GREAT find, Ryan! I've been on the lookout for Bell wheels (3, 4 spoke...15" to 17", all are treasures) I've been lucky enough to find some, but not with a history like this! In '58, my buddy Sneaky and I drove down to Bell Auto Parts in Sneaky's '29 roadster pickup. Sneaky bought a new Bell 3 spoke wheel from Roy Richter, it was very reasonable... I wanted one too, but couldn't make up my mind which (for my channeled 'A' Cabriolet) Turlock swap in '77, my former shop partner and my then girlfriend, Carol were with me. We walked over to a trio of graybeards selling some Midget stuff, 12" wheels...fabricated tube axles, then I spied a 15" Bell 3 spoke! I picked it up, asked how much, the tall gent says, "10 bucks?" Nearly tore my pants getting the money out, nothing else mattered. Paid the man, and we walked... Carol was between Gary and me, and she says: "That was a real deal, huh, Michael..." I said, "Yeah, really was!" She purred, "I could tell, 'cause you got that same look in your eyes that you do when you're (just GUESS!) Gary almost choked on his coffee... Carol sure had a way with words!
That steering wheel has gone a lot faster than I ever will. Cool deal, and yes, it needs to be back on a car.
Few things get much cooler to me than one part being the inspiration for an entire build. Only remotely close to the cool factor of a 17" 4 spoke racecar steering wheel is maybe my flat 3 spoke Covico...lucky for me I have both. Awesome score Ryan.
That's gansta man. I am glad that its yours if it was mine I would have to build a car around it. Even if it is not from the Johnny Mantz' car you got a piece of paper that says that it is and you can always dream that the paper is correct. Everyone needs sweet dreams.
Is there a way (short of unbolting it from a 1948 Indy car!) to positively identify a real Bell? Seems like everyone made similar wheels for a couple of decades, though most had giveaways like stainless, hard plastic, and ridiculous small diameters. I have a 17 four spoke, entirely without provenance. Its rim looks just like yours, center has been drilled for a homemade Ford adapter...a metal center cut out of an early Ford wheel and drilled for 3 bolts. Mine has spokes bent up at the ends, giving a shallow and pretty flat dish. Perhaps that was made to allow bolting in a slightly non-standard driver a bit shorter or taller than the one the seat was made for...? Anyway, mine has a couple of gouges in the rim that I will swear were made by Troy Ruttman's teeth...
This one has a very faint stamp of the Bell logo on the backside of the hub. So faint you can only really see half of it... But I have another that has no stamp at all. I'm not sure who all made these wheels, but I would image a few folks did?
My dad, Ira Hassad, bought the Bell 3 spoke wheel in our roadster from Roy in 1952 and it has no logo. He also bought the Halibrand quick-change diff and the magnesium wheels from Bell Auto Parts too. I have the original price list for the wheels ($15.00 each) and the diff ($225.00). My Mom probably had a stroke. My Dad and Roy Richter were friends from the late forties when my dad made amazing 10cc miniature race car engines and Roy made the aluminum bodies. P.S. I painted the mag wheels to prevent continued corrosion and I was tired of polishing them. I run tubeless and they still hold air pressure fine!!!
That's too funny. The auction actually said 1960s steering wheel that "probably" saw racing in its formative years. I'd be stunned too if that card came with it when I opened the box! haha. Good buy! I got a few go fast items from that lot myself. The consignor was pissed at the prices I paid.
Great story and congrats on the win! Mine is an old one as well. I could not find any mark on it. The rubber at the spokes was torn so I just cut it flush with the rim. I made the center cap so it can be screwed on with an attached bolt threading into a nut pressed into the end of the steering shaft. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
If you can't find a car to run it on mine's available! Here's a photo from one of my books. Same car, Agajanian's #98 in 50' it was on the pole that year! Might be the same wheel. I wonder if some drivers had their own wheel to use on their rides. I used to do that with handlebars on my bmx bikes!
#98 Still exists... http://www.conceptcarz.com/view/photo/269802,15073/1948-Kurtis-Kraft-KK2000_Photo.aspx Chassis #318 was the second of eleven Kk2000's built. The front suspension was changed in September 1948 by Ed Kuxma. This was J.C. Agajanian's first Indy car. 1948-1951. Drivers were Johnny Mantz 1948-49. Walter Faulkner 1950 and Troy Ruttman in 1951. The car was the Pole position car with a new record of 134+ mph in 1950 and was 2nd in the National AAA Championship in 1950.
One of the things that makes "us" a unique breed is the way we can get so totally enraptured with a single part, a specific brand name, a wild imagination seasoned with reason and logic, and how the potential history moves you. It's not something everyone gets even amongst our own, in fact some of my closest friends don't now nor ever will get it. Glad to see you living another "piece of the life" and I imagine it's now in a family of many examples. Good for you.
Ryan, I would absolutely build a car around that wheel. Several years ago my wife and I were Karl and Veda Orr for Halloween. White coveralls with his logo and All my hot rod buddies were like "Who are they"? That bummed me out.
I bought one from my cousin...rusty 4 spoker--17" diameter wheel with no name and a schroder-type side steering box, also with no name. I tried the wheel in my 34 but it was waaaaay too big....sold 'em both at the local swap meet.
Note the width of the spokes... Measure 'em. These w-I-d-e spoked dished wheels are NOT Bell. The small end of the thin Bell spokes are .687", +/- .010". (11/16" inch at the skinny end) Also, Bell wheels all had the little flair on the rubber as it culminated on each spoke. (looked like little rubber bells, re: Roy Richter. Sneaky's wheel we bought from Roy still resides in his old roadster pickup...been on there since 1958! Still looks and feels good...
Jim...I didn't know the roadster was of the Hassad family! I'm building a flat tail Midget (20" long) tether car, a young CNC machinist made me a scale aluminum 4 spoke Bell wheel for it! I'd 'kill' for an Ira Hassad twin stack engine to go in it... Glad you're on the HAMB!
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