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Miller Race Car Grille Shells
Harry Miller began building racecars, many for Indianapolis, in about 1920. He hired a draftsman, Leo Goosen, at that time. Although Leo was only a lowly draftsmen and Harry had not finished high school, they developed and built some of the finest racing equipment known. Besides being technicaly procicient, their cars were beautiful. Thoes ment were artists in metal.
A few years ago I had the privelage of handling, examining and taking patterns from a NOS grille shell. New in the 1920s, never mounted on a car! The Grill shells had a peak or ridge that ran vertically up the front center of the grille and then swept back over the top toward the radiator filler. This peak is sharp edges. Too sharp to form easily; I often wondered how they were fabricated. When I examined the NOS shell the secret revealled itself to me the peak was two edges that came together at a sharp angle and then were gas welded inside and out. The outside was finish to polish of course. Below are some scans from books I have and a Cad drawing with measurements for a grille shell similar to the 1929 Miller 91 Rear drive Simplex special. I also hand sketched a few drawings in an attempt to show the construction process of the shells. These shells were always built to the same design quidelines but there were wide variations depending on the equipment of the particular car. For instance some of the cars had a radiator covered by the shell while other cars had the top tank of the radiator double as the top section of the shell. On the latter type, a seam shows just above the grille opening and goes all the way to the rear edge of the shell. Some Miller shells as the one I drew plans for have a seperate frame securing the grille to the shell. Others have the grill mounted in behind the actual grille shell. Miller 91 Cu, In. Front wheel drive Image (5).jpg The Fabrication technique. Not what one would expect! Image (8).jpg Grille shell on a Miller 122 Rear Drive car (similar to the CAD drawing Image (4).jpg Leon Duray and a pair of Miller 91 Front drives which he owned about 1927. The NO15 was renumbered as NO18 for 1929 ans is now in the Smitsonian Image (6).jpg Cad Drawing for a Miller Shell. If needed I can provide a better copy with more readable dimensions. Miller91RearDrvStdWdIMS.jpg
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Richard K |
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I would like to build at least one of these for myself. This could be a very doable project at Dan Pate's Minesota Meet in Late march. If some one is interest get in touch with Dan or me. I could easily get a buck made by then.
Terrific wall art!
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Richard K |
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I told my dad I would make him a air cleaner for his 4 deuce set up. I could do that here.
That drawing made me really want to shape one of the shells. Just for garage art if anything. I would not need no buck for a one off piece of garage art. I would like to have a cut out template. I might try one of these for fun tomorrow.
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Johnny Arial This forum is dedicated to Metal Shaping. Please stay on topic. |
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Richard you did not say what material the shells are made from. I imagine they were made from brass especially if the header tank was sometimes part of the shell.
What I noticed about these shells (and a lot of other original old panels) is that the design takes intro account the process needed to make the panel. If you look at the design it takes into account the welding process, the shape is designed to allow the welding to be done so that little distortion will be caused by the welding and therefor less finishing. Many panels that were originally hand made were designed in this way it is often easier to make panels that were originally made by hand. David
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Metalshaping DVD. www.metalshapingzone.com Metalshaping with hand tools on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGElSHzm0q8 All things are possible. |
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David,
Many of the miller shells are steel. There is not a whole lot of material involved. On most of the Miller cars the shell supported the hood. A Kurtiss midget had ally shell with a steel tube hoop inside for mounting and support. Harry Miller and Leo Goosen were very clever in there use and application of materials. I am not sure but would imagine the integral tank shells were of brass, at least the header tank. The close up of the front drive car shows a radiator top tank shell. It then has just a "wrapper" below the tank. As you mentioned about design and welding. This is a good example. The peak is a quite strong area after welding and the flange making up the peak allows for some movement without distorting the rest of the metalwork. There is not a lot of shaping to do with this approach. The grille retainer was sheet steel often also, formed in a channel shape, then bolted to the shell, sandwiching a mesh or tiny bar grill. Some of the Millers had a cast ally retainer and grille bar cast as one piece. Interesting cars. A very high degree of metalwork everywhere. And, the cars were very competitive. Lots of Miller stuff at this link: http://www.milleroffy.com/Racing%20History.htm
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Richard K |
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What is interesting for me is the comparison between this shell which was hand made and designed to be made by hand (see my post above) and the shells I make which were originally made by pressing. When I make the SS100 shells I have hours of hand finishing whereas a shell like this was designed to be made very simply with the least amount of hand finishing. (Time is money).
David
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Metalshaping DVD. www.metalshapingzone.com Metalshaping with hand tools on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGElSHzm0q8 All things are possible. |
#7
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I got one of my shells done upto the peak.. I post in another thread..
But I wonder if I try the pattern that you have 'what will I get?'.. I mean will it go faster Come out better with a peak?? I'm going to have to try
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Ron Lile Captain of an unknown, landlocked pirate ship |
#8
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Richard, I'd like to see a better copy of the Cad drawing as you suggested. I can't read the detail when I Zoom in.
Thanks much for posting this.
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Tom |
#9
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grille dimensions
Richard I cant pull any dimensions off the drawing. Can we get a better view please?
Andy(guesswork) |
#10
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Cad Drawings
Sorry for the delay on getting the drawings up. I re dimensioned them and loaded copies to an album. Hope that works better. I loaded a GIF, a BMP and a couple of JPGs.
If there is a better way to do this. I am open for any suggestion that works. Link to Album http://allmetalshaping.com/picture.p...pictureid=6976 Actually link results in another small drawing. The Album is titled Richard K's Cad Drawings. If you go there and open the file it is larger. Beyond me whats up. Any admin help. please?
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Richard K |
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