Hot Rods Wheel Modification - Period Modification or Cheap Widening Technique?

I have a set of American Racing vintage slot mags. Not sure if they are aluminum or magnesium but would venture to say they are aluminum. They have an interesting modification that I have never seen before and wanted to ask if anyone can shed some light on this technique.

It is th eabove mentioned aluminum AR slot wheel cut front welded to a GM 4X4.75 steel wheel. Trying to determine if this was done as a quick and dirty way of widening the wheel or strengthening it for competition purposes. As the wheel is only 7” wide this casts doubt about it being modded for drag racing purposes.

Anyone done this or familiar with the technique and why it was done way back when?

Also is there an easy way to distinguish a magnesium wheel from aluminum?

 

Cheap copies , not Americans. They were made that way.

 

x2. I have some 5 spokes made that way....for sure not real AR wheels!

 

I agree with the above posts. How the heck did they weld Al to steel? There were lots of wheels done this way. Slots, spokes ect.

 

Look closely, you might see the slot where a piece of steel was casted into the aluminum, then the hoop is welded to those 5 steel pieces.

 

Thanks. Never looked close enough.

 

Lotsa wheels like "cragars" for one that have, should I say cast centers attached to steel hoops.
Wander whats goin on with the oval insert around that one lug whole?

 

Usually they were copies of TTs, note the bogus cap on this one. Heavy. There's better choices out there.

 

What F&J said - my guess is they are Rocket brand, they did some slots like this back in the day. Many of the faux Torq Thrust copies were done this way as well. Cragar versions tended to have a small lip where the edge of the steel rim extended past the aluminum on the front side, to protect from curbs. Actually worked pretty good.

 

View attachment 4031697 View attachment 4031697 I appreciate all the verification input. With that being said, can anyone ID the front set of wheels I have? These are not cast on the steel backs, but only have limited casting number info on the back of the wheels.

 

It says "International" on it, but I'm not familiar with that brand. Probably another American imposter.

 

International made decent 5 spokes that say "International Dragmaster" on the inside and were all Aluminum but they also made other and cheaper versions of wheels, I have a catalog somewhere at home but I'm at work right now.

 

This type of widened wheel would be quite helpful with some of the longer garden hoses they sell these days.

 

My first car was a 61 Impala, bought in 1969, it had International Dragmaster five spokes on it when I bought it. I've read that they came out about that time and had a fairly short mfg period.