Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 10:59:35 -0700
From:
To: Jay Laifman
CC:
Christopher.Albers@bubbs.biola.edu
References:
1
Jay and Chris:
The wheel repair service was:
Custom Wheel Service
3158 E. La Palma Ave.
Anaheim, CA 92806
VOX: (714) 632-6700
FAX: (714) 632-1933
PGR: (714) 565-2113
Paul Watanabe, owner.
They charge about $10/wheel to R&R tires and balance a wheel, plus machining. You could save some money, or time, or room in your car, if you have the tire work done locally.
He seemed reasonable enough, but in my case, the hub was not just a hole, but extended to a cast tube with knock-off threads. The spoke/mounting point needed the inside extended 1/4 inch to eliminate the need for some $8 1/4 inch spacer shims. That amount of metal removal would locally penetrate the flat plate, between the 8 spokes, and show thru as small slots. This probably wouldn't have caused any structural concerns, but I decided to either get some new Panasport 14 inch Tiger rims, or keep the spacers. Under Jay's advice as to the rare dealer original American Racing wheels, with actual knock-off threaded hubs was better than Panasport like everybody else has.
If your wheels just have a hole in a flat plate, then there should be no problem in enlarging them.
Another solution:
My problem was the non centered and large casting of the hub enter, after the grease cap, on the front hub. These hubs can easily be removed, and the rough casting machined to the diameter of the existing wheel hole. Would prevent loss of wheel material around the lug nuts, clean up that ugly casting/machining job on the hub, and solve your problems. Only need two parts machined, instead of four wheels (if you rotate tires).
Steve
--
Steve Laifman
Subject: Lest we forget
Date: Thu, 20 May 1999
11:40:21 EDT
From: TigerCoupe@aol.com
To:
In a message dated 5/20/99 7:52:42 AM
Pacific Daylight Time,
writes:
> I do believe that Bo has resurrected a treasure for us all to enjoy. As
> far as wheels are concerned, I am not certain how Ken originally
> presented the car, but most of us know that the production model did not
> offer the wire wheel option of the Alpine. The V-8 would rip the spokes
> from the rim, and strip the tiny spline in short order. Ken was a first
> class mechanic, car designer, and race driver. It is very possible for
> him to have made that decision, but not having seen pictures of the
> original, I don't know.
Back in Sept 1998, when there was a discussion on this list of the American Racing "Silverstone" wheels as used on the Miles prototype, I posted a story from Ian Garrard to the list (see Mark Olson's archives for the complete thread). Published in the September 1977 issue of the STOA newsletter, Ian's letter specifically stated that the car originally had wire wheels. Since memories are obviously pretty short, here is the letter again:
**********************************************
This was the very first Tiger to hit the streets, i.e., the one prepared by Ken Miles. My love for strong colors resulted in the candy apple red paint job. Depending on the amount of sunlight, it seemed to change color several times a day.
As you can see, we went to a lot of trouble to retain the Alpine identification, even to a single tail pipe. Internally, the only give away was a special Sun Tachometer, and the automatic transmission selector.
I put five thousand miles on this car in a little over two weeks, including two days going up and down the hills in San Francisco, plus several blasts up and down the coast between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The car started out with wire wheels, but we had to change to mags right away, as the power ripped out the spokes on the stock Alpine wires.
Some of my fondest memories are the moments I wiped the smiles off the faces of various Jag, Corvette and Healy 3000 owners--particularly as they could see that I wasn't shifting gears because of the automatic. A great "Fun Car" and a real traffic stopper in appearance."
*******************************************************
Dick Barker