Can someone comment about the differences between the Halibrand Sprints and Halibrand Speedways. I picked up these "Speedways" a year ago, 15X7 and 14X6.5 including Halibrand "knockoffs".
These aren't cast, but they're Halibrand. I bought these 20 yrs ago. They are for sale in parts for sale
You know, I have trouble thinking of these post H.A.M.B. era aluminum wheels as “Halibrands”, especially the 5 spokes and billet versions. I grew up around magnesium Halibrands and almost all of my hot rods have had them on one end or the other. I think if you had asked Ted Halibrand about plastic caps he would have been appalled, he made real race parts, gear boxes, rear ends, v-drives and race wheels. From my experience with him he didn’t make his wheels for street use and didn’t want to sell them for street cars. That made them exclusive for the street car crowd and limited the sizes somewhat. That’s also why they are expensive today. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Here's a few.... I bought the old kidney bean fronts at a garage sale for $225 about 12 years ago. They were in a stack of otherwise useless old wheels and tires I just happened to look through. On the Austin...... Rears for my roadster..... they'll be fully polished Roadster fronts....... to be polished also
Bob Even though I do have aluminum Sprints on my 66 Suburban I agree with you for the most part as I too grew up fantasizing about those Dow 7 coated Halibrand magnesium wheels. The ones that the new team dreamed up that just turned my stomach the first time I saw them were the "Sweet Swirl" wheels, the sprints with the curved spokes, I thought that was pure sacrilege. I do think the five spokes are a nice wheel though, really thought the threaded aluminum center caps were a nice touch to differentiate them from American Torque Thrusts which I felt had flooded the scene. The 16 inch Hal fìve spokes worked good for me as I needed them to clear the disc brakes on our 67 Nova.
These are Eric Vaughn's Real Wheels. The fronts are early Ford spindle mounts with nice JFZ disc brakes, rears are 15x12. They are very nice wheels but I still consider them copies. The last photo is a real Halibrand spindle mount.
Oh yeah, IMHO that Sweet Swirl was a terrible thing to do to a clean, classic design. There are plenty of nice wheels out there and it comes down to well fitted wheels of a style that compliments the overall style of the car. These days finding and using old Halibrands is a real PITA. You usually have to be willing to narrow the rear end to accommodate the offset and drill your axles/hubs to accommodate the bolt patterns. Some shops won't mount tires on old magnesium wheels and then you have to constantly clean them if they're polished.
Bob In the current market, I will venture a guess that if a person has the coin to buy "mag" Halibrands the cost of rearend/axle shaft mods won't be too big of an issue. Which brings up the $$$ that are seen on "that auction site", I've seen some crazy money on some and then they are gone, then readvertised later by the same seller. Ask'n and get'n are two entirely different things.
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