AmericanBritt

My 1966 Corvette right front wheel came off. Damaged the lower fender.
Looking for a Good shop to do the repairs. Located in Southern California.
Survivor car original paint. Sick to my stomach over this, but thankfully no one was injured.

Bluestripe67

Most often when the wheel comes off, you waste a fender. You were lucky. What wheel and what was the basic cause? Dennis

Boyan

Dave Schwartz, Euro Body in tarzana. Excellent fiberglass/ corvette work.
But you are going to have a big problem finding lacquer paint.

Boyan

PM with your email also

cblankin

http://www.tcpglobal.com/ I just bought a quart of Silver Pearl and Clear coat. Not cheap

Bluffman

Go to Dave Schwartz, I should have, pm me if you want to no were not to go. Ian

AmericanBritt

Reproduction knock offs. Spinner came off at about 4 mph. The wheel wedged in the wheel well and kept the lower control arm off the ground. Tires were replaced about two hundred miles ago. Suspect insufficient torque on the spinner. Was on the freeway erlier in the morning. Could have been catastrophic!

66jack

Did you put them on or the tire shop...if tire shop did, i would have called them up real fast...

65hihp

My guess is that wheels were knocked "tight" with car still up in the air. Full weight of the car must be on the wheels when final 8 or so blows of lead sledge are applied. No one working in a tire shop today would know this, and most people are afraid to strike the spinners hard for fear of damaging something.
Sorry your original paint 66 suffered this mishap. I hope you are fixed up and running again real soon.

Gary's '66

Sorry to hear that and yes, you're VERY fortunate if, you can call losing a wheel fortunate, that it occurred at such a low speed.

I was leery of just such an instance when I purchased a set of repro KO's hence, I went with the bolt on type.

If you just had them R&R'd at a tire store I'm with 66jack and, would beat feet back down there asap.

Gary

c1j1c2

Was it because of knockoffs that it came off, or why did it come off?

SW Vette

Join the club. Exact same thing happened to me about 20 years ago. Just tore the fender lip but I replaced the entire front panel. In the end you would've had to inspect it very, very closely to know anything was done.

Nowadays I do all knockoff mounting and dismounting myself, nobody else touches them. When they're good and tight, and I've driven, checked and retightened them, I will index the spinner and cone with a Sharpie. That way, you not only know if the spinner's moved, but also have a reference point for tightness the next time you take the wheel off.

The problem is, as 65hihp referenced above, there is no way of knowing how hard to hit them bastids until you've done it a few times. With lug nuts if in doubt you can use a torque wrench, but no such animal exists for knockoffs. Trial and error is not a good learning method when it comes to tightening wheels

MOXIE62

I also purchased the bolt on for that reason, wheel coming off. Corvette America's knock off wheels have a pin that helps keep the spinner on even if it is on the wrong side. Are your wheels CA or another brand.

AmericanBritt

Western Wheel KH replicas

phil2302

I have hub caps on my 66 but have seen this wrench used on K/O wheels and it is pretty impressive. No more beating and guessing.

0Willcox Corvette

That tool won't do it.. We got sued over that tool in 1994 and it is not capable of tightening the lug nut to the proper torque. We got sued because we sold it, not because we used it. The customers wheel came off, took out the side exhaust cover, the right door and the front fender.

Also.. don't be fooled by the locking pin.. it's aluminum.. Same customer had these in place and the nut just smoked them.

There is no replacement for the lead hammer...

When install knock off wheels in our shop we have the body on the ground and use two mallets.. one on the spinner and one to hammer with.

Once we feel the knock off is tight we then drive the car forward about 40 feet, and then lock up the brakes! We then drive the car backwards the same amount and lock up the brakes and then we get out and hammer them again. We repeat this process three times.

We also have a sign off sheet that the customer has to sign before delivery stating that "He has inspected the wheel tightness" and approves. In this same statement he is invited to do his own tightening procedure. I can say that I've never had a wheel I installed come off..

I love the old knock off wheels but don't be fooled by that tool.. it's not safe.

Willcox

DansYellow66

I'm glad someone with experience with that tool weighed in. GM was looking for 450 lb-ft of torque on the spinner. I think even with the extension bar it would be difficult to get there with that for most of us. Also, using it would require a two-man operation as someone will need to hold the brakes tight to keep the wheel from turning while the other leans on the breaker bar with all of their weight.

I use hardened steel roll pins in my repro wheels. I can't be sure they would keep a spinner from backing off and flattening the pin, but they have to beat the soft, aluminum pins. But I don't rely on them - I pound that spinner with my ****** Thumper until it rings tight.

AmericanBritt

I'm a AMT for an airline. We torque main wheels to 450 to lbs then back them off to 150 ft lbs torque. We install two bolts through the main nut. Good for 250 mph. I think pins installed with the spinner torqued will be sufficient. I will use inspection torque stripe on the spinner and cone. 450ft lbs torque is a lot. 3/4 3' torque wrench and a lot of weight to get that torque.

MOXIE62

I purchased my wheels from Corvette America or rather one of there sellers. I struggle with should I go with the original style knock off or the bolt on type. I went with the bolt on because I did not know how much strength the 2 bar spinners would hold and I sure as hell did not want to beat on them, to valuable.

dahogan

Went to bolt ons years ago and put away the original KH's knock offs for this very reason. I am too old to worry about such things esp since you cant tell the difference anyways.