So i'm looking at developing a ducktail style spoiler for the mx5 mk3,

i have excatly what it should look like in my head, and there's the problem! how do i get from this idea to something phisical?

firstly i will need to get accurate dimensions and shape of the boot lid from the car, the finished product needs to fit snuggly to the compound curves of the panel.

i'm sure some sort of 3d laser scanner exists, scan the car, import into autocad or similar and go from there, but this is out of reach for most of us.

I guess the another option would be to take a mould from the actual car itself then use this to make a plug?

Hi Bonobo,

You can try Autodesk 123D Beta. SketchUp is too basic in my opinion.

Thanks! i will try one of the free ones first, i do have access to Autocad 2011, pretty hard to learn from what i've heard.

I use adobe illustrator for work by the way, not sure if that would be any help for when i get into a 3D design program?

I thought you just wanted it to put your ideas onto the screen. If you want to properly design a part and then use that design to create drawings that you could make a really accurate male plug from then you really need to get hold of a proper CAD program like AutoCAD or Solidworks, I don't know much about free alternatives but these programs won't be cheap at all.

Does anyone have experience of any (cost effective) methods of taking a CAD design to tooling using commercial rapid prototyping processes?

I've been glancing at companies like Imaterialise recently and imagining the benefits of taking something directly from concept to tool

When I say "cost effective" I guess what I actually mean is "If you were to use the tool to create commercial parts, would the price of commisioning the tooling be less than about 10 x the unit sale price of the components you produce from it?".

Bonobo, I've heard (and I'm no expert) that 3D laser scanners can be a nightmare to use, and the plots often require a lot of cleaning up. That said, I'd prefer to make my own mind up on this and would love to have one to play with.

Good luck!

why dont you research all the different spoilers available for the mx5 and find a ducktail type spoiler that you can cut/modify to the one for the mx5. join them up make adjustments with body fillers, smooth it all off and take it from there regarding making composite replicas of it.

Hi,

In my opinion, using computers would be just for rendering an idea.

Unless you can have access to "industrial" technologies like laser/water cutting (for profiles you could fill with foam), or 3d scanner, or cnc routers to build the mold withtout touching anything.

Since you have your final idea well built in your mind, I would go for the 100% scratch built way. Using foam that you shape with sanding paper is a great way to learn a lot during the process, and you still can change anything you want in a design point of view very easily. Any low cost insulation foam will work, and once you're happy you just coat your foam with a layer of 150 g/sqm glass to rigidify it, add bodywork and then allow molding.

Its a long process, but it would cost almost nothing. But hey, thats just my two cents.

Japcarmaniac idea has good side too: a lot less work by starting from an actual volume you dont have to create yourself. But you need to buy one, thats the downside.

 



 


    A $1000 electronic device will always protect a 10 cents fuse

I think i'm going to try a combination of the old and the new techniques, i'll use adobe illustrator to design 2d profiles of the peice, cut these from foam block using a laser cutter i have access to, then stick the blocks together and i'll have something that only needs final shaping, smoothing

cut pieces will look something like this: