Make had an interesting story about a
3D Prototyping Sheetmetal Former that I thought was interesting. Just another example of rapid prototyping. This one may have an interesting twist that wasn't mentioned in the article is replacement parts. Imagine having a 50 year old car that isn't in production anymore and parts are hard to get. The sheetmetal former could be used to make one off parts that would otherwise be unavailable. This process could revolutionize car restoration options.
I hope that this technology is refined and like 3D printing at some point becomes cheap enough to make it to more average consumers.