Hi Jesse, nice to see a Wedico model again. You are serious about the detailing, so it is going to look very nice.
On the German forum there is one that build a Wedico Peterbilt years ago, and is currently rebuilding it. He has put all the original photos back in the topic, and one of the outstanding things he is currently doing in placing ribbets on the model. He has drilled 1500 holes and placed all the ribbets in there. You can see pictures of this on the last pages of the topic.
https://www.modelltruckforum.de/foru...lt-von-wedico/
About the 3D printed metal, the strength and density is almost the same. We have tested with vacuum parts, and the results are very good. There are some materials already certifeid for medical implants, the demands are very high here.
For instance reconstruction of the jawbone after an accident. They make a 3D scan of the face and reconstruct missing bone with printed implants.
The development is already on a very high level, we are printing in Stainless steel 304 and Titanium. We have two metal printers, but the process is cumbersome and expensive. Results are very promissing though.
Good luck with the build, your air ride suspension is very nice.