Hot Rods Vintique wheel quality??

I've read some mixed reviews about Vintique wheels, mostly bad. Does anyone on here have an opinion or experience with their wheels? I'm looking at chrome reverse. Thanks in advance, Rod

 

I've got the reverse smoothies with the outer rim chromed and the inner (center) painted body color.

 

I have 3 sets. One set is 14X5 on the front, and 15X7 on the rear. Chrome smoothies. Been on my daily driver here in shitty Missouri for close to 10 years. The chrome is still perfect. I have another set of chrome smoothies in 15X5, and 15X8 on a car that doesn't get driven much. They're nice too. I just bought a set of 4 gray smoothies this week in 15X10 for my truck, 6X5.5 lug pattern, and they are nice! If they had been black and not gray, I wouldn't have painted them, they're that nice. I will add that I mount my own tires by hand, and none of them are balanced. The 15X10 wheels have 35X12.5X15 tires that I mounted by hand, and I didn't balance them. The truck drives great at 70MPH with no shake or shimmy. I had my daily driver V8 S10 well over 100MPH, I calculated the speed to be 140MPH, but I don't think it was that fast! The wipers did lift off the windshield though. I had no shake or shimmy at whatever speed I was going. I highly recommend them. I bought my last set through Summit Racing, had them in 3 days, no tax, no shipping. I did buy tires through Summit at the same time so I think I got a break on the shipping.

 

http://jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/vintique-wheels.443286/

 

the one on my 55 chevy are still nice

 

I ordered 4- 15 X 6 64 series with a 2 3/4" backspace on the ninth of jan. through summit...drop shipped straight from WV. They sent me an E-Mail a couple of days ago that said the new ship date is early march!

Does anybody know if this delivery time sounds normal for a set of chrome rims with a custom backspace from these guys?

Anyway...I'll comment on the quality if and when I get em.

 

I've used them and seem fine. I bought from Stockton Wheel years ago and they were great but have changed hands since then. The last time I called I wasn't impressed. Bought some chargers from summit and they were good.

 

I have 2 sets of the primer smoothies, one set of 17 inch that I ordered from Vintiques and got them in 4 days, and the last set of 15 inch I ordered from Summit and got them in 2 days. The wheels are great.

 

I've had the primered sets on a couple trucks, they've held up great and I abuse my stuff

 

Well they pass DOT and that says a little something about them.

Anything new that you buy chrome plated is a crap shoot, most of the newer chrome stuff has to be treated with kid gloves. I think that unless they were really marred when you got them that religious waxing would keep them up well enough.

 

Hey guys, thanks for all the input on Vintique wheels. I'll be ordering a set pretty soon. Thanks again, Rod

 

A WORD TO THE WISE - check the run-out on new steel wheels as soon as you get them because you can't return them if they've been painted, powder coated or had tires mounted.

I bought a pair of Vintiques 16's and had them powder coated before mounting. The wheels bounced from day one and after balancing several times, I discovered the wheels weren't round.

I took them to a local steel wheel guru (Wheeler Dealer, Holtwood PA) and he bolted the bare rims to a jig and checked the run-out with a straightedge. The tire mounting surface on the worst of the two had a high spot that was almost 3/16" higher(!) than the same surface just 4" away, no freaking wonder they bounced. And the other one wasn't much better.

He closed his eyes and rolled the wheels back and forth, feeling the high spots and deciding exactly where and how hard to hit them. After a few well placed hits with a BFH, he said they were as good as he could get them - but still bad. He hit them hard but the powder coating wasn't damaged. He's been doing steelies for decades and said these were the worst new ones he ever saw. He wouldn't even take any money for working on them because he wasn't sure he corrected the problem.

After mounting. balancing and driving, the bounce was tolerable, but just barely, and if the tires wear out prematurely, as I expect they will, I'll replace the damn wheels. Since he beat them into useable condition, I went back and tried to pay him but he still wouldn't accept any money.

 

Take my word for it, that's some excellent advice^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

I bought some chrome rally's from them a few years ago the chrome flaked off in about a year.. They said they had plating problems but didn't offer to replace them so they will never get my business again!