Roland Dudley writes:
>First, O'Connor
>does indeed have their wheel rebuilding done by British Wire Wheel in
>Santa Cruz, and I found out that I could have them done in two to three
>days if I'm in a really big hurry. I'm not.
We had our wheels ('66 MGB 60 spoke?) done by British Wire Wheel
about 18 months ago. Although we feel it was definitely a worthwhile
investment, it
1) took a very long time
2) was more expensive than we expected.
Problems 1 and 2 are related. Our spokes turned out to be badly rusted
into the hubs so the wheels were in the hot tank for a very long time.
Since the spokes were badly rusted, many of them simply broke and had
to be replaced anyway, adding to the cost. The guys at BWW said that
it wasn't anyone's fault (ours or the previous owner's) that made the
spokes rust and there are no real preventive measures to be taken to
against rusting.
In all, the total cost was about $700 for reconditioning 4 wheels
(normal paint, not chrome) plus four Michelins. Our car was up on jack
stands for three or four weeks and we had to badger BWW into getting our wheels
back because we were going away and didn't want to leave our car like
that for a week unattended in our apartment parking lot. However, the
last trace of high speed steering wheel vibration disappeared and in
general, the car handles noticeably better to even a novice like
me (and the wheels look great, of course).
Lydia Gregoret
lydia@rosa.mit.edu
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