sbcbuilder

Does any one know of a forged wheel manufacturer who will make the wheels that you design and/or copy an old wheel that is no longer for sale? There is a 15 inch rim I like but my 14" Wildwood brakes only will allow me to run a 18" rim. This is the best photo I can find of the wheel.

Thanks

GUSTO14

Mini lite and Panasport both offer this style of wheel. Most custom manufacturers are gonna have a problem "copying" a wheel style someone else makes. I would check with them first to see if they offer it in the size you need.

Good luck... GUSTO

cbernhardt

Evod makes the look alike C1 wheels and they also do one of a kind custom work. Nice but really pricey. http://evodwheels.com/

Dr L-88

Vintage Wheel Works makes a "similar" wheel, but 17 inch is the largest size.........................

http://www.vintagewheelworks.com/products/wheels/v48

6T7L71CPE

http://www.team3wheels.com/lt_iii.html

ohiovet

Try Phil Schmidt Engineering in Southern, Ca.

www.psvintagewheels.com

Dr L-88

Phil sold out to these guys.............................

http://www.vintagewheelworks.com/products/wheels/v48

denneys69

Great source for some custom rims. Thanks....

sbcbuilder

Thanks guys I will look at them all. This is for a customer build. The team3 wheel looks great.

sbcbuilder

The Mini Lites are too small and I have heard that Panasport do not fare well on the street. These wheel are for a street car I have in my shop for an engine refresh. I told him that his tires would not last long with the new engine and his lead foot.

groovyjay

There's a guy on the forum running the Team III wheels under his dark blue mid year roadster... Right now, can't remember his screen name... Looks really good!

3JsVette

Check them out. Great people to work with. The price will be moderate compared to "one off" wheels.

sbcbuilder

Customer went for 18 x 12 on the rear and 18 x 9.5 on the front. The price is very reasonable as compared to other wheels. In the hundreds instead of thousands. A very happy customer so much so he said: " You saved me lots of money on the wheels and tires so I am going to get you to refresh the transmission too." Good for him as it will not need much because a few months age we replaced his glide with a TH400 he supplied from one of his other projects.

The most common failure in a Turbo 400 is the 2nd gear sprag. This is a mechanical part that has to stop the direct drum turning in the opposite direction of transmission rotation the instant the 2nd gear is engaged. Imagine a 9lb drum turning at engine RPM and has to be stopped instantly. What typically happens is the sprag will wear and break or flip over causing a loss of 2nd gear. This will happen from a stock 400 to Hi HP units.

To test how strong this set up is we did the following test. We took a small journal 327 - 365 horse engine and put a rev limiter set to 7500 rpm. We used a 3.08 final drive in a 3500 lb car. We modify the valve body to shift only at 7500 rpm, other words it will only shift into the next gear at that rpm. Driving the car at 50 mph we put the car back into 1st gear and floor the throttle at the same time. Remember that the transmission is set to shift into the next gear at 7500. we also set the line pressure to 300 lbs to create more stress. A very hard shiftng transmission. This happens very quickly when you do this and creates a great deal of stress on not only the transmission but the engine as well. We repeated this test until we had a failure - the failure was not the transmission - it was number 6 rod bearing that failed. The TH400 is a very tough transmission when built properly.

We replace the stock intermediate sprag with a 36 element sprag with over twice the holding power of the stock 34 element sprag. We also replace the intermediate shaft as well.

This transmission is a better choice for some older cars that can not take advantage of the od gears of the 4L80E. A 4L80E is basically a TH400 with two extra gear sets.