---
title: "USA Swimming 3D prints Toyota 4Runner for use as a camera dolly"
url: https://www.voxelmatters.com/usa-swimming-3d-prints-toyota-4runner-for-use-as-a-camera-dolly/
date: 2025-08-10
modified: 2025-08-09
lang: en
author: "Edward Wakefield"
description: "Production Engineering (PE) recently partnered with USA Swimming to create a custom 3D printed Toyota 4Runner body for a poolside camera dolly, bringing creative design to broadcasting swimming competitions. The..."
categories:
  - "Case Studies"
  - "Visual Marketing"
tags:
  - "insights"
image: https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/download-640x425.jpg
word_count: 575
---

# USA Swimming 3D prints Toyota 4Runner for use as a camera dolly

Production Engineering (PE) recently partnered with USA Swimming to create a custom 3D printed Toyota 4Runner body for a poolside camera dolly, bringing creative design to broadcasting swimming competitions.

The project began when Adam Reese, from PE Stamping, and Aaron Banik, from PE Stamping Die Design, learned of a request from a camera dolly company working with USA Swimming. The company had approached multiple automotive sponsors for a custom vehicle body to mount on their mobile camera system. Thanks to Adam and Aaron’s initiative and connections through previous customization work, PE became the first to take on the challenge.

[Using actual Toyota CAD data](https://www.voxelmatters.com/toyota-racing-development-trd-names-stratasys-as-official-partner/), Adam and Aaron meticulously compiled and adjusted the full vehicle model - no small feat, as complete vehicle files are rarely consolidated into a single dataset. “There’s not many times where the entire vehicle exists in one file,” said Kirk Barber, who worked with Dallas Martin on the additive manufacturing side. “The bumper, the grill, the fender, the hood, the roof, all the doors, the door handles—everything was in this one file. It was a very large file, very difficult to manipulate.”

![USA Swimming 3D prints Toyota 4Runner for use as a camera dolly. The body was printed by Production Engineering.](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/download-1.jpg)

Once the CAD data was finalized, the PE Additive Manufacturing team took over. The body was printed in two large sections [to accommodate printer size](https://www.voxelmatters.com/atang-tshikare-installs-3m-long-3d-printed-sculpture-at-time-out-market-in-south-africa/) and reduce the total print time from 15 days to just over a week. Each half weighed approximately 15 pounds, with a 5% infill and 2mm wall thickness to balance strength and weight. “We had to thin it out as much as we could,” Dallas explained. “But we also had to bump up the wall thickness to maintain some structure.”

Mounting the body to the dolly presented its own challenges. Without access to the chassis, the team relied on vendor drawings and photos to design a secure mounting system. “We designed the mounts sight unseen,” Dallas said. “We didn’t have the chassis physically with us, so we used a lot of pictures and worked with the vendor to get detailed drawings.”

The finishing touch came from the Paint Sento Team located in the PE Lab at PEMC, where the group saw an opportunity to showcase their capabilities. “We’re always trying to get more departments involved with our lab,” said Juliette Eddins, a CW Technician with the Paint Sento team. “This was a really good opportunity for us to do that.”

![USA Swimming 3D prints Toyota 4Runner for use as a camera dolly. The body was printed by Production Engineering.](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/download-2.jpg)

Painting a 3D printed plastic body came with its own set of hurdles. “You might think it would’ve been easy, but it’s a lot harder to paint a little 4Runner than you think,” Juliette said. “We couldn’t bake it like we do with metal, so we had to test a lot of different materials to make sure nothing would melt or react badly.”

After extensive testing, the team selected a vibrant two-tone scheme using aftermarket paints, including Toyota’s Supersonic Red (3U5). “It ended up being [more like an art project](https://www.voxelmatters.com/new-zealand-12-m-3d-printed-sculpture/) than a science project,” Juliette said. “I spent hours masking and taping. My coworkers were coming by and laughing at my arts and crafts.”

Despite the challenges, the final result was a striking, quarter-scale 4Runner that not only looked the part but also highlighted the power of collaboration across stamping, 3D printing, and materials engineering. “The cool part to me, was that we used the actual vehicle CAD data. And we kept the 3D print lines visible on purpose—so you could still tell it was printed, not just a piece of foam," said Kirk.