I have a 3d printer that i've been using as a hobby, i'm super thrifty because i got 3 kids so none of the stuff i put on my commuter is nice, it's all the cheap amazon/ebay stuff with a bit of flare added to make it fit the aesthetic. My boys love it, and think it's a race car, they always want to take my car when going places because it looks cool to them. I 3d printed myself some aerodisc style hubcaps and a spoiler, I also gave my car a $100 paint job with some grey and white primer and a couple paint markers. I've colour matched around the windows/spoiler and sections of the roof since these pictures were taken. I'm going to try and design a custom widebody kit over the winter because I can't cut my fenders with the ebay fender flares, and with the 2" spacers on coilovers, I'm constantly scraping on the fenders because the wheels stick out.
I have a little $159 hitbox 3in1 welder i bought off amazon, it does fluxcore mig, stick and scratch tig. Its really touchy for body panel with the mig but the tig seems to do okay if I do small sections.
I'm sure more than just myself is interested in as many details of what your mods are as possible... It looks like you got a lot going on there? I bet you have some ideas none of us have yet thought of? I'm hoping to eliminate the flying buttress and center console on a Gen3 someday...
When it comes to interior stuff, im planning on getting a 3d scanner so I can scan the various console pieces inside the car and print out new ones after modifying them. Im building a replacement for the weatherstripping around the sunroof because that rubber molding has detached and is peeling away from the glass. I also want to recreate the various little brackets and things that break or wear out that are just so hard to find because the cars are getting older so people can make their own instead of going without or trying to buy new ones
Any interest in creating molds for carbon fiber or just fiberglass exterior parts? Or is that outside your price range? I suspect you could generate an alternative source of income making exterior parts for people on PriusChat... There's a guy on the Honda Insight forum who is doing that, but no one on Priuschat doing that.
Im not really in the market to make the molds for things, i'm more just looking at making the 3d files for people to make their own molds if they wanted, or just print out the pieces. Ive got young kids and working with fiberglass and CF just introduces too many airborne toxins, whether it be fumes or sanding particles. I just sold one of my printers so im going to use the money from that to get a 3d scanner so I can start creating 3d models of interior components and body panels. Having a direct fit replacement part for things like a buttress removal that relocates the buttons and shifter into the dash would be pretty handy for some.
I'm getting ready to replace gen3 center console with an upholstered cushion / bench seat look and get rid of the flying buttress too so it's a clean continuous dash across the front of the cabin with no extra plastic on the dash heading towards the back of the car. I can use a push button gear shifter to relocate that part to the dash, but still trying to figure out where/how to relocate all the HVAC buttons underneath the stereo. If you have any thoughts on a 3D printing that could move those parts elsewhere I'd be willing to pay to fund your new tooling needs when they come up. Here's the basic concept of what I've been looking for via this Gen3 redesign in Europe:
Do you have a link or more pictures of this car? Theres a lot going on here, its hard to see what they did on the dash to drop the shifter and hvac.
In 12 years of searching this is the only photo I've been able to find of the type of Gen3 modification I want to do... This morning I was thinking that maybe the photo indicates that they converted all the HVAC buttons to run on a touch screen? That's above my skill level, but am willing to learn.
