I want one of these

Check out the Jay Leno video about 1/3rd of the way down the page. One of these would have made it a lot easier when I restored my 1926 Chrysler Tourer

www.popularmechanics.com/cars/jay-leno/t...320759?click=main_sr

That's a pretty amazing machine, and it has great potential for producing rare, obsolete parts, for vehicles, planes and anything else on wheels or wings. However, it still falls into the category of only being affordable by Jay Leno type billionaires. I can't see anyone buying one to try and get a living out of making repro parts .. certainly not here .. maybe in the U.S., where the numbers are.
The problem is that making parts for restorers is a declining business, not an increasing one .. as the number of items to be restored slowly decreases each year .. because anything restorable has pretty much already been collected.
Most of the stuff that has been produced in the last 20 years will never be restorable or collectible, because it all has no character, and large amounts of electronics make them unrestorable.

Looks pretty good to me. I don't mean to be rude Ron, but I think your wrong. A lot of people collect or restore things because they remind them of something, either something they or their family has owned, or just an experience. When you think about old trucks, really they are just scrap metal, it's only that someone sees something in them, or they would all just go to China. Look at the Japs, they arn't a particularly nostalgic race are they? And the electronics making new things harder to restore in the future? they'll have that figured in 20 years or whatever if someone wants to. After all, new or old, they are only machines, if someone made them, someone will fix it.

Cam, people have been a lot ruder to me, and I lived through it ..

What I'm getting at, is that the old stuff was built solidly and is able to be rebuilt. Stuff built in the last 20 years is made to be recycled in 10 years. Even Mercedes have reduced their chassis life span, engineering-wise, to 10 years, since the mid-1990's .. when previously, they were engineered to last 20 years.

Something built out 40% plastic, 40% aluminium, and 20% steel .. with vast amounts of crappy wiring, cheap sensors and piddly little switches galore, just won't be restorable, unless you have Jay Lenos' money. If you've ever pulled and examined a window winder switch out of a VN Commonwhore, you'll know what I'm talking about. They are built out of utter crap. How many people know that Commonwhore headlinings are made out of cardboard, sprayed with a cheap crappy felt material??? It's just typical of modern stuff, it's just not made to last, and everything in them is designed to decompose, totally self-destruct, or otherwise become unfixable within a set time - about 10 yrs. Don't even get me started on the stuff that has a sticker on it that says, "no user serviceable parts inside .. " >

A mate and I were talking about this trend, way back about 1980. He reckoned that within 25 years, cars and trucks would no longer have a bonnet you could open .. the engine bay would be sealed, like a fridge compressor .. and he reckoned there would just be a couple of flaps in the mudguard to open, and check the oil and water .. :

He reckoned that when the motor starting missing, you'd have to take the vehicle in to the dealer .. where they'd pull out a giant tin-opener, and slice off the whole front end, and tack on a new one ..

He was only partly right. They're well on the way to the scenario of a fully sealed engine bay .. but the future scenario will be that if the engine starts missing, you'll take it in to the dealer .. whereby they will bin the whole car on the spot, and offer you a new one at a price you wouldn't believe.
If anyone told me 30 years ago, that vehicles would become so much cheaper, that we'd be wrecking stuff as soon as something major goes wrong, I wouldn't have believed you.
As it is, I see Hiab trucks roaring down to Sims with perfectly good complete cars on board (half of them in better condition than anything I'm driving!) .. all destined for China .. :'(

onetrack
Mate, you actually don't need the plastic making machine - the scanner is pretty cheap at around $3,000. You scan the part, use the software in the program to "fill in" missing areas (such as corroded areas etc) and then save and export the scanned image file in a suitable format to be used on a CNC lathe, milling machine or wire eroder etc.
It is a great leap forward in making repro one off parts for us guys who like restoring and fixing machines and vehicles.
This scanner would have saved me a heap of heartache when restoring my Chrysler 60 Series Tourer ...My only gripe is that I don't have one of these scanners ...gunna start saving up for one though
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right about VN commodore. mine is decomposing under me so have given up fixing stuff, and when rego comes round it goes to breakers/China. Used to be that cars rusted out first so we never knew the lifespan of components.

Dare I say it but in years to come Louies and LTL's will be collectable.
Nows the time to find an LTL and put it in the back shed on blocks and drag it out in 20 years.
Bet you will struggle to find a good one in 20 years.

Basil

Am with you there Basil, there are still some nice LTLs on the road.They stand out when you see a good one. A mate of mine just bought an LNT 7000 with a 477 petrol motor & roadranger box. Cab has plenty of rust, mechanicals all good.Will have that project in the shed for a while. He still tryin to work out how to pay for the fuel to drive it. Told by the prevous owner he will only get 2 mile to the gallon at its best. I thought that might be a bit heavy............. Tony...........

In my line of work, fertilizer spreading, electronics are the scary part. I have a choice of MAN, Benz or a couple of jap 4x4 trucks. (Tatras are a bit new on the scene yet). The latest Axor 4x4 Benz relies on electronics to tell you when to add oil. NO DIPSTICK!!! Can I rely on all this electronic stuff after bouncing around on rough paddocks for between 8000 & 15000 Hrs? I've resigned to the fact we just can't keep these trucks too long. I'll stick with MAN at the moment.