Established in 1997, Tucci Hot Rods is a family-led custom car building shop renown for its bold modification projects. Dom Tucci, a designer at Tucci Hot Rods, used his Ultimaker 2 Extended+ intensively for their Ford Fiesta ST build that premiered at 2016's SEMA show in Las Vegas. Dom says he printed around 30 or 40 things with the Ultimaker, from rough mock-ups to actual final pieces that are used on the vehicle. He argues;
You think of 3D printing at first as just a prototyping tool, but it's an end-use process for us.
3D printing adoption
Getting started with the Ultimaker was straightforward for Dom. "After unboxing, I put it on my desk, ran one test print and started printing out parts for the car". Without access to 3D printing technology, they would have to have parts CNC'd by an external machine shop, which can be a lengthy process taking into account the long lead times associated with outsourcing. Now that they have the Ultimaker in-house, they can produce final finished parts in a matter of hours and no longer have to rely on third-party suppliers' schedules.