It all started with Rod Emory’s grandfather, Neil Emory who was a well-known custom car builder in Burbank, CA. Rod’s father, Gary Emory, was a countercultural influence whose restyling designs ranged from the original “Baja Bug” to race-inspired street variations of the Porsche 911. The unique Porsche 356 street and competition cars restyled and raced by Rod and Gary, whose aesthetics frequently offended brand “purists,” came to be known, fittingly, as 356 Outlaws.

Emory Motorsports restores historically significant Porsche race cars and builds 356 Outlaws in their Oregon and California facilities. The spirit of the Emory bloodline remains true today: to make old Porsches far better than they ever were—mechanically and aesthetically. Yet for the ultimate brand enthusiast, the Emory Special, of which only a precious few have been made, is the benchmark for judging others in the genre. Specials are one-off cars whose combination of design and mechanical components will not be duplicated.

With the technical precision required for today’s manufacturing processes, Rod Emory’s creative team needed to marry old-world fabrication techniques with the latest 3D tools and 3D printing from Quickparts. This combination of scan/design technology and rapid prototyping came in handy when a customer asked Emory to help restyle the windshield frame for an early Porsche Roadster.

“Our customer wanted to update the windshield design with a lower and leaner profile than the original, while still paying tribute to the car’s design aesthetics,” said Rod Emory. Using data points acquired by scanning, we were able to restyle the “A-pillars” (the parts of the windshield frame that bookend the glass) within the existing parts’ footprint.”

Since computer simulations can only communicate so much, the Emory team wanted to check the new part’s size and fit on the real-life car before committing to full production. So, they decided to 3D print a prototype with help from Quickparts, an on-demand 3D parts printing service whose customers quickly receive no-obligation quotes for their parts while offering fast online workflows and expert advice.

Rod explained that, “Quickparts understands the challenges customers face while sourcing this type of service and the need for comprehensive information and material choice. Their website was easy to navigate. We uploaded our model, talked to customer support about the best printing processes for our part and their respective prices, then plotted a path forward.” 

Emory settled on SLA output, using an ABS-like grey material. The part arrived quickly within a five-day turnaround in total. Once the part came in it was test-fit into the vehicle while the customer watched, and who then immediately provided feedback about the design. According to Rod, “The 3D printed part itself had very high fidelity and a perfect finish. This kind of “closed-circuit” validation is critical to successful design processes and wouldn’t have been possible without 3D printing,” Rod said. “On a different kind of project, that print could even have been used as a finished part.”

For information: 

Quickparts

Emory Motorsports

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