New "Traditional" wheels from Rocket

Maybe we should start a new thread, something like "Real Raders" or something?

 

Rocket web site
http://www.rocketracingwheels.com/products/hot-rod-classic-muscle-car-wheels/

Nice wheels.

Jim

 

look great on the right car but............Im stickin with cragar S/Ss,Thanks for the heads up

 

I agree. I think they would look good on a 50's-60's car with thin whitewalls. I would consider getting them for my Acadian.

 

I think the cast versions look better that Rocket offers. The Strikes they don't offer a skinny front but the Injector they do. I had bought a set of the Rocket Fuel with the grey center and ran them on my 56 Chevy and really liked them. They are very nice qaulity and very affordable!

 

There is some scattered info on the Hamb. I tried looking up to find out exactly when Charles? Rader made the first one. Supposed to be very early 60s. Then Mickey got envolved with him somehere in mid 60s and was selling 50 sets per day (or maybe per week). Gone by 1969?

I can't find out how or if the original early ones were marked.

I can't find out anything on the RADAR brand.

Some say Sears and maybe Penny sold them, but a pic on a hotrod parts store in Japan shows the Sears wheel to be flat spoke, no ribs. I wish I could find that site again; they own many NOS display wheels of all brands and styles and have some info on most of them.

 

Mag wheels always just seem like race car wheels. Seen a lot of customs with them that I was replacing in my mind with steelie, chrome smoothies etc, but I don't know Jack, and the dude lives next door. ~sololobo~

 

Amen Brutha...

 

I seen those at the SEMA booth. If you like the ET III fueler wheels these new Rocket Injector wheels are real close at about 1/2 the price. I asked about a 15x10 and they are going to make them so no more hunting the BFG 345/16 tires.

 

I gotta agree that they look a lot like the old Mehelich (sp?) wheels. Not bad, but not quite right.
Larry T

 

I really the Strike wheel. To bad they arent going to have a 15 x 4 or 15 x 5 skinny front wheel

 

My Bad... 10 spokes!!!

 

Im guessing they also wont have them in a 5 x 5.5 bolt pattern ?

 

Man, even it it was 50 sets a week, where the hell are they now? Must have been alot of them scrapped, but still, thats a hell of a lot of wheels.

 

I think this is the site you are referring to:

http://www.kustomwheel.com/vintagem...gemagsiipage303284.html?refresh=1235913861262

 

That's it.. Thanks a lot for finding it,


Looks like Christmas to me...seeing at all those wheels from when I was young and broke.


EDIT, There is a website that has an old magazine article about a rod magazine interview with the Rader Founder. I think that's where I saw some info about Mickey and how many he sold. But no info on what year Rader sold his first ribbed wheels.

 

Yeah, I droll over those wheels on that site at least once a month! Wheel porn....

 

That would be nice!!

 

Yes, I have been there before too, but lost the link. Thanks! The Foresight Ventures "Drag Mags" were also very popular around here in the mid-late sixties on street cars, but have since pretty much disappeared. I saw a set at a show and shine a couple years ago, it was like a surprise meeting with a friend you hadnt seen for 30 years.

 

These Foresight Drag-Mags came from the local scrap metal place for $10 for a pair.

The only reason they did not recycle them is because they had tires...


I also have two M/T raders that a local hamber got at his favorite scrapyard.

 

Cool. Back in the day, we didnt really like these wheels, but time heals alot. Back in the day, the "Cool" thing to do with these seemed to be to paint the drums chevy orange and it would show through the slots. Kinda the sixties equivalent of running torque-thrust D's with wide whites nowadays... Did I say that??!!

 

I also remember these wheels usually having a black crackle painted center with polished ribs when they were new. I could really see a set of these on the front of a '66-'67 chevelle wrapped in redlines with chrome reverses on the back.

 

Wanna double your money?

 

I was gonna make a similar offer, but it sounds like a deal is pending...

 

I cant count the number of questions I get about these wheels. No one has yet known what they are called or who made them. These have been polished and I removed the black paint from the webs. They made them in 14x6 and 15x7. The 7s wont fit hardly anything. I had a set of NOS 15x7s and they had too much offset to fit the rear of my Olds. There is also a cheaper version of this wheel that wasnt made by Foresight Venture. They are easily I.D.ed by the valve stem, its not in the spoke area its out on the flat polished area.

 

anybody ever find the ARE wheels that are supposed to look like Fenton Hawks yet???

 

DAMN! THATS what I'm talkin about!

 

The top one looks like a Hopster...

 

What He Said......

 

I fucked up, it's actually Cragar that makes them, here's a link to their website, apparently you can also get them fully polished or fully chromed, but I like the grey centers best.

http://www.cragar.com/ProductView.aspx?id=1237&bq=?c=15

Hopefully that link works.

A local shop had a Cragar display set up with these wheels on it, they look great in person, the only tipoff to the fact that they're new is that they're flawless, and maybe the center cap.

Here's a pic of OG Hawks on my '57 to compare. Mine have the centers blacked out except for the ribs, if I bought some of those Cragar ones I'd do the same thing.