Technical Traditional Wheels, Part 3 (alloys):

EDIT: If you've enjoyed this thread, check out
parts 1 (steelies) @ http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=629421
and 2 (wires) @ http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=629929.

Okay, here's part 3.

Alloy wheels appeared on road cars about the time that I started paying attention to sports cars and road racing, and turned away from hot rods and customs. The '60s, home to a lot of older HAMBers, are not my field of expertise. I have never owned an American car with aftermarket alloys. So, today's lesson will be a lot less fact and a lot more opinion.

For our purposes, alloy wheel history starts with Halibrand at Indianapolis in the '50s, and continues with genuine magnesium wheels used in road racing and at the drags. These were attractive to hot rod guys, and were used on the occasional bucks-up hot rod:





Aluminum versions of these designs became available, and were copied in simplified form by the Ansen Sprints and a zillion others:



The Halibrand designs and similar copies are still popular with street rodders; the Ansen "window mags" not so much.

I think I saw my first set of American Torq Thrusts in 1961, and thought that they were peculiar looking. Why were the spokes flared outward toward the rim? It took awhile for them to grow on me, but they did. I still think that their original design, as cast with machined rims, is as good as 5-spokes ever got. IMO they don't need to be polished, and none of the later variants compare with the original TT's:





Hundreds -- probably thousands -- of knockoffs of the original TT's have been made and sold in the 50-odd years since the originals were introduced. Of these, I kinda like the 200s or Daisies (preferably polished), although I seem to be in the minority:



...and I can tolerate Cragars on somebody else's car, although I can't think of a car on which I'd run them myself:



The number of 5-spoke wheels I wouldn't take to a dogfight are countless:

Astro Supremes
Radirs (why didn't they just keep spelling it Rader?)
Keystones
Hursts
...plus all of the Americans with fat spokes, flat spokes, and other corruptions of the honest original design.

Although they seem to have passed our of favor now, I thought Centerlines were pretty cool in their original form. They have a similar stark aesthetic to Moon wheel discs:



There are several wheels that have been used on road racing and European sports cars that spin my propeller, but none of them are likely to end up on a hot rod or custom:







That about covers my opinions (together with a little history) on alloys. There are no really modern wheels that fit this board, or my personal preferences, so I'll leave them out of this discussion.

Oh, except for these:


Concreteman photo

 

BTT

EDIT: If you've enjoyed this thread, check out
parts 1 (steelies) @ http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=629421
and 2 (wires) @ http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=629929.

 

One of my favorite Hot Rod wheels are the no window Halibrand.




And there was a trailer wheel in 5.5X5 boltpattern that works really well on a Trad Hot Rod.

 

Nice looking mid 50s Ford but the those rims are not my choice on any car.

 

The trailer wheels pictured above; what are they worth? I've had a pair for years and they need to go. What are they worth?????

 

Here are some of my other favorites.

( no need to post a pic of another mesh wheel... )


Minilite.


Revolution.


Ronal.


Campagnolo.


Campagnolo.


FPS


ATS


BWA


Autodelta ( Alfa Romeo )


Lotus Wobbly Web


And some misc other ones...

 

Strong! You led off with my hands down favorite (kidney bean Halibrands) and hit all of them all the way down! (Well, 'cept the no hole Halibrands) even hit the Minilites!!!
Damn well done!

 

Here's my Torq Thrusts om my 64.I like the old 60's look.

 

...... And "click on" pictures...

 

Yep, I like 'em too. Seems like they were the less common sister variety to the kidney beans.

These have already been discussed ad nauseum in the thread on my car and in the steelies thread. They were only in this thread as a joke. I thought they were a good idea, a better one turned up, they are no longer on the car.

You some kinda Yurpeen guy?
You have good taste in wheels (no surprise); I like many of these as well.

Wow, there's a surprise! I expected to be crucified by all the Supremes fans. Thanks!

 

It's your opinion... I like the Supremes, though I have to say you gave to much attention to two wheels that really don't belong on the HAMB, the Daisy's and the Centerlines....

 

Maybe squirt a little red paint on those bad boys Tony, and these guys will let you join them...

 

The straight spoke style 5-spoke Americans and other knock-off wheels look way better than any of the new curved spoke designs. Just as the 5-spokes went out of favor for a while, I think the slots and centerlines will make a comeback - but not on traditional style hot rods. They work on late 60's and up cars and trucks. Centerlines especially as used on the street machine style builds from the 70's-80's which will come back into popularity.

A variant of the 5-spoke that I like and is also being reproduced is the American T70R. I don't have a picture handy, but they are one of my favorites. They are a straight 5-spoke with a lip on the side of the spoke.

 

Good info and pics. Thanks for taking the time to put it all together. I'd rather see these threads and learn a little, or confirm what I know, then see another f-ing frame swap thread. Go Fraud!

 

All three of these threads are great reading.
I have a real downer on Daisy Mags (well, most five spoke wheels really) because so many people over here, the tri- Chevy crowd in particular, like to use them to show off their monster disc brake conversions.
Paul

 

Quote from Tony, "Except for these".

It's takes a man to admit his "mistake" Tony.

Except for one thing...I never had a huge problem with those wheels in the first place (although I do prefer the present caps).

It's sad, though, when a customizer/rodder with your pedigree and good taste is criticized so harshly for merely being original and different. And then you broke more rules with that scoop....the horror of it all (and good for you)!

Thanks for the enlightening and thought provoking threads man.

 

Once again, and for the THIRD time......great thread.
Thanks much for this information....
Cheers..........

 

Check here Ryan
Post 58 I think

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=312153&highlight=halibrand+history

 

Didn't they start making those curved spokes to clear modern disc brakes and give the wheel more backset?

 

The first D-spokes (curved spokes) that I am aware of from American were in the mid sixties, and legend has it they were made to clear the discs that chevy started to use in the corvette race cars. They were the heaviest damn Magnesium wheels I have ever carried! A friend bought a set years ago at Pamona at the farthest possible booth from our truck... Got a work out that day!

 

Another great write-up on wheels. I gotta agree with you on most things, but I do prefer my unpolished Daisys on the '50 Burb.

I remember back in the '80s when Centerlines were the shit. May be inappropriate here, but I always liked them things.

My first custom wheels on my first car were those gold modular wheels that were big in the '80s. They looked great on my gold Duster back around 1985

 

It's funny how these wheels are still called Mags!I'm just old enough to remember almost every tire shop around here having signs someplace refusing to mount tires on "Mag wheels" The first places I remember mounting tires on "Mags" Was the local Bennie's store and Western Auto and that's because they were the only place local we could get them!

 

This scoop looks way nicer than one of those glass teardrops that got stuck on everything around here in the 60s

 

Excuse my ignorance but, when did Centerlines come around? They'd be the business on a mid 60's "racer" type.
And the no hole Halibrands, they're fuckin serious looking.
Never really gave much thought to these wheels.

 

Cragar made some similar wheels in the very late 60s (or maybe 1970?) that were two halves bolted together for drag racing. Centerline came out with their version in the early 70s. They look very similar, but the rim halves are fabricated differently (cold-forged vs. turned) and are held together with rivets instead of bolts. They were also designed to be a street/strip wheel, rather than just a racing wheel.

By the way, excellent posts (all three).

 

Cragar S/S, Cragar G/T, Fenton Hawk, single rib Rader, Astro Supreme, Keystone Kustomag, Mickey Thompson Indy 500, Foresight Ventures Drag Mag, and Hurst wheels are probably all my favorites, not necessarily in that order, but it doesn't seem like many of those style wheels got much love in this thread. I can dig up pics if necessary, or even just take some pics as I think I have examples of almost all of those wheels personally.

I have some of those Daisy wheels and I hate them, it'll be one of the first things that gets swapped off of my '52 Ford. I'm also not a fan of Centerlines at all, too 80's pro-street for my taste. To me, Centerlines and Weld wheels are cousins, if you liked one you liked the other.

 

Any more info on the O/T '67 Plymouth? Thats a BC plate on the back, this car is from around my area and I have never seen it before. And I own a '66, so I am always watching for these. Snarky looking bastard too. If you want to, PM me.

By the way, Im betting you know the original 200S look-a-likes that were on Trans-Am cars in '69-'70 were magnesium? From what I heard, they were prone to cracking though.

 

This seems to clear it up -- the aluminum Hals came after the company was sold. Thanks for the link, Steve; that's a very interesting thread. Nice Halibrand derivatives you put up, too.

True, they're a stretch for the HAMB's defined era.

I mentioned that I thought the Cragars were OK; I don't personally like any of the others. If you'd like to put up pictures, though, go ahead; it will add to the total information content of the thread.

We don't agree here either. I like Centerlines (even though they're OT); I don't like Welds.

No, it just showed up when I searched Google Images for Centerlines.