Carl Miller has been blind for the past 41 years. He, however, vividly remembers restoring cars while he had sight in his left eye, and when he was blind in both eyes. Miller, 83, Warsaw, said he lost sight in his right eye at age 10, but still had eyesight in his left eye. He was born in South Bend and lived in Mishawaka until 1962. He then moved to Illinois in 1962, and moved to Florida in 1985. He lived in Florida until two years ago when his wife, Charlotte, died and he moved to Warsaw with his son, Bill. Miller has been a Claypool Lions Club member for the past year, and said he enjoys telling his stories of restoring cars to the club members. During an interview this week at his Warsaw home, he said he was taken to an optometrist at age 10, and the doctor didn’t know what caused the blindness in his right eye. Miller dropped out of academic school at age 16, and went into vocational training at Central High School, South Bend, to be a mechanic in the middle of World War II. He worked for Gilman and Drover, an Oldsmobile dealer in Mishawaka, as a mechanic from 1943-1944 and part of 1945. Miller said he operated most of his life with seeing out of his left eye. By 1970 at 41 years old, he was totally blind, and was no longer able to drive in 1969. Miller was diagnosed at age 42 with Harata disease, a disease where there is deterioration of the central optic nerve when images are not transmitted from the eye to the brain. He was in college when he was diagnosed with the disease that required him to read with a magnifying glass. Miller currently uses a walking cane, and has a caregiver who fixes his lunch and dinner five days a week. “I don’t have a seeing eye dog because I am too lazy to take care of one, and when I meet a woman I just assume she looks like Marilyn Monroe,” Miller joked. When asked if there are things he still wishes he could see, he said people. He restored two cars by himself when he only had sight in his left eye, and after he lost his total eyesight he restored 11 cars. When he didn’t have his total eyesight he had paint and upholstery work done professionally. Miller has replica models of the cars he has restored over the years in a glass display case in his kitchen. The first car he restored with limited eyesight was a 1924 Model T Ford he restored in 1952. He received a trophy for the restored vehicle from Pioneer Automobile Association, South Bend. “I took apart the vehicle right down to the frame, and I painted it and did the upholstery work myself when I still had sight in my left eye,” Miller said. He rebuilt the engine and overhauled the transmission on the Model T. The second car he restored with sight in his left eye only was a 1929 Model A. He purchased the vehicle at age 22 from a boy in Shipshewana, when he was living in Mishawaka. Miller restored it in 1952 when he was the charter member of the Pioneer Automobile Association. After he lost all his eyesight in 1970, he couldn’t paint or do upholstery work any longer on the vehicles he restored. The first vehicle he restored after he lost his total eyesight was a 1930 American Austin Roadster he restored in 1970. “It was a slow process to restore the vehicle without my eyesight because I had to learn new techniques,” Miller said. He did all the engine and transmission work himself, but because he couldn’t see, he had the vehicle professionally reupholstered and painted. He said when he lost his eyesight in 1970, he became a member of the National Federation of The Blind. “They encouraged me to do anything I wanted to do so I continued to restore cars,” Miller said. He said all of the cars he restored after he was totally blind were made prior to 1970 so he knew what the car looked like and he used his fingers to restore the cars. He did all the mechanical work on the vehicles himself. The only vehicle he had help with was the 1926 Chevrolet firetruck. A friend helped him restore the vehicle. The 11 vehicles he restored after totally losing his eyesight included a 1930 American Austin Roadster in 1970, a 1940 LaSalle five passenger coupe restored in 1972; a 1926 Chevrolet fire truck restored in 1973; a 1950 Ford Convertible restored in 1974; a 1939 Bantam Coupe he restored in 1977; a 1939 Bantam pickup he restored in 1978; a 1957 Nash Metropolitan Coupe he restored in 1980; a 1960 Nash Metropolitan Convertible he restored in 1986; a 1953 MG TD Roadster he restored in 1990; a 1941 Bantam Reconnaissance Car he restored in 1990; and a 1963 Cushman Motor Scooter he restored in 1994. He said his favorite car he restored was the 1941 Bantam Reconnaissance Car. It took him five years to restore the vehicle that is currently displayed in a car museum in Pennsylvania. He had to get car body parts from 12 states and Australia because there was not an engine or transmission for the car and seats and a bumper. He purchased the car from a man in Minnesota. He said the body needed to be welded, and he could not weld or paint when he was blind. He took the car down to the frame and rebuilt the transmission. He has since sold all of the vehicles he restored, but has the replicas and photos of the cars he restored in photo albums. “When I lost my eyesight I had six cars at one time so I started selling them off. then I stayed at one to two cars,” Miller said. He said if he could still see to restore vehicles he would like to restore another Model A. “I then lay down and rest awhile and that thought goes away,” Miller joked. He is a member of the American Austin Bantam Car Club and plans on attending their meeting in Ohio in July. He also is still a member of the Pioneer Auto Association.
