In a message dated 96-08-15 14:06:51 EDT, FunE4MG writes:
<< ..... the bad news... depending on your POV. ..... I called several wheel
manufacturers who told me one or more of 3 basic tales, 1- no market, 2-
liability problems, 3- cost of tooling up even if there was a great demand.
<< ..... high magnesium content and fragile nature of the wheels would
preclude their use from street applications, ..... recommended AGAINST using
some adapter that would utilize the spline drive and allow you to bolt a hot
looking alloy wheel in place. ..... >>
Yes, the cost does depend on the quantity that can be sold. However, -------
In very small quantities the parts would be made generally by hand on
standard prototype shop machinery, resulting in high production cost but very
little tooling cost. If there is a demand for producing higher quantities,
the tooling costs go up and the production costs go down, resulting in less
expensive parts. The demand obviously depends on the price. At $1000 each,
there may be a demand for one or two sets. At $50 each there may be a demand
for hundreds of sets. So, items 1 and 3 above can have no answer until
someone sets a price.
The liability problem is just a matter of good design and product liability
insurance, which obviously gets included in the price, but we still don't
know what the price is.
As for magnesium, it wouldn't be used for the adapter, just a high grade
alloy steel. Once you have the adapters you can bolt on any wheel you want,
same as if you had bolt-on hubs to begin with. For sure some people put
stranger things than this on their cars, like wide wheels, race tires, wheel
spacers, large anit-sway bars, stiffer suspension springs and shock
absorbers, all of which put higher stresses on the chassis. Does anyone know
if the manufacturers of any of these parts have been sued lately?
So if everybody could be finished with being paranoid, I would still be
willing to do the design study and figure out what the price would be. Now,
one more time. Is anybosy interested?
Barney Gaylord -- 1958 MGA
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