My brother and I are thinking of doing some paint and body and I'm trying to get together some wheel styles based on our ideas. I think we want something that looks like a 60's stocker. Torque Thrusts are an obvious choice, but tons of people have them. I'm not too hip on Cragar S/S mags right now. The five-spoke design is good, but I was wondering if anyone knew of some photos or sites with photos that would show off some good vintage wheels?

I think we could go with either a new wheel with vintage styling, or go the extra mile and seek out a set of real 60s or 70s mags if they were just right.

Has anyone seen the Mother's pull-out from this month's Hot Rod (or was that Car Craft?) that has photos of their project cars? There was one, I think it was the Olds wagon, that had some pretty wicked five spoks on it. I don't know what they are, but I like them. Anyone with a heads-up on those?

Oh, I did do some searching on vintage wheels in this forum, but didn't come up with much.

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Tom H.
Member #259
'67 www.iquest.net/~harold2/ (http://www.iquest.net/~harold2)

The Halibrand Sprints are a pretty nastolgic wheel. Thats what Im putting on my 65 sometime this summer. http://www.halibrand.com
The timeless classic old school wheel setup though is a set of 60's era TT D's ~15x4 with a nice set of 15x7-15x8 steel wheels in the rear. http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif

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Russ (or Steve)
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Team Chevelle Member #71

oops.. (double posted)


[This message has been edited by Maddening (edited 06-03-2002).]

Another idea is to take rally wheels from something else to look like the true hotrod junkyard scrounger. I got a great deal on a set of '69 Hurst Olds wheels.. they go on soon.. just gotta get them cleaned up a bit.

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I collect vintage Torq Thrust style wheels and I have a whole bunch of them. I don't have any pictures or have a clue on how to post them.

Thanks for the replies so far. I looked at the Halibrand page and liked the Five Spoke.

I found the Hot Rod issue that had the wheels in it I like. It's, I believe, the June 2002 issue with Gray Baskerville on the cover. The Mother's car polish insert had a 442 with some pretty trick rims on it.

I liked the early Torque Thrust wheels that had the straight spokes, but we'll be putting disc brakes on this thing soon and I understand the caliper won't clear the spokes (hence the whole "D" designation for the new wheels -- they clear disc brakes).

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Tom H.
Member #259
'67 www.iquest.net/~harold2/ (http://www.iquest.net/~harold2)

Ken K:

Send me your email address please. I've got a set of what I've been told are very rare TTs and I'd like your opinion.

Thanx.

It's not true that all the strait spoke vintage Torg Thrust wheels cannot be used with disc brakes. The origianal D was made to clear the disc brakes on Corvettes which had the problem. Depending on which wheels you have will determine if you can use disc brakes with the strait spoke wheels.

Thanks, Ken. Good to know. Sounds like there are far more varieties of this wheel out there than I had previously thought.

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Tom H.
Member #259
'67 www.iquest.net/~harold2/ (http://www.iquest.net/~harold2)

I think the problems with using the strait spoke wheels with disc brakes is with disc brakes with 4 piston calipers. I have mounted lots of different strait spoke wheels on the single piston calipers and they did not hit, it does not matter if they are 14 inch wheels or 15 inch wheels. My brother has a set of 14X7 Appliance Torq Thrust wheels on his 69 Camaro, he has factory style disc brakes in the front and Cadilac disc brakes in the rear.

Corvette Rally's 16 X 8 chrome plated, I guarentee that will look sweet on your car. I have these rims on my 1967 chevelle with 245/50/16 in front and 255/50/16 in back you will love them!


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Sacramento Chevelle Club (http://www.sacchevelles.com)

"Smell the gasoline and feel the torque, all women like fast cars"

Ken,
Is there a way I can contact you? If you're anywhere near me I'd like to take a look at some of those styles of wheels you have. Heck, I might buy some if you were willing to sell.

Shoot me an email.

Spawn,
Thanks for the advice, but we're not looking for rally wheels at the moment.

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Tom H.
Member #259
'67 www.iquest.net/~harold2/ (http://www.iquest.net/~harold2)

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by TH:
[B]Has anyone seen the Mother's pull-out from this month's Hot Rod (or was that Car Craft?) that has photos of their project cars? There was one, I think it was the Olds wagon, that had some pretty wicked five spoks on it. I don't know what they are, but I like them. Anyone with a heads-up on those?

[B]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Yes, if you are talking about the blue vista cruiser wagon, they look just like the "Rallye" rim offered by Boyd Coddington.

Go to www.boydcoddington.com (http://www.boydcoddington.com)



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Craig Sanden
'Cleverly designed as a responsible adult'

Where were you in '62? I was graduating high school. Spoked wheels are ubiquitous (everybody's got 'em) today. How can they be cool when cheap foreign subcompact cars have plastic "spoked" hubcaps?
Chrome reversed wheels with chrome bullet hubcaps were cool in '62. (Expect to spend a little more in keeping your front suspension and steering in good shape).

My $0.02

Thor,
Thanks for the tip, but I realized that the car I was referring to is the 442 and not the wagon. I'm going to check the link anyway and see what they have.

JJ,
In '62 I wasn't even a thought to my parents yet. Heck, they weren't even married at that point.

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Tom H.
Member #259
'67 www.iquest.net/~harold2/ (http://www.iquest.net/~harold2)

My mom was 7 and my dad was 8 in '62! I would've loved to live back then though. For wheels, I like Cragar S/S rims but they seem to have problems staying on from what I hear. There was a similar style to the S/S I've seen but I'm not sure what they are. They have the spokes, but it's black between them- they're not the Chevelle SS wheels either. There wasn't much of a selection for wheels back then fro what I've heard, so good luck.

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See if you can find some old "Rod and Custom" or "Hot Rod" on e-bay or somewhere for some ideas. You're right; there were not a lot of custom wheel builders then. A lot of guys ran spun aluminum full wheel discs like used at Bonneville. The guy who had some Olds "Fiestas" on his ride was very cool. They were a 3-bar spinner full wheel cover from about 1953 if I rememeber right.
In the later 60's Cragar, Ansen, American, and others became fairly popular, but most guys didn't have the $$$ for them. Somewhere in there, spoked steel wheels painted white came along as I recall. They seemed to be good for loose lugs and busted wheel studs. If I was into custom wheels, I'd have to have some chrome "classic smoothies" or genuine chrome wire spokes. All these aluminum spokes are uglier than sin IMO. The less spokes in the wheel the uglier.

My $0.02

I went with my brother to the Goodguys show this weekend and looked at what the Nostalgia Super Stock guys were running. I saw a '62 Impala that had some great-looking Radir five-spoke wheels on the front and steel wheels on the back. I like that look a lot. Most of the Nostalgia cars were running custom wheels in front and steelies out back.

Shawn,
I think the Cragar wheel you're talking about is the Super Trick wheel. I could be wrong on the name. Are you referring to the wheels like on the '70 GTO in Two Lane Blacktop? Those are chrome five-spokes with black paint on them for accent.

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Tom H.
Member #259
'67 www.iquest.net/~harold2/ (http://www.iquest.net/~harold2)

How about some chrome reverse wheels ?
If you can't find any you could make them or have them made, and I think they are cool, And didn't see a single set a CB.
If I wasn't aready one of the many with torque trust d's thats what I think I'd do.
Vintage is cool.


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ACES member:#3722
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TH: Just went to Cragar's site and it was the Keystone Klassic that I was thinking of. From what you describe it sounds like the same thing, they both have painted inserts.
Also, the wheels I have on my car are considered custom wheels somehow, they're just rally wheels with '67 Malibu "dog dish" caps. Stainless with black accents. Mine are the real thing though, not the all chrome reproductions. My tires are just blackwalls and it looks pretty good. You can only get away with it on a dark car though, any otehr color and it looks cheap. I think in the 70s or 80s, turbine wheels were cool. They've gotta be a bear to keep clean though. Would be real different today.

Shawn,
Yes, the Keystone Classic is the one I was thinking of. I think the Supertrick was a different wheel. Anyone remember the all-chrome wheel the Cragar had out in the 80s? Maybe that was the Supertrick wheel. I think they had problems with those breaking and discontinued them.

Chrome reverse wheels are cool, but I always think of them as a 50s or early 60s custom wheel. We're looking for some a little more race-oriented. I guess Cragar SS mags were pretty popular by that point, but I've seen enough of those to not dig 'em quite as much as I used to, though they're still a nice (and very heavy) wheel.

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Tom H.
Member #259
'67 www.iquest.net/~harold2/ (http://www.iquest.net/~harold2)

I agree with the chrome reverse wheels, by the late 60's they were out for the most part. You never see them cars built after 1965. I think they would look out of place on anything built after '65.