Am. Racing Magnesiums, anyone?

[Ron Carter]

If these fit a roadster they are the smaller width LeMans Wheels. They are a 6" width wheel, and not the ones that Carl is looking for. The 7" Le Mans wheels will not clear the roadster fenders and leaf springs in the rear.

Even so, they are substantially more valuable than what you paid for them, as I sold a set of roadster 6" LeMans wheels two years ago for 3X what you paid for those.

For a street car, any mag wheel is going to be a hassle to care for. I have 7" American LeMans wheels on my Z, Magnesium Libra's on my 510 and a set of American Silverstone Magnesium wheels for my roadster. It is virtually impossible to keep these rims looking good, unless you polish them on a weekly basis, and I live in a dry climate. Getting caught out in a single rain storm will will equate to hours of polishing.

Three years ago when it rained at the MSA show, my Z with the LeMans wheels clouded up instantly when they got wet.

So I guess my point is, that it is cool to have these wheels in a capacity that they are uncommon, and rare. But better suited to the guys restoring cars that will not be driven on a regular basis, and definitely not driven in the rain....

[sblake01]

I saw the pictures. They looked wider than 6" to me. Maybe he purchased them with the idea of putting them on a roadster and at some point realized they didn't fit or never got around to trying them, but they did look wider than 6" to me.

[Ron Carter]

I did not see the photos. But, I would think it is VERY difficult to tell the size of the wheel from a photo. If they are the larger wheels, or if the guy sold them because they did not fit, then I would suggest talking to Carl as I know he is looking for at least one wheel and probably would buy the entire set just to have a few spares

sblake01 I would refer to my original comment:

"If these fit a roadster they are the smaller width LeMans Wheels."

[Arne]

When I looked at the picture with my prior years of wheel sales and service experience, I'm fairly comfortable in saying that I don't think they were the 6" Roadster-appropriate size. I suspect they wouldn't have fit the Roadster anyway.

[Mike B]

Arne and Stephen are correct again as usual. They are 14 x 7 with a 4" backspace. Overall they look to be in pretty good shape and should clean up nicely. Some pitting, but it doesn't seem to be very deep. A couple of minor dings on the rims, but no major rash. Someone tried to paint the fronts of two of them black at some point, but they obviously weren't prepped properly. The guy was a little strange, so I don't have much information on their history except they supposedly came off a 510 and he kept them stored inside during the several years he had them. He wanted to put them on a roadster but never got around to it. Sounds like that wouldn't have worked anyway. The guy also had a 1967 410 SSS left hand drive from Canada that he claimed was VIN #00008. I wanted to see the plate to verify that but he said the car was locked and didn't offer to go get the keys to open the engine compartment. By that point I was ready to leave anyway. It did have the SSS emblems on it at least.

-Mike

[bigoak]

Great haul. Congrats.

[sblake01]

Well, hell, I've got SSS emblems on my 810. Really doesn't mean much. Nice rims. I actually had a set of those years ago.

[Mike B]

I finally got my magnesium ARE Le Mans wheels back from being restored. They came out really nice except for a few noticable pits on one lip. The guy welded the area a couple of times, but couldn't get it to fill without pitting. He said I could fill it with epoxy and put some chrome colored paint on it to make it less noticable. I might try to see if I can find someone else to fix it, but magnesium is difficult to weld and old wheels have a tendency to pit, so it may not come out any better.

-Mike

[Arne]

Well, he may be slow, but he's good...

They look great!

[Carl Beck]

I finally got my magnesium ARE Le Mans wheels back from being restored.

-Mike

You are really quite cruel.

Carl B.

[Mike B]

Thanks. Yeah, he was slow and hard to get in touch with at times, but he does good work.

-Mike

[Mike B]

You are really quite cruel.

Carl B.

Sorry Carl. I know you'll find a spare eventually.

-Mike