Tru Ray Spokes, the mystery continues
 

Moving on, I took some pics, and discovered something I must of not noticed when I took off these rims. You can see an inspection tag with a date of 1981, why, they must have been purchased later. Just think it is still funny that I have only seen these three times, all on 73's. What's up with that.
Notice how the center of the rims have been filled with a glass resin. Must have been to seal the rims at the spokes.
Anyway, does anyone know anything about these rims and notice that the center caps have the crossed flags.

Sarge,

These wheels were very popular back in the day...especially on the Cadillacs. I believe they were a poor man's attempt at having a true spoke wheel. When I look at these wheels today, I simply shudder at the thought of having to wash, wax and maintain them. I too have seen this wheel and or a similar wire wheel on several other C3's. It does give them the Classic Look. As to being 73 specific...I think as a 73 owner you just noticed them more than a non 73 owner would have. Just my two cents worth.

http://i618.photobucket.com/albums/t...ruraywheel.jpg

Stay in tune....:thumbs:

Gregg;
Is that rim in your pic true spoke or is it fake.
The ones I have, are real spoke rims. You can see the spoke and nuts under the glas in the inner rim. They both say Tru-Ray and yours seem more set for a Caddy. You might be right about my 73 eye, must have been on others as well.

My 68 had them years ago.
 

The previous owner of my 68 had these rims on car. They we installed somewhere around 1982. I also saw a post a while back by "DUNNEY" who had them on a car he was trying to sell on the forum.[IMG]http://i487.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/scan0014.jpg[/IMG]

Sarge,

Its a true spoke wheel and you could fit them with any number of center caps. I snagged the photo from a Lowrider site. It appears these wheels still retain a great popularity with Lowrider / Gangbanger groups.

Stay in tune....:thumbs:

Take a look at this web page. As stated above there were/are several versions of center caps available. http://www.hobbycar.com/Chevrolet.html

Tru-Ray wire wheels were made by the Tru-Spoke wheel company. They first started making repros of the early 50's Buick Roadmaster wire wheels. Original Roadmaster wires were very popular with, and much sought after by, street rodders. Tru-spoke offered the Tru-Spoke wires in an assortment of wheel diameters, widths, and bolt patterns, far beyond the size and bolt pattern of the original Buick wheel. Later they made various other style wire wheels, including, I think, repros of the mid 50's Cadillac and 62 T-Bird Sport Roadster wires.

The Tru-Ray was a variation of Tru-Spoke's Tru-Classic wheel, with correct backspacing for Corvette applications and a Corvette specific center cap. The Tru-Classic was probably based on either the mid 50's Cadillac wires or the 62 T-Bird Sport Roadster wheels.

I don't know what became of Tru-Spoke. In the late 80's, Tru-Spokes were distributed (and made???) by Crager. I don't know who makes them now, but I think some, if not all, of the old Tru-Spoke wheel designs may be still available.