Does anybody know if the Motor Wheel company is still in existance,or does any other wheel company reproduce the Motor Wheel Spyder? I saw them on a picture of the Reynolds STG 2,and they look hot,how much history is there on the Spyder? Thanks,Jay B.Britt,Jr.
Super rare wheel. No one repros them. It was Motor wheels only aftermarket wheel. Guy Parquette and Wild Bill are the go to guys on those wheels. Thanks to Bill, there's a set in my basement awaiting resto!
in the early 70s, all the stock and super stock guys had em-there were literally hundreds of those things given away to racers as "sponsorship" and today they are very rare to see. I don't know what happened to them all, cause they made a lot....in the mid 70s they became flys (rears up to 12" or so wide) and fleas (front 3.5) and these were an aluminum outer skin somehow bonded (1973, remember) to a colored plastic type center part and an aluminum rear skin to form up 3 pieces into a very lightweight one piece wheel. I remember the first time I picked up a flea for the front of John Kunsaks SS/D Camaro, it was unbelieveable to me how light it was. Occasionally I se fleas and flys for sale, they do big moeny same as the steel ones do.
Guy, You need to make a Poster print of your Car. Do you have any good pics of it in this setup all the other pics I have seen it has the Centerline style wheels.
As far as the history and the relation to Buick... Joe Guzak, the designer of the Spyder (then later upped his ranks to vp or something) was and is good friends with Dennis Manner of Buick fame. Joe bought a new "70 Stage1 and was either then introduced or earlier to Jim Bell (of Kenne-Bell). And what Joe had told me, he gave the wheels to Jim for use on the KB/Reynolds car. And in return Jim "helped" Joe on his Stage1 with parts and info. There's even a picture of Joe's car (with Motor Wheel Spyders) in the back one of the KB's catalog. A lot of the "backed" racers with Buicks used these wheels, probably because of Joe. Here's Joe "inspecting" one of my restored Spyders. Joe's on the right, Dennis is middle. I had him autograph one also.
Thanks for the props! No other pics with these wheels...I just got them finished and haven't had a chance to take some outside pics. Now there's snow on the ground.
Interestingly, Mustang Monthly did a story last month on the Lawman Racing team that visited the troops in Vietnam. All the pictures from back in the day showed the cars wearing Motor Wheel Spyders. The remaining Lawman Mustang wears Cragars today. Shows you how rare they are. They probably couldnt source a set for the restoration. The article does reference the wheels
Guy, who re-hooped your Spyders? We spoke a while back about about restoring the aluminum centers. Would you be able to post the ins and outs of how you did yours?
I would've thought that the Lawman Boss 9's were all but forgotten. I remember reading about them in some other magazine, probably back in the 80's. Wasn't part of the reason for them going to Vietnam, an effort to get servicemen to order new Mustangs when they returned home? Should've paid more attention to the magazine rack lately.ou:
That's a good idea. I get those questions all the time....well, some of the timep But instead of pm'ing and emailing the same thing over and over, I'll just tell what I know here...if that's fine with Jay? Don't mean to hijack, but I guess it's not really that o No: Jay?
Found the article online for you Tom- http://www.mustangmonthly.com/featuredvehicles/mump_0811_1970_mustang_boss_429_lawman/index.html
Thanks for the link Jason!:beer :TU: It appears that I was slightly erroneous about their purpose in going to Vietnam. ou: Great article.
As you may know the Spyder is a two piece design with the center being aluminum and the outer "hoop" being chromed steel. The aluminum center is pressed and welded to the hoop. How do they do that? Well, KeyStone developed the process. In fact Joe told me Motor Wheel Corp had to pay KeyStone a royalty for every Spyder two piece style wheel sold. which if memory serves me correctly is why they discontinued the wheel shortly after coming out with them. The aluminum center is cast with four 2" long pieces of metal which is used as a "tab" for welding on to the hoop. The center is also press fit into the hoop. Joe told me they did test with wheels that were just press fit and they passed. Also he said in the beginning they had problems getting a good weld...had something to do with the aluminum cooling the weld off too fast. KeyStone aslo had this problem. But Joe's welder developed a process that eliminated the bad welds. What it was I don't know. Well, enough of the history...but can you tell I like it? (history). I probably forgot a lot more. I was fortunate enough to spend most part of the day with Dennis Manner and Joe at the 2007 BPG event and learned a lot of history. The steps it took to restore; I first sent the wheels out to get cut apart. The shop that rehooped them recomend they cut them apart. They sent the centers back for me to restore. Restoring them for the first time took me about one week for each center working a couple hours a day, it is very tedious and can get boring. But it did get faster after a couple under my belt. I think most of the Spyders out there will be pitted...just some worse than others. The ones I got from Wild Bill were in nice shape but still had pitting. You need to first glass bead them front and back to get them nice and clean. Then on the machined surface you need to get it to a high degree of shine like polished aluminum. To do that I learned it's a must to start with 180 grit on a DA. sounds pretty rough but it's the only way to get the pits and scratches out. Beleave me I tried every shortcut but this is the only way. Next I went with 320 grit, then 500, then onto 800 finishing film, then 1200, and finally 1500 finishing film. Now I tried various ways to polish the surface...buffing ect. but the best for me was to do it by hand with 07445 white 3m scotch-brite going in one direction with a fast motion. After all that you need to get a very light machined surface look. What worked best for me were to use a red 07447 3m scotch-brite pad very carefully going ONLY in one direction and ONLY one way (not back and forth) all the way around the polished surface. Next you send them off to the wheel shop where they press fit them in and weld them. Don't paint the center untill you get them back...my centers had to be turned down a bit to fit into the hoop and all that will just mess up the paint. On a 70 GS body Joe told me a 4 and 5/8" back space works best with an 8" wide wheel. I measured up my wheel well going off the drum and that ended up being perfect. My fronts are 4" for the skinny drag front runners so this won't pertain to most but I'll mention it. The way Motor Wheel made the 4" rims is they took two hoops and cut them apart two inches from the front (cut the fronts off) and welded them back together then welded up the rear valve stem hole. Aparently no one made (or still makes) the correct diameter 4" wide hoops. So Joe told me this is how they did it for my Reynolds car and others. He said they didn't make too many. OK. you have your wheels back and now have to paint the center part. Joe told me to use the flattest black paint I could find and to put it on as "dry" as possible. Is all this worth it? In my case it was. For anyone else? I think so, our Buicks are different and so are these wheels. And there was a relationship between the two. Plus I think it "dates" our cars. Also there're high bucks restored. The Mopar guys use them alot for some reason...and you know the kind of crazy money they pay for stuff! Awhile back there were a restored (incorrectly) 4" front set for sale in Wa.State for $2800.00.. The shop that rehooped mine; Sheradon Performance 15775 HWY 61 Hugo, Mn 55038 Ph is 651-426-0061 Ask for Don Sr. Very nice people... They are into Mopars big time. They restored alot of famous race cars including some Sox & Martin cars.
