In China, Juncheng Vehicle Co is making brand new AE86 +more | Retro Rides

Not the first time something like this has been done, remember the Sri Lankan company making brand new Morris Minor bodies, and so on.

But this is fascinating and it seems to be at reasonable scale.

The tech is interesting and the way they reverse engineer the old cars is neat.

I can see them running into Mercedes' lawyers with their planned 300SL though.

Somebody here recently shared a video with a 59 caddy or an early corvette, which looked quite close to the originals.

But then the camera moved to a bus, which was obviously only inspired by a vw split bus. Seems vw has such a bunch of lawyers, too, which must be prevented to deal with.

There we go.

These bodies are a real curiosity for me, I understand the chagrin of brand protection teams from the OE manufacturers irrespective of how good or other the quality is but conversely if demand is so strong then it should serve to highlight there's a commercial opportunity being ignored.

Equally having once interviewed for a role with the then fledgling Land Rover Classic Parts team the costs to retain these as self contained programmes within a contemporary manufacturer can be incredibly limiting(and profit margins needed to justify it's existence can extinguish it's viability in the eyes of customers) .

Likewise developing licence agreements become arduous and costly to agree and implement because, naively in my view, manufacturers believe they can "railroad" buyers towards modern alternatives, which again is a perspective that misses it's target.

Yeah I know those cars, they are EVs and they are only "inspired by" and if you know what a '59 Cadillac really looks like you're not going to be fooled for a momemnt. These cars are built by taking an original one apart and 3D scanning every single panel. These are 100% compatible replacement panels and supposedly 100% direct replacement bodies. Like a BMC Heritage body for an MGB

I know "its in China" where IP means nothing but damn this is wild stuff.

I guess they are just blurring the lines between pattern parts and full cars, as technically they are just welding pattern parts together.

Is there anything stopping me casting new Ford Pinto blocks and Cosworth heads over here? (Apart from my lack of a foundry)

On a side note, do those MST Escort shells come from something similar? How well do original parts fit those?

thats basically what Millington engines have been doing for quite some time now, albeit on aluminium and many performance enhancing adaptions to the design.

went down the rabbithole, first batch of 30-40 aluminium blocks cast for Millington by Richard Jenvey, as in Mr Jenvey throttle bodies, in 1990!

so no you don't need to do that, and it seems not much stopping you but it all depends if the original makers get annoyed or not (or their legal representatives, who's views don't always represent the owners)

From the UK perspective the closest reference I can think of would be Land Rover chassis... the original chassis were produced by GKN for Land Rover, but there's 1 or 2 aftermarket suppliers of direct replacement chassis whom it appears they manufacturer internally and that seems to proceed without legal challenge(not saying they won't have had them historically).

Given how DVLA like to link the original chassis to the identity there's probably a whole different can of worms not to opened on that front, but if there's a "legal" precedent in the UK that's possibly a good starting point.

If they're just used for "off road/off highway" use then I suspect outside of design/copyright/patent infringement I think that would be a free hit.

The MST cars, I believe, but may be wrong use a predominance of panels that are Ford heritage approved?

An American youtube channel called BIGTIME recently did a video on one of those chinese AE86 shells, Basically reshelled a wreck into one of these brand new chinese shells to see what would fit, upgrading it along the way obviously.

from what I remember of theirs, the quality wasn't fantastic (Ie Some fitting holes just didn't line up, Poor quality welding in places Etc) but fair play to them they got it built up and I believe they're now using it for track driving/drifting

Not sure if their shell was from this manufacturer or not though.

I wonder if it would be in some manufacturers interest to contest a 3rd party creating something that is possibly beyond vehicle patent limitations? Not sure what the benefit would be.

It its reasonably priced, looks good and fits well, what's not to like?

Some of the stratospheric prices for even pattern parts that are questionable at best with fit and finish are ridiculous!

Anything that makes things easier for the average man in a shed has to be good in my book.

The video comments that they are on their 4th AE86 body at time of filming. They also seemed to be having some "fettling" with its assembly.

There is more than one company doing this maybe?

The YouTuber had a very early one from these guys?

Unclear but either is possible

All those re-shelled MGBs and Morris Minors seemed to go through OK. The MG ones are Heritage Approved but not sure what difference that makes?

Ah I don't remember them saying they were on they're 4th shell. I can imagine whoever is making them though, they'll only get better as time goes on

I think the Chinese company came out with the ae86 body too quick. The first 1 or 2 weren't totally ready. Some even had repairs to the original car they took apart to scan copied onto the new shell. The demand for them is definitely there I'd say, and I have heard they're going to sell individual panels as well, which would be good news for anyone who wants to repair their own car. A lot of panels are NLA.

The Landcruiser bodies they've been doing for quite a while and are definitely highly regarded, as far as I know. Around 15k for a new body, fully painted. A lot of money, but restoring an old one and painting it, isn't cheap either.

Thats probably "excellent value" depending on how bad yours* is.

I took my old Ford round a couple of body shops and they were asking £15k just for paint and some minor repairs to door bottoms etc.

Strangely enough the Chinese Courts never seem to side with foreign car companies. I can't think why this is.