
Kim Gruber is one of those fortunate people who have managed to build a passion for cars into a successful career in Detroit’s automotive styling and engineering world. His weekdays are spent on 3D scanning contracts and 5-axis milling work with major automotive companies. But his weekends are filled with unique antique cars and trucks: scanning and Class-A surfacing for archive, parts restoration, CFD analysis or maybe just for fun.
After more than 20 years in the automotive industry since graduating from Louisiana State University, Kim, with his company Millit5 based in Milford, Michigan, simply loves cars and loves showing gearheads the advanced technology he uses for classic car restorations. Millit5’s services include 3-D scanning, inspection, 3D printing, ICEM automotive Class-A surfacing, CFD flow analysis, 5-axis milling, and training. The Millit5 Digital Garage approach uses only the best tools and quickest software. Kim’s toolbox includes Geomagic Studio® and Geomagic® Design X™ from 3D Systems, ICEM Surf and ICEM DDN, Creaform MAXscan, and scanning and photogrammetry from Creaform on every automotive project.
Reverse engineering, 3D scanning, 3D printing and milling are technologies that make perfect car restorations possible. Every Sunday during the summer, Millit5’s Digital Garage also puts up a booth at local car shows to help people understand more about the technology. Each winner at these car shows gets 3D scan and 3D print of his winning car, compliments of Kim and Millit5.
One day in 2013, while visiting friends, Kim was discussing his recent Saleen S7 super car Digital Garage project. After scanning the super car inside and out, he used the scan data to generate a Class-A surface and 3D printed it as a 20-inch super car model. Next, he generated CFD flow analysis for both the interior and exterior of the car, and then created a 5-axis, 40% scale model for acoustic analysis wind tunnel testing.