American dad builds a 3D-printed Lamborghini Aventador SV

This American dad is building a 3D-printed Lamborghini Aventador SV. 

Colorado man Sterling Backus started the project with his son five years ago and has been working at it almost non-stop ever since. 

Backus said he started the Aventador build from the ground up, with “no frame, no engine, nothing”.

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He also had to teach himself everything there was to know about 3D printing from YouTube. 

“We didn’t even have a 3D printer so we bought one off Amazon, a small CR-10S,” he said. 

And using this one 3D printer, the father-son duo set off on their grandiose mission. 

“We had our CR-10S going for a year and a quarter almost non-stop,” Backus told ‘3D Printing Nerd’ Joel Telling. 

Because the printer was designed for much smaller projects, Backus said they had to create the Lamborghini piece by piece, as seen above.

“We would make small pieces, about a foot cubed, and then take all of the pieces and join them together in a single panel,” he said. 

“But we didn’t want to just use 3D prints because we live in Colorado and it gets hot here, so having it exposed in the sun is not good or structurally sound.” 

So to provide that extra strength to the structure, Backus encapsulated parts in carbon fiber.

Underneath the 3D-printed body panels, Backus created a custom-fabricated steel frame. 

While the entire build was tricky, Backus said the scissor doors were the hardest to create. 

Nonetheless, Backus built them so they not only looked great but they were fully functional too. 

Part-way through his build, Lamborghini itself actually got wind of Backus’s incredible build. 

When they saw how much progress he’d made, they wanted to donate some actual Lamborghini Aventador parts. 

“These are headlights from a real Aventador and normally they go for about $5,000 a piece,” he said. 

“I couldn’t afford them, but Lamborghini loved the project so much that they donated these and they look great.” 

Lamborghini also donated a real Aventador steering wheel. 

Backus said this would be the only part of the car to feature a Lamborghini badge, out of respect to the brand.

Meanwhile, Backus got the engine out of a 2005 Corvette he found at a junkyard, then got to work rebuilding it to fit. 

The Colorado father says his next step will be to “go through the panels one at a time and sand them ready for paint”. 

Then he said he would fine-tune the mechanics and electrical parts of the car. 

Once that’s all done, Backus said he planned to show the car at the Bandimere Speedway show in August.