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Tamiya 1/12 Ford GT40 with 3D Printing


StrangerBandFan

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Hi all, thought I'd share my project to show what can be done in 3D printed parts. I'm blessed with 3D AutoCAD at home. I'm building a Tamiya 1/12 Ford GT40. My concept is building the car as I personally would instead of trying to accurately portray the #2 car the model is based on.

Bear with me, this is the first model I've built since I was in middle school and I'm in my late 50's now. Feel free to offer me advise!

I use Shapeway to do all of my 3D printing. I've received a couple parts so far, and I'm learning about the various materials they offer. Check out their site for all the cool stuff they already offer. Anything from hubcaps to complete engines. Check out TDR Innovations for engine stuff, Tim's got a great variety. I just bought a complete Ford 427 side oiler engine from him. Their parts are pricy though. If you can design them yourself, it's very cheap to get them printed. The rear louver in the pics below cost $5 plus $5 shipping!

Here's some pics of what I have so far. Have a great holiday season.

 

 

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Rear Louver 2016-12-16.jpg

Intake Louver 2016-12-16.jpg

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One more thing, if you're looking on Shapeway and see parts listed at a certain scale (1/12, 1/24...), don't be discouraged, they can be printed at almost ANY scale that fits inside the 3D printer. All you have to do is send a message to the Designer who's selling it (you can do that on the page for the product you're interested in) and ask if they'd scale it up or down for you. It's very simple for them to do and most are willing to do it for free.

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Here's the pipe and hose clamps I designed. I'll 3D print them in 3 parts, the mounting base and lower saddle as one piece, the middle saddle and the caps. Then I can glue the lower part, put the hoses in, add the middle if needed, more hoses and then the cap. The red things are placeholders for real aluminum rivets or bolt heads from Model Factory Hiro.

2016-12-16 Pipe Clamps 1.PNG

2016-12-16 Pipe Clamps 2.PNG

2016-12-16 Pipe Clamps 3.PNG

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Hi Ace, thanks for your kind words. For the parts I'm making, I pull up pics on the computer screen of the stuff I want to draw and use a scale to get dimensions, then scale it down to what I think it should be. For example, all of the tanks, oil filter and dry sump pump are based on Peterson Oil products, the fuel stuff is Aeromotive, AN fittings are measured from what I bought from RB Motion. I designed the pipe clamps and honeycomb floor structure myself.

For the existing parts, I just take careful measurements of the actual model, CAD it, print it on paper, cut it out, see how it fits, and adjust as necessary.

 

I'll take a look at some of your work this weekend. Thanks!

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2016-12-24_Trailing_Arm_Tunnel.thumb.PNG2016-12-24_Rear_Clip.thumb.PNG.a62a59c65Getting some work done on the rear suspension. All rod linkage will be from RB Motion. Everything else will be 3D printed.

The tunnel through the honeycomb beam is perfectly tapered to the arc of the trailing rod. Had to walk away from the computer a few times out of frustration before I finally got it right!

Hope everyone has a great holiday season.

 

 

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Thanks, geetee66, Funkychicken and superbike-shaun for your encouraging comments and direction to the sizing chart! Glad I'm inspiring people. Even though most people don't have AutoCad 3D at home like me, there's a TON of stuff out there you can buy, although pretty pricy.

Got my engine in last weekend. Ford 427 side-oiler with quad Weber carbs and ZF transaxle. Bought from TDR Innovations, he sells his stuff through Shapeway but has his own site for viewing and has a bunch of cool stuff, very detailed and accurate down to the mounting bosses for the engine mounts! Tim is a great guy to work with, willing to go the extra mile to get you the correct size parts you need.

I've got it temp glued with white Elmers for test fitting in the chassis. The 3D computer snaps look like a fantasy until you get the parts in hand :-)

More food for thought, I draw on the computer, print it on paper, cut it out and tape it on the actual model like in the pics below to make sure things fit before printing in 3D. Gives me a good idea if things are the correct scale too.

More to come soon, I've got more parts in process at the printers.

 

Engine 1.jpg

 

Engine temp glued.jpg

Engine in chassis 1.jpg

Engine in chassis 2.jpg

Edited by StrangerBandFan
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This is a great looking build so far. Love the CAD work you have done. It looks great! I am looking forward to seeing more work on this. I do have to ask what CAD program are you using?? I use Solidworks myself. I always enjoy seeing others utilize their CAD skills for our hobby.

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Got a bunch more 3D design done over the holidays. Most of it is now colored as I'll paint it. The turquoise is my interpretation of the blue they used on the 1966 race cars, and of course, Gulf orange tubing to match the stripes on the car. Sent a bunch of it to the printers, so I'll have pics of an actual assembly in a couple weeks!

I felt I'm missing something in model building doing all of this 3D stuff, so I spent several days making wheel tubs from styrene sheet. Pics to come in next post. Building by hand is very satisfying.

 

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Very cool Build.  AND very cool cad work.    I really got to work on getting some 3d skills....I have been doing autocad work since 89..rel 10 dos edition even... but I have never worked anyplace where we have used 3d....  I do have a copy of the solidworks that Chris uses and was teaching myself how to use it.  But no time with my current work load for the time.   I will have to make some at some point! 

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Hello Michael,

first of all thanks for the nice comment on my 1/8 scratch GT40. It's unbelievable what can be doen with 3D printing... Your build is very impressive as well, I'll be following it closely. One thing though: That engine does not look like it is the correct one. The MkIIs used a dry sump engine with a quad Holley carb as far as I know. A great source of information are those publications here http://www.gt40s.com/images/howto/LynnMiner/Reference/SAE_Papers.pdf

I'm durrently working on a 3D model of this engine myself.

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