History Miller Race Car Chassie Pictures/Info?

How about an Offy, they are based off the Miller mill!

 

Makes perfect sense now.

 

Yes he did make all the parts for a Miller 91, I have pictures of it finished, keep in mind Chuck almost singlehandedly revived the Miller thing. When this car was built there were the two Packard Cable cars and one more or less assembled car at the Speedway Museum. Now there are about 20 "survivors" with almost everyone using Chuck Davis parts along with an original engine, a trans or parts of a chassis. I even know of one car being created from a AAA tag thats it. I am not kidding. The Motors in the backround are Miller 4s a 183 and a 220 just prior to OFFY. The 4 cylinder part of this history is very muddy as people were picking up the scraps right and left after the demise of Rellimah, H A Miller spelled backwards.

 

After googling on Chuck Davis and Miller I located these links from RM auctions. Two Millers from the Chuck Davis collection are to be auctioned this month. The catalog description of the Lockhart 91 gives some detail on Chuck Davis and his work.

http://www.rmauctions.com/CarDetails.cfm?SaleCode=MO09&CarID=r206

http://www.rmauctions.com/CarDetails.cfm?SaleCode=MO09&CarID=r207

Excellent photos at these sites, too.

 

John

Thanks for those links - good history there!

 

Been working on the "Poor Man's Miller" lately. Started with a 29 Chevy frame which I narrowed 19", and shortened a total of 13" in two different locations. The frame lends itself nicely since it has similar lines to a Miller. The 19" wire wheels, spindles, front and rear brakes, and rear axle come from a 29 Hupmobile. They came from the factory with hydraulic brakes - should make this little girl stop on a dime.

Got her rolling this week, and mocked up the V8 60 Flathead just today. Lots of work to do but we're on our way. Time to tear it down and send her the frame off to the blaster, and tear down the 60hp.

I tried to follow/scale a few different Millers from multiple books. I really like the Boyle Special and am heading that direction. 100" wheel base, body 22" wide and 140' in length. Not a perfect true reproduction, but it will be a close as I can muster.

Any comments or suggestions - please pass them along.

 

Looks like you are on your way, The wheels are very classy. Have you considered widening frame for a two man car, then it could be used on the street and track. A few cuts here and there and you have it made. I can send you a copy of an original Miller two man frame Drawing if you pay copy charge and postage. PM me. This goes for anyone interested.

 

This is excellent. Wonderful work! A Hupmobile, I mean -- a Hupmobile! The stuff you can find in Michigan is amazing. I found a link to a Hupmobile restoration here:

http://forums.aaca.org/f190/1929-hupmobile-project-246532.html

and a "before" picture of the Hupmobile chassis.

 

Went to Zakiras in Cincy yesterday, they have the ORIGINAL bucks or forms or whatever you want to call them that EVERY miller frame rail was pounded out on!!!
also all the original patterns for EVERY casting ever made at Miller!! not to menion the cars, engines etc etc they have there what a day!

 

racer5c, sounds great, do you have any pics???

 

here are the frame forms or bucks

 

here are the rest of the pics

http://s409.photobucket.com/albums/pp171/racer5c/

 

Wow, looks like heaven, there's some serious history there- thanks for the pics

 

Many thanks for posting these. A great help, especially the detailed white chassis rear drive photos.

A propos, yesterday on Speed TV I came across an award ceremony for this astonishing free form hot rod created by Dan Webb, inspired by the the Golden Submarine. On TV, the nitwit announcer thought he was talking about the works of one "Larry Miller," but I googled the sub and found this account of it. It really is inspired, very fine work:

http://jalopnik.com/photogallery/Goldensub09/

 

I have a question-

I have a '28 Chevrolet chassis and am seriously thinking about making the frame rails parallel (like Levis Classic did). Bruoght the idea up to a friend who suggested not to because doing that would put some side to side wobble in the suspension.

Any comments or suggestions on this?

Also, Levis, do you have a picture of your rear spring's front hanger that you could post?

Thanks, Bill

 

I agree, Chuck Davis did get MILLER restorations going. I don't know how much of the 91 he had to start with, he did tell me he kicked himself for trashing a REAL rough chassis early on. He must have had quite a list of old race car collectors and called everyone to see what MILLER parts were out there. I had four 122 connecting rods and a bronze 91 Blower drive, that I told him I might part with. Two years went by and Chuck called and askwed to buy the connecting rods. He had found a pair of camshafts a crank and a crankcase that was cut in half to make a 4 culinder Midget engine. I felt good letting my "Wall Hangers" go, sure would like to hear that 122 MILLER running. Chuck was a great guy, and I miss seeing him at Hershey every year.

 

Bump for the question I asked a week ago...

 

Look forward to running with you next season JK.

 

Levis any more progress? Looks really good....

 

I didn't want to go through to see if anybody already posted this http://www.milleroffy.com/Photo & Sound Gallery.htm

 

Working from Miller's patent drawings, I started a Rhino3D sketch of the FD transaxle. I would like to make a model of the Miller 91, and in models I have seen the front end housing never seems to look quite right. My thought is to recreate the transaxle from the inside out, so I can learn what machinery the housing is supposed to mount, contain and cover. This should tell us something about how the housing was shaped.

The transmission is built into a compartment on the left side of the big ring gear in the first view. Two ball bearings for the countershaft are shown in the sketch. The differential, not yet drawn, is on the right side of the ring gear.

One thing I notice is that the housing is not really symmetrical. The transmission side has a bulge to accomodate the transmission reversing gear. You can see this single gear hovering over the countershaft -- the highest element of the transmission.

 

Boy-o-boy, thats some nice work right there!
I would love to have a dwg of the miller radiator surround - is one of them in that batch of patent drawings? or is it just the mechanicals, thanks oj - i want to make a sheetmetal buck for the surround.

 

Hey thought I would let you know I just happen to have the drawings for a 91 Miller, most of them anyway, and these are the real deal .Chris

 

Hello oj and Chris,

oj, in the FWD 91, the radiator is mounted to the transaxle housing, and there is a molded lip on the housing that meets bottom edge of the grill and surround. These lines and structures are not in the patent drawings. I will come to the radiator pretty soon, though, and will post what I can. What are you building?

Chris are these drawings for a front wheel drive Miller? Sounds very interesting. Have you by any chance done wheels for a Miller?

John

 

I am building a modified but with a hemi. I just want to see if i can make the surround, it may or maynot get used on my car. I think the proportions are just beautiful and at the very least make one and have it hanging as shop art.
Thanks oj

 

Sounds like a great idea. There was a dragster in the early fifties by Art Chrisman fitted with a championship car grill, I think it was a Miller. Looked elegant.

http://www.nhra.net/museum/features/images/art_chrisman_no_25_dragster.jpg

When I come to the radiator I will post what I can.

John

 

Anyone else need ANY Miller info, Contact me. I work at the FOrmost MILLER restoration shop in the world. We have the Majority of ALL the original drawings, blueprints, and Wooden Pattern bucks here on site. I can shoot pictures of any of it for ya.

We not only restore Original Millers constantly, but can build complete Miller engines, and components from scratch to Exact MILLER specifications.

Joshua Shaw
ZAKIRA'S GARAGE
Cincinnati, Ohio

 

Josh,

Would you all happen to have the earlier Miller (and or Duesenberg Indy) supercharger blueprints?

Thanks, Bill

 

Back in the day, Dad (Joe Gertler Sr. ) & I filled our days with these. Sure wish I had not thrown out the patterns for them, especially the Miller. I remember the challenge of making the radiator shell and grill. It had to be smooth enough to have a flawless finish when plated. But the center grille had all those MANY rods in two pieces each, across. and compound curved. I had to wrestle with keeping these curved rods level. They curved around from the side toward the center, then curved the Opposite way, (back toward the front)just before the center. Then keeping this spacing equal, with so many of them. As one magazine writer said, in an article, "The air around the shop was filled with the blue smoke of profanity."

 

Thanks for the photos Joe. I remember seeing the finished plates shells, and always ment to ask how they were made and finishes. There is a thread here on the HAMB "Working with Brass" that shows Jaguar grill shells being made fron flat brass sheet. It is a God given gift to be able to make things like this.