Monday, September 12, 2005
Design & make those hard-to-find parts!
You can get everything on the web. It's now official.
Mass customization has come to the classic car hobby.
Through the latest of Wired Magazine, I just found a service on the internet that allows you to design your own parts (or anything, for that matter) and have them manufactured and sent to you. The web site is emachineshop, and it looks like nothing short of a revolution.
At emachineshop, you download their CAD rendering software and use it to design your own part. Then you send the file to them, and they machine it and ship it to you. No software or service is perfect, and I'm sure there are a few glitches, but how cool is this???
You could finally get that part you've been trying to save up enough money to have reproduced. Now you don't have to have 20 of them made just to get your money back. (Frankly, if you're trying to recoup your money in the classic car hobby, you're most likely in the wrong hobby.)
Then you could save the drawing as a computer file and have it reproduced at any point in the future.
Another cool thing: the pricing for whatever you design is built into the software. That means you could configure the pricing a million different ways based on the complexity of the design and the materials you want to use.
Time to stop searching for that Graham-Paige doohickey or Nash whatzit. Just make it yourself.
posted by Todd on 9/12/2005 03:36:00 PM
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Orphan cars on stamps!
Okay, so we're close to the last organization to report this, but we're psyched to report that the U.S. Post Office has released a great series of Sporty 50s Cars. The illustrations were created by legendary advertising artist and car designer Art Fitzpatrick.
The orphans outnumber the Big Three! There's a '52 Nash Healey, a '53 Studebaker Starliner, and a '54 Kaiser Darrin. The other two stamps have something to do with Chevy and Ford.
The illustrations are suitable for framing on your outgoing mail. Grab 'em now. I tried to get a sheet today, but my local post office told me they flew off the shelves.
posted by Todd on 9/08/2005 06:18:00 PM
Mag Wheels: AMC AMX/3 article in Motor Trend Classic
I hope Motor Trend Classic is just revving up the engine.
If so, then the fantastic story about AMC's AMX/3 featuring insight from Dick Teague's son Jeff is an intense warm-up.
AMC fans know that the AMX/3 was poised to become AMC's high-performance supercar back around 1970. (In fact, CEO Roy Chapin, Jr., told me back in 1998 that the company was oh-so-close to giving the car the green light.)
But how many stories have gotten as close to its creators as MTC? Very few. (The only one we can think of is Collectible Automobile's interview with Dick Teague back in the 1980s.
Motor Trend Classic looks like a winner. Watch out, Hemmings Classic Car!
posted by Todd on 9/08/2005 06:07:00 PM
Mag Wheels: '66 Oldsmobile Toronado in Motor Trend Classic
Olds fans should check out the article on the first-year Toronado in the Premier Issue of Motor Trend Classic.
It's a nice blend of vintage and current material.
Plus, it looks like MTC is taking a cue from Hemmings Classic Car by publishing a sidebar featuring owners of a vintage '66 Toronado.
I also like the fact that MTCleverages its heritage with various sidebars featuring magazine covers and contemporary reviews of the Toronado from the pages of a 1966Motor Trend issue.
posted by Todd on 9/08/2005 05:45:00 PM
|
|
 |
