Folks Of Interest Wheels Vintique is Now Made In China

Just a bit of observation here.
The last American made television set was Zenith and that was decades ago.
All of the good cameras and stereo equipment, and electronics, at least in my house hold, came from Japan and Germany, how ever one set of my speakers are a set of "Klipsch" that were made in Hope Arkansas!

 

No nubs for poverty caps. Deal breaker for me.

 

Sad to know some of the very equipment used in U.S. factories is now being utilized in China.

 

My 2 cents worth:
I bought two Smoothie chrome wheels from Summit for the back of my Corvair because they were the only four-lug 4.5" bolt centered I could find 8" wide. the centers were so poorly stamped (warped) that tightening the lugs galled badly. They are U.S. Wheel brand. Ha! I had to put antiseize on the threads and cone surfaces. They are stamped 'China' as the above poster showed. Maybe the company should change their name.
Bob

 

Contact U S Wheel Corporation in Huntington Beach or at least look up their website. I can’t tell you where the rims or centers come from but they are welded here. I’ve been there and seen them doing it. Unfortunately they can’t or won’t sell on the premises. On their website I found what I needed and bought them from Summit. One of the centers available is for stock hub caps and they fit perfect. I bought mine raw and did my own painting.

 

Myself included. I hope there isn’t a balance issue with the ones I got.

 

CA is not a place to do business - our $4.50 a gallon gas should make that obvious. This state has so many regulations and BS that you spend 1/2 your time following their rules and filing paperwork. Even In-N-Out has moved their HQ out of CA. Coker has been selling ChiCom tires for years. If you don't like seeing CHINA on your parts get out your sandpaper or filler and hide it before final paint. Yes .gov is the problem - they listened to the greenines who started the war against "dirty" manufacturing that made companies go off shore to get things made. Common sense on "global warming" and the tariff thing is reducing the incentive to manufacture offshore.

 

There’s an old adage that: “Price, Quality, Delivery pick any two because you can’t have all three” that is pretty accurate when you think about it. As a Sales Engineer I competed against China for years. If an existing customer or potential customer was interested strictly on price I simply could not compete. China can and does produce some very high quality products but it affects the price. If a customer is dependent on delivery China is not the best option because most products are delivered in containers on ships. Shipping can take three to six months by container ship, frequently there are rerouted ships plus the time in port going through customs.

I had customers move manufacturing to China and were very happy, others moved only to be disappointed and move manufacturing back to the states. In the beginning China made a lot of **** and for a lot of products it didn’t matter because it was cheap so companies made a lot of money. A lot of people here have said if it’s from China it’s junk. Not true, it’s the companies buying from China that control quality. If they want high quality they can have it but it will be at a higher cost and ultimately less profit. Many companies consider price first then make the decision about good or good enough quality.

What some of my customers learned is that China doesn’t adhere to confidentiality agreements, non compete agreements, patents, etc. There’s a very good chance (almost certainly) that products made in China will show up in the world market as counterfeit’s under different company names. Just do an internet search for a car part and find the part with the exact same picture under different companies.

As someone else said Made in The USA no longer has the meaning it once did. It is a world economy it’s not just China. India, Viet Nam, Indonesia and some third world countries all want a piece of the manufacturing pie.

 

Dead on in my mind!
First, we should be careful here of the " political tightrope" path this thread has taken.
I will say and I bet Gimpy would agree, though he didn't say it, the current state of affairs as to mfg has a lot to do with the "Walmart shoppers" mindset that the average Joe sector of our Western culture has bought into, that is looking for the lowest price for products in lieu of quality, sure, it doesn't make sense to pay Snap On prices for all consumer goods.
A friend of mine bought a set of American five spokes when they first started making them overseas, he was a little upset when he read the "made in.............." on the backside, then he looked them over and said they looked perfect, said they balanced easily too.

 

standfield's Canada

 

These are the “stock replacement“ from US Wheels. The outers have the safety bead ridge which my 1956’s did not. They sell 15” starting at 4” wide and stock for me were 5” but I wanted 6”. Base coat painted before and after Max 2 Clearcoat in a spray can. Pin stripe in the other photo. Notice these are NOT multi-fit centers. Shop carefully and call manufacturers if you can. Gary at US Wheels was very helpful.

 

Guess we'll all be going Cammando!

 

Unless Irvine has transported itself out of state, In-n-Out is still headquartered in California. And please get off the Greenie train. Manufacturing leaving the US is a multi-factorial situation including material supplies, labor costs, worker availability and management. Given the at***udes expressed by many American workers, and quality decisions made by ownership, you just can't make blanket decisions like "All American=good All Chinese=bad:" Let's get back to cars.

 

Will they clear gm discs?

 

Careful everybody. I got banned from Garage Journal for this kinda talk.

 

Baldwin Park.

 

They don’t show those on the website. I’m not shopping just curious as when I bought the ones from Coker/Vintiques I didn’t see those advertised

 

Just moved HQ to Tennessee.

 

Thanks, I was looking for a polite way of saying that without disturbing the tree-huggers and bunny lovers.

 

Honestly, it's been so long I cant remember. I ordered them from Summit first and then after a year I cancelled that order and re-ordered through Coker/Wheel Vintiques, because they told me they were on the way.