The Cost of wheels?

Mine are different than both of yours. You can clearly see I have no casting date indicated.

You can see MADE IN ITALY on a cast in tag.

close up of hub. no date code

Made in Italy tag. So it appears that it was made after Italy became a country but before there was any sort of calender? Is that before or after the Romans?

Speaking of Romans? I didn't put up the lights yet. I hope the lions aren't hungry tonight?

Plus your "Made in Italy" tag is cast in upside down.

I would guess that what you have are the 10" wheels from Romulus or Remus' chariot.

quote:

Originally posted by Rocky:
Plus your "Made in Italy" tag is cast in upside down.

I would guess that what you have are the 10" wheels from Romulus or Remus' chariot.

Maybe the 10 x 15 on mine means 10 cubits by 15 cubits?

I can see that there is quite a difference in the casting on the backs. Rocky. If you could post a full picture of the back of your wheel that would help show the differences better.

I've got no complaints. I got mine from a Porsche dealer in Austin Texas that was going to put them on his Lamborghini but it needed adapters to do it. He had no use for them then, so I got...a deal on them AND he threw in a pair of 8"s.

So why is a Porsche dealer driving a Lambo? Great question. Maybe the Porches crash, catch fire and kill you?

You should'a heard the accent on this guy? Said he couldn't understand a word that I SAID! Geesh!

My Dad was Regular Army, 1st Cav, Headquarters Troop, El Paso, Texas. I could understand him?

As Chief Inspector Clouseau would say, "strange...very strange!"

Two more thoughts: first, Campagnolo (the automotive part) went out of business twice, and was bought once by Cromadora(?)-their main competition in Italy who kept the Campy name. Campagnolo bicycle parts was then a separate (and successful) stand-alone business.
Next, Campys were made old-school: the 'molds' were of mahogany wood so each mold only yielded a limited number of castings- all progressively rougher and with more rounded edges on the details. Until finally, they had to use new molds- which were all hand made. So its not too surprising to find minor detail differences in the cast wheels. Given the very limited number of 10" wheels made relative to the 7" & 8" variety and the wheel-business upsets, I'd guess there's maybe five different 10" variants. Maybe more but no one really knows.

Finally, I just got a for-sale ad for TWO pairs of the rare 10" x 15" Campys from Larry Stock at Pantera Parts Connection in Carson City NV www.panteraparts.com. This ad is going into the Jan POCA Newsletter.... NOT cheap! Haven't seen the condition but I'll take a look at them Monday. They do not come up for sale very often, at any price. I waited for mine for 20 years!

@BW
It wouldn't be out of line to mention here what Larry is asking for them?

Between you me and the lamp post, I had a guy in Europe offer me $4,000 for mine. That's kind of hard to turn down but look at it this way, how much would it cost me to get them back?

not sure the 10 campy's aren't appreciating faster than the car, that and the zf transaxle lol.think i lucked out a few years back and got a set of 10 and 8" for less than 1500

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Wilson:
not sure the 10 campy's aren't appreciating faster than the car, that and the zf transaxle lol.think i lucked out a few years back and got a set of 10 and 8" for less than 1500

You don't want to know what I got mine for.

Got a set for free yesterday
Came with the car I picked up
then again, will go with the car when it sells

Now there's a solution?

I know someone that saw a set of stamped steel valve covers on a Boss 302 race car that had no openings in them for pvc valves etc and were stamped Ford.

He had to have them so bad that the only way to get them was to buy the entire car. So he did.

my 10X15 rims look like Rocky's. Are these stock? I have the same BFG's too.

The 10's were never stock on US cars. They were only stock on the Euro GTS. Even the US GTS came with 7&8's.

In fact, I tried to get a pair through a US Lincoln/Mercury dealer who was a US Pantera dealer and had the parts book.

The 10" didn't even show in the book.

I know that after the the '74 model year, you could order parts directly from Detomaso in Italy.

I presume that is where they came from.

In 75 & 76 I was autocrossing across the river from me (Hudson River) in Rockland County.

I used to see what I thought were new US GTS being driven on the street WITH 10" wheels on them.

Cars of the World, in New City? Was Bob Grossman. He raced Cobras (wrecked a few) and was the guy you went to buy a Ferrari from.

Those were PROBABLY his cars?

If you are asking about mine, as I posted, Hall said mine "were originals", and the others were what he phrased, "reproductions".

I'm not claiming anything, but you clearly can see the differences in the wheels.

Who know's how many were made in each run of wheels? Considering how many cars Detomaso was selling outside of the US market how many do you think he would order at one time without Ford paying the bill? 50? 100? Who knows for sure?

Maybe the factory can chime in on this? Willis, do you know?

One of my employees got bored and polished my wheels. They turned out okay. Still thinking of painting them.

To me the major attraction to the billet 17" Campi replicas is that they have a nice polished finish to them.

IF magnesium wasn't such a PITA to maintain polished I think I could go that way.

I have seen real Campis COMPLETELY polished before and they are nothing short of breathtaking. Polished magnesium the quality level used by Campagnolo is a step above polished aluminum and not cheap looking like chrome.

I have only seen ONE set of the billet aluminum wheels in person and although they are gorgeous as a single entity on display off the car naked, on the black car I saw them on, after 30 seconds , they were kinda ho-hum...boring.

Given the choice between polished and painted, I'll have to stay with my 8/10 painted Campis. We all have to sacrifice for practicality somewhere and have some sort of a cross to bear?

quote:

One of my employees got bored and polished my wheels. They turned out okay. Still thinking of painting them

Ricky's gonna be mad!


Chuck

They do take a lot of elbow grease to keep shiny.....and water is their worst enemy.

Hi, I had some very bad experience refinishing Campagnolo magnesium wheels. When restoring my 1973 Alfa GTV I decided to sandblast and clear coat the wheels. At first they looked perfect, then, after a week there was some sort of magnesium reaction that started going on; like dark "marble" stains coming out; few months down the road they got really ugly, basically destroyed...
This is just based on my experience, but I would stay away from stripping off all the paint; rather just send the old paint to good, smooth finish and then repaint over...maybe not as perfect but way safer.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick P.:
They do take a lot of elbow grease to keep shiny.....and water is their worst enemy.

Not JUST water but air too. Magnesium does not like oxygen. Probably other gases in the atmosphere as well.

If you don't seal it out completely, you will also start to see stress cracks in it at some point.

I know that the original Halibrands used on the race Cobras at low temperatures will actually become porous and won't hold air. They have to be heated to close the porosity. This I am told is due to the molecular structure of magnesium.

Magnesium will also burn if ignited with a good spark and some racing rules prohibit their use.

Lots of reasons to keep them completely sealed. It just wasn't happenstance that Campagnolo "coated" theirs.

Those offerings by Mr.Fiat are aluminum. Wonder how many, if any, he has sold at $1,500 each?

Looks like I have another project this winter. Thanks for the input. I an now thinking all black our a dark gray....clear coated.
Sure wish I could find a set of front seventeen inch Kinesis wheels to match my back wheels.