New "Halibrand" Wheels & Quality

Last summer new "Halibrand" wheels started showing up on eBay along with apparently exact copies without the Halibrand markings. HAMB sleuths seemed to agree that the Halibrands were being made in China for Halibrand in Kansas, and that the copies were probably coming from the owner of the factory in China that was making the wheels for Halibrand, who decided to market the unbranded version of the wheels on his own, or through a US agent.

Now I agree with Dave at Roadsters.com that it is kind of sad that these import wheels have the imprint of the firm Ted Halibrand started that sold only top quality US made, high performance parts and wheels.

My question is this: Did any of you buy any of these wheels from Halibrand or the other guy, and what did you think of the quality when you got them? As some of you may know Eric Vaughn sold the rights to make his "Real Wheels" and they are back in production with 16" versions in Magnesium (that will mount narrow tires) to be coming out in the future. The aluminum Real Wheels now available, look great, and Eric Vaughn will widen or narrow them at his shop (see roadsters.com for more info).

Oh, and by the way, Halibrand registered with ebay's VERO copryight ownership deal, so if you list an item on ebay with a ***le like: Rare Hot Rod Steering Wheel Halibrand Stromberg", and Halibrand did not make it, Halibrand WILL contact ebay and get your auction pulled, So, if it's not a REAL Halibrand product, do not use the word Halibrand in the ***le.

 

I'm a former native of Wellington where Halibrand headquarters is located... and as far as the feedback I heard about the "new" wheels...it was mostly all negative. The quality has severly been cut...and the waiting time to get a set is upwards of a year. Basically Halibrand will never be the same and might as well go ahead and quit and leave behind the name. Most companies are generating exact copies of the wheels anyway. Its really sad to see it die though...

 

The new wheels are manufactured by china wheel corp. They are Halibrands in name only. Halibrands were over priced and the old company was impossible to deal with , but the wheels were quality and the heritage was there. The should have changed the name of the company to Von Dutch wheels, because they are doing the same thing the the history of these wheels that the 2 goobers are doing to Von Dutch's legacy.
Shane T.

 

I have bought some of the "Chineese" Halibrands as we like to call them, but I didint' think these were exact copys. They are a match to the Mechlic(sp) wheels and have a much larger window.

But for 95 bucks compared to 300+ each I think they look great. And the finish and polish on the ones I have gotten have been awesome.

 

Friend of mine in a local shop got some a while back for a customer....customer was happy. They looked fine, polish outside was ok, polish inside was not as nice...they were pricey and when stood up against an original one I got the feel that the aluminum was of lesser grade.
The Vaughn wheels are very nice. My comments here are strickly opinion, not speaking for anyone.

 

Same company does the mehalic cruiser copies in chrome, but the Halibrands have the name cast in them.

 

I bought a set of the fakes off ebay early last summer and not had a bit of trouble ouf them ive got 15x4 and 15x7 . wheel finnish is fine . i use never dull to keep them up. wheels mounted and ablanced fine too. used stick on wheel weights , static style, no wheel weights on the outside . got no problems with mine. and hell year a 350.00 a set im no complaining either.

 

Where are these avalible? And do they look at all like the originals? Any links would be appreciated, Thank`s

 

www.halibrand.com

 

I read up on all this stuff and most of the available information on the web before I got involved with them. It didn't change the fact that LeJuerrne owns the actual Halibrand company, (that's THE REAL THING cousin), with all it's history and art gallery of beautiful molds and tooling.

When I met Ed Roth in '88 he was barely making it, selling t-shirts on the tailgate of a 200 dollar Mazda pick-up. MOON was available cheap for years as well and what did everybody do when the Japanese brought 'em back to life? They *****ED.

Halibrand was belly up for a long time and Richard bought it. Why didn't you?

The business worlds a different place than it was 30 years ago. I'ts compe***ive as hell WORLDWIDE. Halibrand is a small company with a great product. They've been straight by me and I get to take a shot at helping to bring the monster back to life. Pretty cool.

 

What Rudy said. I ordered several sets of the import wheels for pal. They look nothing like a Halibrand even though folks call em that. They do look more like the Mehelic wheels. They quality seems to be good castings. Do a search here on the HAMB, I even posted pictures of them about a year ago.

 

Halibrand was belly up for a long time and Richard bought it. Why didn't you?
When you buy a company, you buy everyhting good and bad that goes with it. That includes the debts. Halibrand has been thru a series of hands for years. While Richard may still own the name( I didn't think he did, but I don't claim to always be right) the molds are elsewhere. This isn't something personal only a discussion about who makes the wheels and where to get them. The company I work for actualy owned the Mehalic molds for about 5 years ( they are now owned by Wheel Vintiques) , so buying Halibrand when they were belly up came up. We were Halibrands largest dealer in the US for several years so the history is not in question. As far as Mooneyes, Von Dutch, Halibrand , etc... I am not saying they don't have cool/good stuff to buy, but they are going the way of everything else: outsourced, overseas, not tied in any way to the Good ole USA other than being sold here. After a while cheap cool parts become just cheap parts. Part of the appeal of Halibrands was having to track them down and knowing that you were not going to see them on every car; can Richard ***ure that kind of individuality now? Again just a friendly discussion on my part.
Shane T.

 

Interesting discussion.

I've only recently developed a wheel fetish.

For some of the reasons stated above, I refuse to polish some of the original magnesium wheels I have. I dont ever want them to be mistaken for "copies".

I also find the economics of the whole "original vs repop" stuff facinating.

 

I have a set of Halibrand Sprints that I bought thru Southern Rods & Parts quite a few years ago. At the time Halibrand was in the process of dealing with a new casting house and their internal ploishing shop was going belly-up, I had some issues with the delayed delivery but the bottom line was, that I ended up with a set of Halibrands, made in the USA, and they made my 40 Ford dance! Now, 15 years after the fact, I called and ordered some new lug nuts and screw in center caps for my front wheels. I decided for the sake of change to take off the "Halibrand" spinner kit for a while. I called, ordered what I wanted and I recieved the items in two day mail, they couldn't have been more customer focused. They even threw in a new Hat for good measure. I'm not in favor of outsourcing but it is what it is, I have worked for the Department of Defense for almost 40 years, our own Federal Government is the master of outsourcing!

 

I won't polish mine either.

 

I bought a set of the 15x4 sprint look alikes. I have no complaints, look good, fast delivery time, no balance problems. They came in a halibrand box with no markings as to where they were made. Sad they can not still make them in the USA.

 

ahhh, from 20 feet does it really matter anyway?

 

no it doesn't matter. from 20 feet they look exactly like a set of mehalics.
dan

 

man.....those are some nice wheels......isn't that rudy's elcamino over in the corner....hahah brandon

 

No, it's not, you **** starter .... or is it?????

 

The wheels that are on the car in the picture that Earl posted above are the Chinese copies of the wheels that were designed and produced by Washington hot rodder and Deuce owner Dave Mehelich. The Mehelich wheels were nice for what they were. Dave and I have talked about his wheels, and it would be right to say that their styling was influenced by the Halibrand Sprint, just as was the case with the Ansen Sprint and the original E-T III. It would be wrong to refer to any of these wheels as Halibrand copies, because they're not.

Dave
http://www.roadsters.com/

 

Dave:
Can you give me an idea of what "style" the 16 inch real magnesium wheels (that the new Real Wheels company will be making), are going to be? Any pre-production sketches available, and any idea when the might go on sale?

 

uh,well,er,ah, hahaha thats too funny

I didn't even think about the "Chinabrands" on the El Camino

 

All good points to be sure and pretty friendly too. My history as a bike builder has taught me a couple things about the custom gig, and one of 'em is *****in' parts (and **** ones) are made all over the world, and have been for a long time. That being said, it does **** that it's nearly impossible to be compe***ive in manufacturing these days (on a large scale) having your parts built here in the U.S. A lot of the stuff that IS made here involves "visiting" labor too. I say chalk it up to all us cushy americans refusing to work for less than 25 an hour.

As for my parts that Halibrand will be making, they'll be custom machined right at the shop in Wellington. I suppose I'll be getting an education in this "captain of industry" stuff over the next couple years but so far it's been great.

I've seen the other companies copies of Halibrands and they're beautiful. I've owned, sold and traded vintage Halibrands and it's like a cult. I also know that there is no shortage of people lining up to try and get the company on track as the hot rodding cornerstone it used to be. I don't care about the gossip ****. Halibrand and it's history are what I'm contributing to, but if it get's freaky I'll just start that Celebrity Fruit and Vegetable franchise they're advertising on cable.

 

bump

 

OTAY
This is what a made in the U.S.A. 15x12 inch aluminum Halibrand Sprint looks like.

 

15x6 inch.

 

Nice wheels DDD. At the end of the day if they don't say Halibrand on them they aren't Halibrands. In the 10 years since this thread started the Wellington based business has more or less went belly up yet again and a number of very nice Sprint wheels have come to p***.

I've bought and sold Hal's for many years but I don't throw stones at the good copies such as Real Rodder and now Rebel Wheels.

But when it's all said and done the old sand cast wheels, warts and all, like yours are the favorites in my collection.

Charlie

 

I still have some Halibrand magnesium 12" midget wheels that I purchased in the 70's, casting magnesium is a huge problem, every foundry that poured it, burned down at least once, also Halibrand was getting castings made in Mexico, I was told by dealer I bought wheels and other Halibrand products from back then. The EPA and insurance companies have killed off the foundry industry in the USA, that's why the foreign compe***ion has taken over the foundry industry. When I was in business/Tool&Die/Pattern Shop, I was approached by several racing vendors in the 80's for pattern work, magnesium castings, machining, etc. I could not find a foundry anywhere that would pour magnesium, PERIOD. Then some foundry men and I gave thought to setup a foundry, illegal, uninsured, and decided the $$$ involved versus risk was not worth it. So....I guess my point is, we should be glad to get what is available AND are the new wheels Magnesium ?, I tend to think not, when I left open wheel racing, early 90's not many magnesium parts that I was aware of, venders, builders were switching to ***anium parts, believe that is still big in open wheel along with carbon fiber, kevlar pieces/parts.

 

I bought about a 10 years old sprint car in the 80's that came with a couple cast magnesium solid disc wheels (no slots) in 16 x 5 or 6 with implement rib tires on them. I think they were Halibrands, but not sure. Never used the wheels, not sure what happened to them, but I'm gathering parts for a modified roadster project now and would like to find a set of them. Is someone making them now? Does anyone know?