[DeTomaso] Hall Ultra Wheels

[Dave]

Dan,
Well said.
IndyDave

From: thells [mailto:thells at earthlink.net]
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2014 6:30 PM
To: Peter Cajthaml; Dave
Cc: MikeLDrew at aol.com; detomaso at poca.com; jderyke at aol.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Hall Ultra Wheels

Peter,

I have a '72 GT-5 conversion that was done by Gary Hall, and it came with a set of 17" 3 piece Ultra wheels. They're a later style with a center like a stock Campy but have the same fake knock-off spinners. When I removed the wheels to rebuild the rear suspension I saw that both wheels had several visible cracks in them, I took the fronts off for inspection and they were both cracked as well. All of the cracks were on the inner wheel hoop, there were none visible in the outside hoop.

Some of the cracks are in the flange where the bolts go through, some were in the wheel hoop itself in random patterns either parallel to the wheel direction or perpendicular out to the tire bead edge. Bottom line, the wheels were completely unsafe and have been replaced with a set of 18" & 17" GT-5 replicas from Wilkinson. After researching the Hall wheels it appears the inner hoops were improperly designed, the flange where the bolts go through is far too thin, and the hoops themselves appear to have been too thin as well.

The wheels you have may be a somewhat different design, but I think its likely you may have cracking issues at some point and it could happen at an inopportune time.

Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Cajthaml
Sent: Feb 10, 2014 2:50 PM
To: Dave
Cc: "MikeLDrew at aol.com<mailto:MikeLDrew at aol.com>" , "detomaso at poca.com<mailto:detomaso at poca.com>" , "jderyke at aol.com<mailto:jderyke at aol.com>"
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Hall Ultra Wheels
I checked the wheels yesterday: no missing bolts, no visible cracks from the outside.  The tire pressure is okay.  I drove the car around town, keeping the speed under 60.  Is there a way to check for cracks without removing the tires; i.e. is there any value to inspecting the rims from the inside?  (I am in socal / ventura county: does anyone know of a shop with the expertise to evaluate the wheels?)
Dave; what do you mean by "my wheels were not tracked"?

On Sun, Feb 9, 2014 at 6:16 PM, Dave <dave at damardirect.com<mailto:dave at damardirect.com>> wrote:
It's worth mentioning that when Hall was selling these wheels, he did so in a very earnest and sincere manner--that is, he didn't deliberately go out and produce wheels that would fail


>  I agree completely. No one should drive a car with these wheels. My wheels were not tracked. 3 0f 4 wheels had cracks.
IndyDave


From: MikeLDrew at aol.com<mailto:MikeLDrew at aol.com> [mailto:MikeLDrew at aol.com<mailto:MikeLDrew at aol.com>]
Sent: Sunday, February 09, 2014 4:34 PM
To: Dave; pcajthaml at gmail.com<mailto:pcajthaml at gmail.com>; jderyke at aol.com<mailto:jderyke at aol.com>

Cc: detomaso at poca.com<mailto:detomaso at poca.com>
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Hall Ultra Wheels


In a message dated 2/8/14 14 15 30, dave at damardirect.com<mailto:dave at damardirect.com> writes:


I don’t recall the name of my Hall wheels, picture of front & rear wheel below.


>>>Notice that these, too, consist of centers originally designed for 15-inch wheels, mated to hoops to accept 17-inch tires.  Besides the fact that they always looked a little weird, I always wondered about how that kluge would work from a structural basis?  I haven't a shred of knowledge to be able to guess just by looking.

It's worth mentioning that when Hall was selling these wheels, he did so in a very earnest and sincere manner--that is, he didn't deliberately go out and produce wheels that would fail (sometimes catastrophically) a few years down the road.  He went in good faith to a wheel maker, who produced wheels to his design.  It is that wheelmaker (unknown?) who let the team down; Hall was just stuck in between him and angry customers a few years later.  Not a pleasant position to be in, to be sure!

Mike

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