Re: wire wheels

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Charles Koster asks "what's the deal with Alfas and wire wheels? Were they
ever OE or a factory option on any of the cars?  Did they (or would they) have
different hubs or would they have used adapter plates? Someone digestible MUST
know the whole story . . "

I don't know the WHOLE story, but there are a few answers - Dayton Wire Wheel
will lace up a set of wires for practically anything, and Jim Steck, who is
(or was) connected with them has (or had) a set of wires on his GT Veloce- and
there is a company in England which has supplied close approximations of Alfa
1900 wires to 1900 (and presumably other) owners here; it was my understanding
that they would supply splined adapters, knock-off nuts in choice of winged or
hex (required in some countries, for safety reasons) painted or plated hubs,
painted or stainless spokes, painted, plated, or alloy rims, with diameters,
rim widths, and offsets to buyer's specs in any of the standard lacing
patterns for fairly reasonable prices, and similarly obliging suppliers
probably exist in Italy and/or elsewhere wherever there is a market, catering
mainly to restorers. Also, I have a sales bulletin sent from ARI in New Jersey
to all USA dealers clearing out several different odd wheels, including wires,
of which they had single sets which had been obtained to test market
reactions, so there is at least one car somewhere which wears wires which a
dealer got from ARI; but I have never seen wire wheels in an Alfa parts book
subsequent to the 1900, for which they were a factory option. The 1900 used
different hubs for centerlock wires and bolt-on steel disks, and I assume
2500s also came with both hub-types according to wheel-type specified.

Wire wheels secured by several lug-nuts, as on Buick Skylarks of the fifties,
(and Fords, etcetera in the twenties and early thirties), or with welded
spokes, as on the Fords, would seem (to me) particularly incongruous on any
Alfa; the traditional adjustable-spoke, splined-hub centerlock wheels (as on
various British cars of the fifties) are archaic (as some would argue Alfa
Spiders are) but two archaicisms from different technological eras add
anachronism to the possible criticisms of such choices. The variants which
bugs me the most, however, are the chromed wires I have seen on some
overrestored 6C cars of the late twenties/early thirties; never happened on
the original cars. The polished alloy rims and stainless steel spokes seen on
some Italian wires of the late forties/early fifties seem legitimate last
gasps of an old technology, comparable to the finned alloy drum brakes which
got passed by newly emerging disk brakes. But YMMV; if you would like 18"
wires on a 164 they would probably be easy enough to get- the parts are on the
shelf for mix-and-match modular assembly, up to a point, and the ones
assembled for 1900s which I heard about were priced comparably to contemporary
alloys.

A parenthetical note, during the heyday of wires on large luxury cars a
popular accessory was aluminum disks to completely conceal the wire wheels,
which were often considered unattractive as well as hard to keep clean. Times,
and tastes, change. Enjoy yours,

John H.
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