One of the projects i continue to work on, i call:
The 1000 trucks in 1000 garages program
So lets say that there are 1000 unique parts in a pickup truck.
And we could build most of these parts with a machine that costs less that $5,000 (each) and can be done in about a two car garage.
We get 1000 people to make parts in their garages,
and then get all the people to swap parts, and then you have
after everyone puts their truck together
1000 trucks.
Now lets first go over some specifics about
Manufacturing Truck Parts Yourself
because it may seem too far fetched for most of you to consider even talking about the other details.
Most of a car is not manufactured at Fjord, or General Molesters or Chove it off a cliff.
They are built in OEM plants spread out all over.
Each part is not that difficult.
In fact, many of them just need a mold to be made, and then someone to sit there and inject plastic, pull out of mold, repeat.
Even the big parts are not much harder in practice (just bigger, more expensive molds)
Cheap Chinese replacement parts are available for most exterior car pieces.
And there are ways of building that do not require 100 ton presses and really expensive molds.
Manufacturing a brake rotor
Lets use one of the more complex to build items.
The brake rotor.
All you need is a metal working lathe.
But really, you do not need the really expensive part of the lathe, the bed.
So, you build a CNC thingy that spins a block of steel and cuts it to shape.
You can go buy a lathe at Grizzly that you can adapt to this.
Or you can just build the piece you need with the parts that Grizzly gets.
Basically, you take a block of steel,
you go over to a drill press. It has a positioned vice, and a indexed rotating table.
You drill the bolt holes (the same as the wheel holes)
Then you take these holes and use them to align and mount the block of steel in your half-lathe
Push start, and come back to a nice, basic brake rotor.
Repeat.
Assembling Your Truck
Now, you and 999 of your closest friends, have a bunch of parts.
Modern manufacturing techniques are to weld everything together.
and then snap everything in to place.
Although this makes for a streamlined assembly process, it make for a finished product that is not easily repaired, modified or fixed.
So, if we are creating a truck to be assembled by various people, then we should have parts that are basically bolted together.
Create subcomponents that can be assembled, then tested, then bolted into place.
Now we are back to having a truck that can be worked on by anyone with enough time and a bit of mechanical aptitude. Spare parts are readily available. The truck's cost is directly a sum of all of its parts. And modification is something you can try.
The biggest problem with this idea is getting 1000 people on board, and building all the original tools.
(Well, from my perspective as an engineer type person)
But, once one of these is built, we create a completely new industry, and nothing will be the same in the automotive world again.