somebodyelsewhere

What's the difference between the two? I've thought about the possibility of 3d scanning, but quality and complete files are few and far between. There are some interesting 3d scanning devices out there, but even they have a hard time measuring out cavities and recesses in an object. Not to mention the fact that even the most accurate machines would have a hard time getting measurements precise enough to record tight-fitting pieces. And anything involving making your own CAD files would be incredibly time-intensive. And about letting drawings into the wild: what about companies that aren't in business anymore? Surely they don't just go through the files and have a burn party when the business collapses.

Well when you have the capability to machine your own parts, it's pretty cheap. I'm not trying to "tool up" and make a business out of this. I'm trying to preserve the pieces of history I come across. So even if I am one of seven people in the whole world who owns a Zundapp, doesn't that make it that much more important? When these vehicles are gone and the last one has succumbed to rust, we will never be able to get them back. Come here to be constructive to the conversation or don't come at all.

I mean pretty much anything before 1980. The motorcycle that sparked the question is a 1957. But I'll have a look around the AACA library and get back to you, not a bad idea.

This will inevitably be true for at least some productions, however unfortunate. But I like to hold on to hope that they've been preserved somewhere, even if they have been forgotten about.

I understand where you're coming from and all, but I'm not sure the designs for a 100-year old piece of history are something that a lawyer can very well go into court and defend as a trade secret. From my understanding, a trade secret isn't such if a company no longer utilizes it for profit.

For any antique vehicle that a manufacturer has stopped producing and stopped providing service support for, why is it that original schematics never see the light of day? To clarify, I'm not talking about the couple pages of frame blueprints that you can find for vehicles like the Model T or such, and I'm not talking about service manuals, etc. I mean the original designs for every last piece of the vehicle, measurements and all. The practical purpose of having these schematics now would be to accurately refabricate those hard-to-find parts that can't be found in NOS. This dilemma came to mind because of an old set of Zundapp motorcycles I've acquired, but it goes for our American manufacturers too. Why wouldn't these schematics be considered part of the public domain? There's surely no patent that would still be enforceable, at least not in the US. Wouldn't manufacturers want to release them to the public after so long, if for no other reason than to see their vehicles be restored and still running? Our industrial history is slowly rusting out of memory, and without original schematics, we will never be able to preserve all these pieces of history. What does it take to obtain these? Are they sitting in an archive somewhere in, for example, Ford headquarters, and someone can simply make an appointment to go look through them or what? Lawyers, engineers, former manufacturer employees, your input is warmly encouraged.