We’ve said many times that every shed needs a 3D printer. If you don’t believe us, check out The Great Ford Maverick 3D Print-Off. Peter Holderith and I made significant upgrades for Ford’s cheapest truck there. Ford’s Ford Integrated Tether System (FITS) designs were helpful in this situation, but other companies must do the same. People who do their own repairs have turned to reverse engineering to fix this. Some people use 3D scans, while others use tools like callipers and contour gauges. Surprisingly, you only need a little money or the latest equipment to start the scanning business. All you need is an old Xbox Kinect to get started. Before we look at what people do with these cheap gadgets, we need to know how they work and why they give so much more than a flat picture. Average cameras can only be used if they have one sensor for seeing in one direction. They don’t have a way of figuring out how profound something is. Many new robotaxi companies are using lidar technology to solve this problem. Lidar uses laser beams that come together to make a “point cloud,” a group of points in space representing an object in three dimensions (3D). People often argue about how good software can do these measurements compared to purpose-built sensors. In Tesla’s case, though, many cameras can make a 3D picture of the world and artificially figure out how far away things are. The magic of the Kinect camera from Microsoft is a mix of the two. Like a lidar sensor, the Kinect uses laser beams to measure the distance between two things. However, it needs to be more accurate. The sensors inside the Kinect send out a grid of infrared rays, which are watched by a second camera. A third camera watches a standard vision sensor. By making a picture of where the infrared grid’s dots show up, the sensor can combine the two feeds to make a single image with built-in depth information. Now that we have a general idea of how the Kinect works, let’s look at how car enthusiasts use it to create their dream cars. Most of the time, DIYers and builders use scans made with Kinect to figure out how car parts work or to make modeling against complex shapes and surfaces easy. Another Miata owner used it to make an Audi spoiler, brake ducting, switches, center desks with cutaways for gauge pods, and even complete intake manifolds. There are many more examples in some of my favorite 3D printing auto Facebook groups, like “3D Printing Auto and Moto” and “Miata 3D Printing Association.” But there is one project, the Crucible Coachworks Porsche 911 slant nose build, that I’d like to call our own and that we’ve already discussed. Ryan Krause, who made this 996-turned-flashback, has been sharing updates on social media for a while. Over the years, he has shown how old ways of shaping metal can be mixed with modern 3D printing. The classic form of the Porsche is an excellent example of how these two things can be combined. Krause began his work with 3D printing by using standard measuring tools. Ultimately, he had to make headlight buckets, grilles, and other unique parts, which made modeling harder. Krause bought a Kinect because that’s what any other 3D printer on a tight budget would have done at the time before the project got hundreds of thousands of TikTok and Instagram fans. Here is the primary way to take a model and make a part of it. Krause first used Skanect and the Kinect camera to create a 3D model. He took the model he had just taken and put it into Blender to fix any mistakes. Then, he brought the model he had just selected into Fusion 360 to scale it. The next step was to make a sample version of his next part. The Kinect has some problems, too. When the model is big enough, scans slow down or lose their way. Later, he would upgrade to the Creality CR-Scan 01, which was made for the job but was still affordable. It lets scans be more accurate. He used these scans to create prototypes of his Porsche projects, like turn signal lenses, ducting and fans, and headlight buckets. I’d suggest 3D printing if you’re looking for a new sport to go with your interest in cars. If you know how to make your parts, you’re almost impossible to stop. At the very least, your potential is only limited by your skill level and the materials you have access to. So, what are you doing while you wait? Start making copies as soon as you can.
