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HIPS is good to vac form, you can get lots of detail, forms easily too, and you can get a lot of different thicknesses.
HIPS softens around 100C, ABS about 105C and PETG between 70 to 110C. These 3 seems to be the easiest to vac form from what I can tell.
You can paint PETG, example below, PETG formed from a plaster cast of a Retro Racing car body, it was an acrylic based paint. However depending you what your plan is, you'll find HIPS and also ABS much easier to work afterwards if you need to. PETG is more like Polycarbonate in that once is formed, you really just want to trim and paint.


 

Little misunderstanding here, i meant HIPS as filament.
That car loooks great.

that could work, HIPS wouldn't be my first choice, I prefer ABS as its mechanically more durable, but if you have more HIPS and are use to printing it, that would make sense. PETG can form at a lower temp than HIPS melts so that shouldn't be an issue.
What are you going for vac form? 

I plan to do my little Simca 1200s and since its predessor the Simca 1000 Coupe is identical, except the front (no grill and only 2 headlights) and the back (no extra reversing lights) i want to do a 3 parts mold where i can simply switch front and rear. 3 parts mold is needed anyway, since it has a shark mouth.


 

I prefer the simca 1000 coupé or more the basic simca 1000. The one looks like a tetra brick😁

Then you will be happy to hear that i am conversation with a belgian ex rallye driver from the 70ies to do also a Simca Rallye 3

Lemsko wrote:

I plan to do my little Simca 1200s and since its predessor the Simca 1000 Coupe is identical, except the front (no grill and only 2 headlights) and the back (no extra reversing lights) i want to do a 3 parts mold where i can simply switch front and rear. 3 parts mold is needed anyway, since it has a shark mouth.


 

Very niice car, a shame we didn't seem to have too many shipped down here to Australia.

Thanks for sharing yogi-bear! This machine form Formech looks very interesting, I've been wondering if it could manage polycarbonate well. Could you please share if you try to form a body with 1mm polycarbonate?
Since the last update on this thread (3 years ago already!) I continued trying to achieve good results with 3d printed molds and domestic vac forming. It kind of worked, but only to see if the measures and angles of the body were ok. Couldn't achieve market-ready bodies this way, because I could only form PETG and no PC. PETG is too brittle for a body that wants to be run... Also, the 3d printed mold would melt after a few vac formings.So I ended using a mold made of hard silicone and vac forming PC in an industrial machine. The result was very good and I could finally launch my Subaru Impreza body  
 

xavirojas wrote:

Thanks for sharing yogi-bear! This machine form Formech looks very interesting, I've been wondering if it could manage polycarbonate well. Could you please share if you try to form a body with 1mm polycarbonate?Since the last update on this thread (3 years ago already!) I continued trying to achieve good results with 3d printed molds and domestic vac forming. It kind of worked, but only to see if the measures and angles of the body were ok. Couldn't achieve market-ready bodies this way, because I could only form PETG and no PC. PETG is too brittle for a body that wants to be run... Also, the 3d printed mold would melt after a few vac formings.So I ended using a mold made of hard silicone and vac forming PC in an industrial machine. The result was very good and I could finally launch my Subaru Impreza body  

Hi xavirojas,
  yeah, it'll form polycarbonate no problem, but I haven't really had a chance to try yet. I need to setup better storage for stock, as polycarbonate will absorb moisture from the air and you have to dry it out before vac forming, otherwise you'll get bubbles in the plastic.

The Subaru bodies look good too.

Super! Thanks
BTW, how do I add pics to the post? I only could add them as an attachment...