Wheel consolidation.

After what might be described as 'the disaster' of the last wheel fret, this item is now being re-drawn with several deletions and several additions.

With the project originally started to provide wheels for 'older' cars, this will continue to be the bias, with an emphasis on pre-war cars.

The new drawing includes for the first time wheels for beaded edge rims, primarily for a couple of future projects. These are modifications of the earlier 21" parts made, but not as yet used.

A wheel for the T59 Bugatti has also been drawn up. Not 100% correct, this cross laced wheel omits the cros laced spokes which still leaves a very crowded wheel.

One of the problems with the last fret was the K3 MG wheels, a total of three problems contributing to their failure. The problems have been corrected and variations to the type made to provide correct sets for ERA 'E' Type, both early and late versions.

All cross laced experiments have been deleted. I am advised that stainless steel as used for the etches is not reliable as regards finished dimensions, etching companies recommending drawing to plus 30% of finished size. Results have shown this to be good advice as for the drawn 0.008" wheel spoke (0.006 desired size) some results have been up to 0.010" with others on the same fret down to 0.004", resulting in burning when heat treated. Cross laced wheels need spokes to be narrow, and consistant.

Jaguar XK and HRG wheels are continued with the additional 16" Aston Martin DB2/3 wheel.

The 16" wheels for (primarily) Vanwall, Maserati 300S/250F and Maserati 4CL/CLT are being complemented with a 17" version, though the associated machined parts are in limbo.

With the earlier VERY limited vintage type steering wheels so popular, modified, smaller versions are being made for PVT cars. Spring spoke and wire spoke Bluemels, early and late Alfa and Mercedes GP are probably the limit as my computer is finding the file size more than it can cope with.

Peter.