nuts

[Will Owen <nashwill@domain.elided>]

To the esteemed Digest -

Been following the lugnut thing only casually, as I
really don't get worked up about one sort of wheel
over another as long as they're round and don't look
too silly. However, I would like to drop in a big fat
AAAYY-men to what the noble Biba said about replacing
studs in pre-'72 wheels. Not so much to accommodate
fancy alloy wheels, mind you (see sentiments expressed
above), as simply to rid yourself once and for all of
a big fat PITA. That would be, specifically, the
wronghanded threads on one side of the car. 

Okay - IF you're restoring this machine to
better-than-showroom condition as a concours queen,
and if the utter anal uptight last squeaky morsel of
authenticity is your thing, baby, then just forget I
even brought it up. But if said car is to be used in a
regular kind of way on a more or less daily basis, and
if there's a real possibility that you might need to
hand it off to the nice-enough-but-not-Mensa-material
guys at the local tire store now and then, or even
have to replace a wheel yourself in the dark and the
rain when ONE MORE DAMN THING will have your blood
pressure past redline, just change'em. No matter what
you hear or read, there never was any really good
reason to make them that way, and insisting that there
MUST have been or else Alfa Romeo (quick genuflection
towards Milano) wouldn't have done it is simple
mindless idolatry. Everybody's stupid once in a while
- even Daimler-Benz has committed at least four major
engineering gaffes to any one of Alfa's, so cut'em
some slack.

Or you could just wait until the tire guy with the air
wrench strips all the threads off (after you've warned
him three times, once in writing), and THEN do it...

Will Owen
Yearning for the simple life in
Pasadena, CA
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