Ok, i kind of agree, but not totally (disclaimer: did not watch the entirety, it's too long, so maybe the caveat i put are are the end of the video).
Big anecdata:
We have old automotive, and especially Mercedes vans, with no replacement parts anymore. Those usually cost a fortune. two summers ago, i went in one of those van to Lyon. The van is falling into pieces, but was still ok to drive. Until it wasn't. We were sure it was the end of its life, so we took an hostel nearby and look into car cemetery (don't know the actual name in english). We found a weird garage and my friends, who was very attached to this van, wanted to give it a shot.
The garage wasn't looking professional. The mechanics looked nothing like the mechanics in our remote, rural area (they looked very young), but they were the only one available (i think the insurance wasn't going to pay anyway, so it wasn't sanctioned mechanics either, lot of under the hood repairs and stuff i think). There was only scooters, solex and very, very old motorbikes.
They 3d printed a few pieces, slow melted rubber tube to make them smaller, and milled a few metal pieces. For one of them they said "we are not sure if we got the inside totally right, we had to cut the OG in two and ours isn't as smooth, you should come back in two years and we will check it out". We weren't confident, but we never had a motor-related issue the rest of the trip (and we traveled through the Alps...)
Two years later, my friend went back there, left his van for a week. They recreated everything. Repaired his doors, the seats, the mechanical windows and every piece that looked fragile was re-milled from metal (or actually 3d printed when no force was applied and only the rust and their thinness was a danger).
I think he should change his motor entirely, it guzzle too much gas, but anyway, this might be the future. Two guys with obvious talent from a poor area of a big city basically rebuilding an engine/car from scratch. One day, if we manage to force a law that force manufacturers to put their plans online once the piece isn't made anymore, we will be able repair our stuff ourselves, in fab-labs or places like this kind of garage.
Your garage has the luxury of being pretty assured that there is some nitwit willing to pay $1k for a brake job who will walk in the door after you leave.
The kind of shop that deals in reverse engineering stuff that's no longer available doesn't have that luxury of having a ready supply of those kinds of customers or they wouldn't be reverse engineering stuff.
No, but they had an automated plasma cutter and an automated 'mill' (the French term is 'fraiseuse'). I don't know if they updated their tools during the last 2 years.
From what I understood, they rented their tools and equipment (above the counter) to a lot of low wage workers/gig workers (it was on the fringe of the less reputable/poorest neighborhood of the city), so the overall atmosphere was weird for a garage. It was like a fab-lab for the working poor.
Big anecdata:
We have old automotive, and especially Mercedes vans, with no replacement parts anymore. Those usually cost a fortune. two summers ago, i went in one of those van to Lyon. The van is falling into pieces, but was still ok to drive. Until it wasn't. We were sure it was the end of its life, so we took an hostel nearby and look into car cemetery (don't know the actual name in english). We found a weird garage and my friends, who was very attached to this van, wanted to give it a shot.
The garage wasn't looking professional. The mechanics looked nothing like the mechanics in our remote, rural area (they looked very young), but they were the only one available (i think the insurance wasn't going to pay anyway, so it wasn't sanctioned mechanics either, lot of under the hood repairs and stuff i think). There was only scooters, solex and very, very old motorbikes.
They 3d printed a few pieces, slow melted rubber tube to make them smaller, and milled a few metal pieces. For one of them they said "we are not sure if we got the inside totally right, we had to cut the OG in two and ours isn't as smooth, you should come back in two years and we will check it out". We weren't confident, but we never had a motor-related issue the rest of the trip (and we traveled through the Alps...)
Two years later, my friend went back there, left his van for a week. They recreated everything. Repaired his doors, the seats, the mechanical windows and every piece that looked fragile was re-milled from metal (or actually 3d printed when no force was applied and only the rust and their thinness was a danger).
I think he should change his motor entirely, it guzzle too much gas, but anyway, this might be the future. Two guys with obvious talent from a poor area of a big city basically rebuilding an engine/car from scratch. One day, if we manage to force a law that force manufacturers to put their plans online once the piece isn't made anymore, we will be able repair our stuff ourselves, in fab-labs or places like this kind of garage.