[DeTomaso] Hall Ultra Wheels

[Peter Cajthaml]

Jerry -

attached is the pic the rear wheel (my 1st email had the whole car, but the
image was too big to post on the board).

I am pretty sure that the previous owner called them "Ultra", but I they
are not 5 or 10-spoke.  They have the fake knock-offs, and there are many
screws with allen-heads holding the wheels together I presume.  These
wheels do not lose pressure at all - I hardly ever have to inflate the
tires.

if you look in the registry under 2761, you will see the pictures, as well
as Mike Drew's description of the car. Here is what he said about the
wheels:


*"From what I recall, it's fitted with some variant of Hall Pantera Ultra
wheel (one of the earlier styles, as opposed to the ones he's introduced in
the past year or two) powdercoated gold, as are the bumpers.*"

I am seriously considering changing the gold to black. (you can see how it
has faded in my wheel picture - the plastic center is much darker than the
aluminum wheel).

thanks for the feedback,

Peter
#2761


On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 1:01 PM, <jderyke at aol.com> wrote:

> Peter, your photos did not come thru but Hall Ultra wheels are 5-spoke (
> maybe 10-spoke too) three- piece spun-aluminum rims, held together with a
> circle of twenty (or less) 1/4-20 SAE stripper bolts. Many have decorative
> 3-ear spinners simulating knock-off wheels. They are bolt-shank-centered,
> not hub-centered which makes changing them difficult and less precise.
> *Problems*: the stripper-bolts are very small and hardened to gr-8 all
> the way through, making them brittle in an area needing a little flex. The
> bolts are never checked for torque. The inner and outer spun rim-halves
> are made of a non-weldable aluminum alloy and most will leak unless
> siliconed inside. In use, any rim flexes in turns; the thin alloy
> work-hardens under load and usually cracks horizontally behind the tire
> bead, resulting in an instant flat. I've now seen three different Ultra
> rims broken- always a rear, usually an inner. On a Pantera, the rears are
> the most heavily loaded.
>
> The man who made them for Gary decades ago has passed and there are no
> spares. They are true racing wheels really designed for 2000-lb lighter
> formula cars and have long ago passed their use-by date. Racers throw
> such rims away after one season but may re-use the centers. A friend has a
> set of similar (much newer) wheels on his 1600 lb Sports-racer and all it
> took to crack one was running off the road onto the dirt at Thunderhill 2
> months ago. EVOD Industries (pg 11 in your POCA Newsletter) has spun up
> some replacements for owners that insist on continuing to use them. The
> replacement rim-halves are not cheap and are marked 'FOR RACING ONLY'.
>
> IMHO all 3-piece wheels used on a heavy street car are a bomb waiting to
> go off- and I'm a guy who loves lightness. I'd love to use such on our
> Pantera but there *are* limits... I suggest making a coffee table out of
> them. Good luck- J Deryke
>
>
>
>  -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Cajthaml <pcajthaml at gmail.com>
> To: detomaso <detomaso at poca.com>
> Sent: Fri, Feb 7, 2014 11:47 am
> Subject: [DeTomaso] Hall Ultra Wheels
>
>  [resending w/o attached picture]
>
>  All:
>
>  I am in the process of replacing my tires, and thus started to research
> 2761's wheels - all I know is that they are an early version of the Hall
> Ultra wheel - probably put on when the car underwent the "Group 5
> Conversion" in the late 90's.  They are 17", probably 13" wide in the rear,
> perhaps 9" or 10" wide in the front.  I really don't know as I had never
> unmounted a tire. The tires are Bridgestone Potenza 335/35-17, 255/40-17
> (13", 10" wide).
>
>  I read some horror stories online about the 3-piece Ultra wheels (which
> is what I think I have).  Apparently the wheel (or the small bolts holding
> it together) sometimes crack, resulting in an instant tire deflation.
> Another post suggested that these wheels should be x-rayed every year to
> look for cracks.
>
>  I'll attach a picture of the car to see if anyone can recognize the
> wheels.  I'd like to hear others' experience with the Hall Ultra wheel -
> should I be looking to replace them? (If I keep them, I may have them
> powder-coated black - do they have to be disassembled for that, and what
> kind of can of worms does that open?)
>
>  thanks for the advice,
>
>  Peter
> #2761
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA
>
> DeTomaso mailing listDeTomaso at poca.comhttp://poca.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso_poca.com
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://server.detomasolist.com/pipermail/detomaso/attachments/20140207/3505a5f6/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Rear Wheel.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 43831 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://server.detomasolist.com/pipermail/detomaso/attachments/20140207/3505a5f6/attachment.jpg>