Picture Car Glossary
custom fabrication for picture cars
What is a custom fabrication for picture cars?
Updated June 2026 · Revolution Picture Cars
Also called fabrication, or custom build.
Custom fabrication for picture cars encompasses building, converting, or heavily modifying vehicles to match the specific demands of a script.
This can include period-accurate body conversions, era-specific badging and trim, stunt rigging infrastructure, SFX integration points, hero interior builds, or creating entirely non-existent fictional vehicles from base donor cars. Fabrication work is coordinated between the production designer, stunt coordinator, and the fabrication shop and must be executed to both aesthetic and safety standards.
Example
A script needs a vehicle that splits in half on camera. Fabrication builds two mirrored halves on separate chassis, each drivable, plus a joined shell for the establishing shots. Nothing off a lot will do it.
Figures are illustrative, chosen to show the mechanics rather than to quote market rates.
Where you'll see it
Commissioned in prep with long lead times, and the largest single line in a specialty vehicle budget.
Common mistake
Underestimating lead time. Fabrication is the longest item in a picture car budget, and a build ordered late arrives after the sequence it was for has been shot around it.
Related questions
- When does a production need custom fabrication?
- When the script needs a vehicle that does not exist, or needs one to do something no stock vehicle can do safely or repeatably.
- How is fabrication budgeted?
- As a build cost with a lead time, usually the largest single line in a specialty vehicle budget, and separate from any rental.
Sourcing picture cars for a production? Find, vote on, budget, and book them in one place with Revolution, free for productions.
See how it works