"cheap and easy and metal"
I'm really not sure those 3 words belong together, anything needing custom parts made from metal is either not so cheap (although commercial services for laser cutting 2D metal sheets to precisions of 0.2mm or so are cheap compared to milling style subtractive CNCing of anything), or takes a lot of not so easy work to DIY more cheaply.
Much more practical to make this project with today's kit than 1977s though.
I'd imagine: aluminium slot extrusion for an internal frame, laser cut acrylic panels for flat outer walls (non structural) around the lower sections, lots of 3d printing in the curved higher-up areas, and motors on absolutely everything you can make move. Don't forget to make the best use of modern microcontrollers and/or Raspberry-Pi-like-SBCs, and fit sensors too.