You had the right answer I believe. In the trunk of the car was a
Western center cap.
Thanks Marc :-)
Mike
Marc Sayer wrote:
> Mike Poorboy wrote:
> >
> > Terry,
> > Thanks, I was aware of the physical properties of magnesium.
> > I believe a road flare has or use to have magnesium in them.
> > I even looked up the atomic mass of both elements. Magnesium is
> > number 12 and aluminum is 13 there is not much difference in mass,
> > so you are right on the specific gravity test in water. The brittle
> > characteristic
> > is what I was concerned with.
> >
> > Les, from CDM answered my question for me. He informed me that
> > Minilites had their name stamped on the front of the rim.
>
> Although there isn't a big difference in their atomic mass numbers,
> there is a big difference in the weight of wheels in aluminum vs
> magnesium. I have had sets of identical ARE 8 spoke wheels, one in
> magnesium and the other in aluminum and the difference was considerable.
> However to run the mag wheels on the street you had to somehow coat the
> inside of the wheel to prevent air leakage as magnesium is so porous
> that it leaks air. After you epoxied or powdercoated the wheel, or added
> a tube, the wheels weren't all that much lighter. So for racing where
> the wheels only need to hold air for a race, the mags are perhaps
> better. On the street they are not a great idea.
>
> BTW there are many companies that have produced "Minilite" type
> eight-spoke wheels, including;
> ARE (American Racing)
> Shelby
> GB
> Motobuild (sold in Great Britain, I think these are the GB wheels
> reboxed in essence)
> Minilite (the new company that bought the rights to the name and some of
> the old designs)
> Minilite (the original British company)
> Western
> Panasport
> Watanabe
> EMPI
> plus a few others who I can't remember right now
> plus several others who don't always put their name on the wheels (these
> include a company in Australia that is making the original centerlock
> mount type eight-spoke wheels for many British cars)
> While each company had a slightly different take on these wheels, most
> folks don't know enough and/or pay enough attention to notice the
> difference and they lump them all together. And some are almost
> identical, such as the Shelby and the Western's (I've owned both and I
> think they might have been made by the same place). From what Les and I
> have been able to deduce the EMPI and ARE wheels are also almost
> identical and may have been made by the same people. I had an odd ball
> set of ARE's once that were mag and not aluminum. They were 14x5.5 and
> the OD of the center hub projection was threaded so you could run a
> special centerlock type spinner onto the wheel to make it look more like
> a real centerlock wheel. You used to see a lot of the ARE's on Triumph
> TR4-6's.
>
> Oh and the same thing holds true for the Libra style wheels, they were
> made by at least 4 companies. Shelby made their version called the
> Viper, US racing wheel called the LeMans, ARE made the Libra, and there
> was some other brand neither Les nor I can remember. But all four wheels
> look so much alike you are hard pressed to tell them apart.
>
> I'll do an article on this in a future issue with pictures so folks can
> better identify what they're dealing with. I'll also publish the
> story on our webpage (probably before it gets into print).
>
> --
> Marc Sayer
> Editor/Publisher
> Z Car & Classic Datsun Magazine
> http://zcarmag.com
> Voice 541-726-6001
> Fax 541-746-0863/726-6001
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