Evening star., 1943-02-21
Jeep Designer Frowns
On Aluminium Autos
With Glass Tops
Postwar Machines TO Be
Of Steel, Roos Believes,
Lighter and Cheaper
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press
TOLEDO. Feb. 20-Delmar G
Roos bolls over at mention of post
war automobiles with glass tops
and aluminium bodies.
Mr.. Roos, one of the best-known
automobile engineers. says:
Il like progress, but only real
progress"
He is a vice president Of the
WHY'S s-Overland Co. which credits
him with "fathering" the ieep when
the Army wanted a low-slung dur
able car for tough duty.
AS Mr.. Roos sees it the car Of the
future-at least in those years i'm
mediately after the war-will be a
more economical machine than
those on the market now, but with a
steel body and glass in the usual
places.
Looking back on the number of
innovations that appeared in auto
mobiles before Pearl Harbor, Mr..
Roos says:
The automobile industry at that
time, in my opinion, was heading
for a crack-up. Statesmen, instead
of urging better and cheaper cars.
kept needing the engineers into
sensations"
Studying Synthetic Glass.
Mr.. Roos is not a meek man at
any time on the subject of automo-
biles and he is unusually emphatic
these days, having just finished a
study on the possibilities Of syn
thetic glasses in automobiles.
The postwar car will have to
aim for lower costs, sure enough, !"
he says. And that's where the
problem lies. But these are the
broad principles:
Labor costs will be high, so ma
terials will not be cheap.
The public, facing high taxes,
will have less money to spend on
cars and gasoline.
THE two will have to be brought
together by production of lighter
cars and simplification.
To any suggestion that the weight
OF car motors can be cut in half.
Mr.. Roos says "horsefeathers."
Every time we get lighter en-
gines they get noisy" he says. IF
you put an aluminium motor under
the bonnet of a car you'd have to
find a way to keep it quiet. An
other thing: Aluminium motors
corrode when water containing al
kali is used in them"
Objects to Use.
Here are some of his reasons
against aluminium bodied cars:
The cost of fabricating and de-
signing them would be higher than
with steel.
The greatest saving in weight
would be only one-third even with
aluminium designed to the best pos
sible standards of steel.
Aluminium alloys are better and
the price has come down, but the
same is true with steel so nothing
essential has been changed"
When Mr.. Roos started in the
business in 1911 certain makes of
cars were all-aluminum. the body
being bolted together. The crank
case, transmission and housing for
the axle we're aluminium.
aluminium" he says, was used
back in 1911 for very much the same
reason it is mentioned now. to get
away from weight. The last alum
vr-ifb1 Sln
used in 1926.
IF it had been worth the trouble
1t never would have been thrown
out
There Is an enormous co-efficient
of expansion in aluminum-Such as
In a crankcase-With the gears quiet
perhaps when cold, but screaming
when hot. The remedies cost away
up. Now in aviation, of course, it's
different. In aviation no one cares
whether the bearings rattle.
Absorb Impact Better.
But remember another factor in
the use Of steel in the body and
chassis: 1t has twice the ability to
absorb impact, which is a big safety
item"
Now listen to him on the subject
Of glass tops in automobiles, the
streamlined, curving kind of top:
ut is impractical and impossible
FOR reasons of cost, optics and in
ability to resist becoming Opaque.
The synthetic glasses, so far as au-
tomobileS ar2 concerned, are out in
any form. 1t couldn't be permitted
for reasons Of public safety to use
plastic or synthetic glass tops.
Flat glass costs 88 cents a square
foot. The curved kind is SI.57. Plas-
tic glass, the kind that would be
used in a top, is easily scratched
or corroded."
Mr.. Roos particularly stresses
that there is visual distortion in
plastic glass and that it would grow
worse with wear.