings and adapters. Parts that carry load are printed in glass filled ABS or carbon fibre PETG, or drawn for metal instead.
Yes. Bring the old part, even broken, or send photos first. We scan it, redraw it as a proper model and print a new one here in Calgary.
Yes. Interior trim, brackets, housings, covers and adapters for cars and trucks that the dealer and the salvage yards no longer have.
Yes. We scan the car where the part goes and design it to fit: panels, pods, consoles, adapters. You get a test print before the final one.
Yes. When plastic is the wrong answer we draw the part and you get files for a laser, a plasma table or a machine shop.
Yes. That is most of what we do. We do not look for the part, we measure what you have and make a new one.
Then we scan the place it goes, and the parts around it, and build to that. It takes longer. If you have one of a pair, we scan it and mirror it.
Bring it broken. A scan of a cracked part plus the mounting area is usually enough.
Measuring and drawing take a few days. Printing runs from a few hours to over 40 for a large or complicated part, and large parts sometimes go twice.
It depends on the part. We price by the hours for scanning, modelling and printing, and you get a detailed estimate before we start. Send photos of the part and where it fits.
It depends on the material and on whether the part was drawn for printing. The carbon fibre PETG grille we made this year is at least as strong as the original. When plastic is not strong enough for the job, we draw the part and have it made in metal or another material, if the budget allows.
Yes. We scan on site around Calgary, Airdrie, Okotoks, High River and Strathmore, and we have driven to Red Deer. Parts can be mailed both ways.
Photos are enough for a quote. They are not enough to make a part that fits.
