This is one of those reasons why I wont even attempt to widen a rim so it can hold a larger tire. WOW>
Damn Goozgaz, I'm glad you are OK man. think it might be because of all the potholes by your house? - Joe
Haha. Gooz isn't giving you guys the whole story. This particular wheel was sketchy for a long time. About 3 years ago we were checking the car out and I noticed that the ends of the spokes weren't flush with the face of the wheel hoop. There shouldn't be a gap at all, but the gaps on this wheel were abnormally large. So big that I took a plastic knife and wedged it in there just to **** with him. There had to have been quite a bit of back and forth play and flexing when the wheel was under load. I think it was just too much for those welds and they finally gave. This wheel was bunk from the beginning. I had never seen one like that. This is the exact same wheel 3 years ago.
in the late 60s early 70s i had 2 cars with supremes on them and never saw anything like this happen. are these offshore made wheels?
Wow, that's rather scary. Sounds like it was dodgy for a while. I'll be sure to pull mine and check the backsides a couple of times a year fer sure!
wow. That's awesome that the OP drove like that for three years without an accident....or ****ing lucky he didn't kill himself and a bus full of nuns.
That's some freaky shiit, I just looked mine over, they are the new style. From what I understand the original design was flawed from the get go. I was told the new version are being make by the folks that make the Cragar wheels, they are reinforced and fully welded prior to plating. Here are a few pic's I just took this morning, you can see the spokes are welded to the rim both front and back.
Can't believe someone's been actually driving on that wheel for 3+ years... we're ALL lucky that it didn't fly apart at freeway speeds.
grits those are nicely reinforced, but those also appear to be the unique brand ones, and they have a less than desireable hub design.. good that ur safe gooz homie... as far as people talking about how you should have removed the wheel earlier.. these guys have to be kidding me.. lots of them ride on out of round old wheels, dry rotted tires, etc.. we all have to be honest, this might have been a fllaw at the start, but it wasnt ran purposefully thinking it would one day break.. it was on for years with LOTS of mileage on it.. gooz is a good guy and would never endanger anyone else, himself, his family, or his friends.. if the wheel was thought to be structuraly unsafe, he would have replaced it.. enough of the bashing.. thank god you are safe man
Hey, Grits What brand are your Supremes? I'm looking for the ones like yours, with the true bolt-circle instead of the wheel lug slots.
Hey Slick that kinda scares me if you are drive that car w/the fam you should let me run them for a while!
I'll be pullin' mine off for a good inspection before I drive the Olds again!!!! Great thread, thanks for all the info.....and glad ya made it home before catastrophy!!!!!
This thread compelled me to take a wheel off of my Comet to see how they compared to the failed wheel. These are US Supremes, bought new about 2.5 years ago. The reinforcement design has been revised, the welding all looks good, and I'm not concerned about this happening to mine. The whole wheel looks to have been chromed after welding. -KK
Holy ****! It's a good thing you weren't doing anything crazy, like steering! Imagine the carnage if you'd been doing a burnout or carving a corner somewhere! That's nuts. Someone suggested you buy a lottery ticket. Someone is watching over you right now, that's for sure!
And you wouldn't right there, would you? They are burned in nearly flush just in from the ends, but if they ran the welds like that to the ends, they would run the risk of warping a visible part of the wheel. -KK
IMHO (not expert) This is just asking for a stress riser and failure -- the weld should have gone "around the corner" and picked up the end as well. I'm not a professional welder, but from all that I've heard and seen, there can be issues with the way that is welded. With that superficial opinion thrown out --> There are many other things that come into play -- fitment, welding procedures, materials, chrome plating and potential embrittlement (sp?), etc.. We can't begin to ****yze a couple pictures and how the whole story -- but there is cause for concern that is for damn sure!
What I see is that the spider legs are too narrow. There might have even been a gap between them and the spokes. The weld only just touches the the edges of the spokes. Also, we can't tell from the picture if the spider legs are even beveled. Also, most of the weld was laid in favor of the legs. If I could include a drawing I would show how it should have been fitted. My final word is that the welder was told to put as little heat as possible on the spokes so they wouldn't be discolored.
Wow - a way to save cost and make it easier to polish and plate . . . makes a cheaper product, but one that can't be anywhere near as strong/safe as one that was fully welded (both sides) and then chromed. This explains why the beads were ran the way they were -- didn't want too much heat and/or distortion to screw up the chrome. The poor guy welding was told to do it this way . . . and would catch **** and probably be fired if he/she welded it the way they would have liked.
The Jalopy Journal
