It’s a simple concept in the car restoration industry: the older the car, the harder it is to find spare parts. For Jay Leno, the former king of late-night talk shows, it means getting creative and innovative. In a recent interview with Car and Driver, Leno’s chief engineer explained how he and the comedian use 3D printing to restore some of the oldest cars in the comedian’s extensive collection.
Leno’s collection of classic cars is massive. He has vehicles many probably didn’t even know existed. The interview with engineer Jim Hall opened with how they use a Stratasys 3D printer to create century-old auto parts. The story focuses on the restoration of several of Leno’s oldest models.
The idea came after blowing a cylinder on the L-head-designed engine of a 1913 Packard. Naturally, Leno and Hall couldn’t find a part from 1913 to replace it.
They had the broken cylinder laser-measured and sent a request for a 3D-printed part. After it was printed, the plastic part was sent to a metalworker to be cast into iron.
“The foundry couldn’t reproduce the piece that thin, but we were able to print it with additional material on the exterior and test fit it before sending it off to be cast,” Hall said to Car and Driver. Four cylinders were made, and the modeling data will be available for future prints should any other Packard owners need replacement parts.
Photo Courtesy Tim Mossholder
Leno and Hall used 3D-printed parts for even older cars. They also had a 1907 steam-powered White, a pre-World War I vehicle. Many were scrapped for aluminum parts to fund the war effort. There are about 100 White cars out of the 10,000 built left. When that car needs a repair, Leno scans the aluminum parts, gets the 3D-printed parts, has them cast in metal, and installs them. Rinse, repeat.
They’ve done this process on more modern cars like the 1968 Pontiac Fire Sprint, a rare sportscar. The parts have to be kept in pristine condition to keep the vehicle running; it needs NOS (nitrous) to get that muscle car kick. Some collectors can buy directly from the manufacturer or factory, but the rarer the vehicle, the less likely the parts are available.
3D printing is also known as “additive manufacturing.” Aria Group, a partner of Stratasys, has been using these methods to create concept vehicles, movie props, and even interior cabin designs.
Aria was part of the team that worked on Michael Bay’s third installment of the Transformers movie series. The company helped design Virgin’s Hyperloop (R.I.P.), Czinger’s two hypercars, and more.
The Nilu Hypercar and the Everatti-converted Porsche 911 EV are two major Aria projects. The company assembled the Nilu, which is on par with other hypercars like Bugatti. The Everatti electric Porsche was a passion project of a British startup that converted classic cars to electric power. Aria didn’t say which parts it 3D-printed for these cars.
Photo Courtesy Everatti
The Everatti-converted Porsche was a hit for its innovation while keeping certain traditional aspects of the car. Car and Driver reported that the charging port can support DC fast charging up to 80 kilowatts, reaching 80% full in 45 minutes. It was recorded with about 150 miles when it was produced in 2021.
Leno is working on restoring an early electric vehicle (EV).
The Detroit Electric, an early 20th-century American EV, was driven by Clara Ford, the wife of Henry Ford.
Back then, the car cost $300, around $4,700 today — seems like a steal compared to other EV prices. Leno and Hall have been busy modernizing the electric components.
“We have been able to fix things that were unfixable because in my business, when I first got started dealing with cars, you’d go to a junkyard and find stuff,” Leno told Car and Driver. “Those parts don’t exist anymore … And now you have the technology to make the parts that you want. It’s just unbelievable.”
3D printing can be a lifeline for classic cars, and more people are interested in converting cars to electric power to keep the vehicles running longer. We’ve seen examples of car enthusiasts converting old-school trucks with Tesla battery packs and conversion kits for muscle cars. As 3D printing becomes more prominent, faster manufacturing means the sky is the limit for models or custom orders.
