After serveral months of haggling and waiting -- I got my 14 x 6 wheels today. The trim rings and caps are beautiful. Decals and Hurst equipped emblem are nice. The wheels appear to be good reproductions with excellent eye appeal. I would not put them on anything but a car intended for show. The welds ( where the inner wheel joins the rim) are rough and simply chromed over. Of course this is only obvious from the inside of the wheel. I am concerned about balancing but on a show car that is driven lightly - it won't matter. On a car to be driven to the show-- I am not sure. I am satisfied at $2080 for the entire package - but they could do a lot better with just a little more effort on the welds. Plating is good and the caps and trim rings cover any imperfections. It is sort of like a set of false breasts-- they are OK but I sure would like to have a set of the real things. :laugh:
What do you mean welds? What are your wheels made out of?How are the trim rings held on?With the clips or do they get peened over?I remember seeing a picture somwhere of George Hurst standing by a huge press testing wheels of the day.Of course all the "other" wheels had the centers punched out of them and there were his wheels all mangled and bent but intact.Hurst was big into safety.It was a cool add.
Wheels Tje inner hub is welded to the outer wheel. I actually had them rewelded in 2 places before mounting tires today. The trim rings are set in place with a tight fit and recommended that piano wire be used to secure to the spokes of the wheel. They are absolutely beautiful with a set of red line radials on them. They balanced much better than I thought they would. The brochure says pre balanced at time of manufacture. Maybe so. I will post a pix once I get them mounted on car tomorrow.
Are they all steel or all alum? The orig wheels were a alum center riveted to a steel rim.That would be cool if they were all alum.
Hurst equipped It is now with the wheels and shifter. Yes Jim the paper tag you can barely see on the wheel pix is the correct paper tag for the hub. John
Re: Bezels Be careful! I will throw up a pic of a 66 bezel so bright that it will require you to view it with dark sunglasses. In fact , I will trade you one better than new pair of 66 442 bezels for those wheels (plus some cash).
So John---you mentioned "welds chromed over"---are these 14X6 repros chromed alum/steel or polished aluminum. I don't understand about the chrome as I thought the only chrome ones were going to be the non-stock sizes where they couldn't or didn't want to go to the expense of making addtnl trim ring sizes (ie 15", etc wheels). After all this you are still looking for an original set? Thnx Patton Glade
Chromed? Patton " Chromed " was not a good choice of words. The wheels appear to have been coated after welds were made. The spokes were then polished . I have been assured that the welds are sufficient and that they are tested and balanced. Maybe I over reacted. Just don't like to see any cracks in a weld on a wheel. I had the cracks rewelded on the one wheel by a professional boat tower maker in Southport. I would still be a canidate for the real thing but with the repo caps and trim rings you can't really tell the difference. The repo trim rings have tiny holes for the piano wire attachment like the original rings. They are worth the asking price as compared to 5 k + for the real thing. John
Say no to crack If you can see cracks on some, I would question the integrity of the other welds. It's what you can't see that might be dangerous. Do they have a steel insert cast into the spokes which is then welded to the steel rim?
John--Thnx for the info. Good stuff, On the insert (or "foot" as I hear it is called in the wheel industry), the originals did not have a foot---Hurst utilized two procedures to attach the forged alum spider to the steel rim (which, according to the book "Hurst Heritage" was an Olds station wagon rim)-large rivets throught the end of each spider "leg" (which was overlapped by a steel "L" shaped tab-rivets went throught this tab also) and welding of the tab to the rim. I would bet the repros use the cast-in foot. John, can you get me a set of the lugnuts since you have ordered the wheels? Patton
Re: Hurst equipped Dr Olds Are those your legs in the reflection on the bumper pic or are you riding a chicken?
Welds Patton these are aluminum to aluminum hence the welds. The lugnuts are not special . They are just like the ones I buy from Fusick Automotive. They do fit the holes in the wheels as some originals wallowed out opening from some reports. John
That one caught me off guard Jim, I about rattled the books off the shelves laughin:laugh: Nice one:TU:
