Digitally Reconstructing A 1957 Ferrari Racing Car in 3D

With over 35 years of business experience and an extensive history working on Ferrari vehicles, Italian Design and Racing, based in Mesa, Arizona, is a custom fabrication and restoration company that specializes in Italian exotic cars. Their engineering team is using the EinScan HX Handheld 3D scanner to preserve a vintage racing car body which was placed on a more modern Ferrari chassis.

Chris Carpenter, lead technology engineer, talked about his experience with 3D technology and how the hybrid light source 3D scanner, EinScan HX completely changed their workflow.

After a crash destroyed the original Ferrari 750 Monza Spyder body, an aspiring young car builder, Peter Monteverdi (a Swiss car maker and creator of the car brand Montiverdi) designed the first gullwinged door body to be used on a Ferrari chassis, which at the time was built by Sauter out of Switzerland in 1957.

The gullwing body had been kept by private collectors off of its original chassis.

“We’re looking to restore the car body”,  says Carpenter. “We’ve adapted a more modern Ferrari chassis and drive train to restore its bespoke look.”  Carpenter joining the team has shifted its restoration process from analog to digital, with EinScan HX Handheld 3D scanner being a key tool to digitize the parts for restoration projects.

Carpenter 3D Scanning the Gullwing, photo courtesy of Shining 3D

Advantages of Hybrid Light Source 3D Scanner

Since the EinScan HX Handheld 3D scanner can scan by features or markers, it has the flexibility to scan objects of any size.

Restorers not only need to scan the body and chassis to find the right installation point, but also need to scan various sizes and shapes of parts. Even a small error or misalignment can skew the assembly of the doors and chassis, therefore being able to 3D scan different parts efficientlyis key.

The laser is less sensitive to ambient light and performs better on reflective surfaces such as body panels, while the blue LED light allows for a rapid scan mode, quickly providing more interior and engine compartment data to test fit parts and better understand the clearance of custom parts. The combination of two light sources saves working time and improves efficiency.

​“The EinScan HX can use both laser and structured light, which helps us solve a variety of different types of projects and also helps us speed up our design work”, says Carpenter.

3D Scanning a part, photo courtesy of Shining 3D

Significance of 3D Scanning Results

The scanning data will have long-term consequences for the field of racing car restoration. The scans can be used by fabricators as a reference to assist in recreating the car’s original shape, saving time and resources in the event of damage done to the vehicle. It may also be used for additive manufacturing, through reverse design and 3D printing to make parts that are no longer in production or hard to find.

Carpenter digitally preserving the car body design with EinScan HX, photo courtesy of Shining 3D

Read this blog about how a hobbyist created some parts for his old Mini Cooper here too!

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Growshapes the official U.S. distributor of Shining 3D EinScan 3D scanners. We now carry the eviXscan 3D scanner from Evatronix as well!

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