Wheel Centre Co. and E-T Wheels In 1960 schoolteacher Dick Beith started making wheels in his shop class. In 1962 he founded Wheel Centre Co. Though his first production wheel resembles the American Racing Torq-Thrust, Beith was a true pioneer. For one, he produced his E-T Mag in aluminum four years before American did (yes, we recognize the irony of calling an aluminum wheel a mag). But probably his single greatest contribution was one of the most significant for its time: rather than drill each wheel with a specific pattern the company cast five slots and employed offset washers to adapt it to vehicles with 4.5-, 4.75-, and 5-inch wheel-mounting patterns. Though looked down upon by purists, Beiths Uni-Lug pattern revolutionized the aftermarket-wheel industry by reducing retailers inventory and making wheels more available for less cost. Typical for manufacturers riding the big wheel trend of the 1960s, Beiths company expanded to create several varieties. It also regularly improved the design, adopted die-casting, and employed higher-tech alloys among other things. In 1967 it introduced the E-T II, a most curious wheel that paired the outer half of a cast five-spoke wheel with the inner half of a steel rim The E-T V wheel (so named for its spoke count) was Dick Beith’s first wheel and remains one of Team III Wheels’ most popular models. Early examples were sand-cast but die-casting techniques make them more precise and able to withstand greater abuse. Team III produces this wheel in various diameters; 17 inch shown here. Scott Russell at Team III Wheels still produces Beiths most enduring wheels. Like Beith, Russell casts the wheels in permanent molds for increased strength, detail, and shine retention. He also forewent the Uni-Lug mounting drills each wheel for a specific pattern. Beith produced a wheel with no drop center to prevent racing slicks from coming unseated at speed. The original E-T III comes apart at the middle for tire mounting. Team III’s one-piece version, the Fueler, features a conventional drop center for conventional mounting. It’s also available in a range of sizes. Russell has the patterns to cast the original wheels if demand justifies it. If youre an old-time hot rodder, then the ETIII name should sound familiar to you. Founded in the late-50s by Dick Beith in Concord, California (near Oakland), the wheel company at its peak was producing one wheel per minute and owned the largest die-cast machine west of the Mississippi. Youd find ETIII wheels on every type of hot rod and drag race car back in the day, but by the 70s, the wheel market had changed so much, Beith decided to sell out to Filter Dynamics and go Indy car racing. The retro look was coming back into hot rodding by the mid-90s (when the billet look began to wane) and Beith wanted to start up his old shop again. The Wheel Center reopened in 1994 in San Leandro (again, near Oakland), and Dick started making new versions of his old wheels (but no longer riveting the centers to the hoops like back in the old days!). By 1999, Beith wanted to retire, and looked to an old family friend, Scott Russell, to run the business while he traveled around the country. Russell, who had put in 27 years in the aerospace industry and was bored to tears with his career, wanted a new challenge and gladly accepted the chance to run the business. When Beith finally offered to sell the business to Russell, Scott took the plunge, bought the company, and was then suddenly in the wheel market. Initially, Russell wanted to concentrate on making wheels, improve their quality, and, in a cost-saving measure, have the foundry produce less rejects. Once those goals were achieved, Scott began to expand his line of wheels while reducing the customers wait time. Soon, Team III Wheels was producing 11 wheel styles, two of which are Ferrari-style wheels and one Lambo-type wheel, as well as have the ability to make a set of one-off wheels for individual customers. (Theyll work with the customer, using their design to make a 15- to 17-inch set of cast-center rollers for about $6,000). Since taking the reigns in 1999, the bottom line of Russells company has grown tenfold, which means hes doing something right. Hes split the focus of the company in two, with one side being a supplier of wheels of his own design and having them available for immediate delivery, and the other being a division that will make custom offsets for specific customers needs. Always wary of trends, Team III Wheels also offers a new line of Cobra one-piece cast wheels in 17-inch while still making the design in a two-piece configuration. Another wheel just added to the line is the Altered, a square-window wheel that looks similar to the vintage Halibrand wheel. Russell still looks at the wheel business as something fun, and really gets a kick out of creating new designs and being able to provide custom fitments when others have said it wasnt possible. His company supplies his AC III wheels (in both lug-style and the knock-off type) to several of the Cobra manufacturers in the kit and replica industry, and though its not too often noted, the AC III wheels are usually lighter than the competitions (sometimes by 10 pounds per wheel!). Thats a lot of unsprung weight when dealing with car performance aspects. When you have someone who heads up a company that isnt jaded with the business and still has time and the interest to create new products, then its the consumer who benefits the most. And with the way Scott views the future of Team III Wheels, we can expect some exciting new wheels to be coming off the assembly line for some time to come. Team III Wheels San Leandro, CA 510-895-8880 Team3Wheels MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS ARTICLE VIEW SLIDESHOW The ACIII wheel is the one most KIT CAR readers may recognize, as several Cobra manufacturers sell the Team III Wheel to its customers. You cant get more Available in 14- or 15-inch diameters, the ET Five-Window has a spoke almost 3 inches deep through the window and comes polished or as-cast. The 10-spoke Gasser wheel gets its looks (and name) from the long-gone 12-spoke design found on early racetrack-bred Gassers and Altereds, except you can bolt these wheels up with a regular lug pattern. Suited for a street or strip look, the ET Fuelers have a tough look to them and can be ordered with sizing up to 16x12. The team behind Team III Wheels is Jin and Scott Russell. Either will answer the phone, unless Scott is working out back assembling wheels. The working tooling, or match plates, are made of cast-aluminum and are used to form the desired wheel shape in the foundry sand. (left to right) Fueler, ACIII (background), Gasser, and LTIII (used on everything from Chevelles to 240Zs). At the foundry, bars of aluminum are heated in a 400-pound capacity furnace to more than 1,000 degrees before theyll melt. With the mold packed with foundry sand (called Olivine), the molten aluminum is poured (at 1,300 degrees) into the mold. The aluminum is poured into the middle (called the sprue, or in-gate) of the mold until it fills up and exits out the risers at each corner. Once the aluminum cools (less than two hours), the mold is broken open and the wheel center is removed. Flashing, the small sections where some of the aluminum has leaked out of the mold, are removed and the risers are cut off. The wheel centers are stacked, then shipped out for heat treatment and shot peening. When the wheel centers come back from treatment, they have the appearance and finish most people associate with an as-cast wheel. On one of Team IIIs CNC machines, the centers outside edge is turned to get a perfectly round piece. Depending on the order, some polishing may occur at this stage. Some wheels feature a half-polish, while others may be fully polished. The wheel hoops are carefully heated, which expands their diameter just enough so the wheel center can be dropped inside (to the correct backspacing measurement). Heres Scott doing some of the welding, where the backside of the center gets welded to the hoop. It takes about one minute to weld each wheel. After welding, each wheel is placed in another CNC machine and the lug holes are drilled. After all of the welding is completed, the wheels go back to the polishing department where theyre not only polished on the face of the wheel, but are buffed on the backside, as well as on the tire side of the hoop. The shipping department takes care of packaging and getting customers orders out the door in a timely fashion, but they are also responsible for the final inspection of the wheels, too. If you want to spruce up your 9-inch Ford rearend, then Team III has a finned aluminum cover for it, too _________________ The reason for building the ET III wheels in two halves was to make it easier to change tires at the track between rounds, although it still takes a lot of muscle to unseat the bead. The mating surfaces on each of the halves have a machined, stepped recess. This provided adequate sealing without an O-ring or a gasket, since these wheels were designed to be used with slicks, which use inner liners or inner tubes. The original E-T III 16 by 10 was sand-cast aluminum. The entire face of the wheel was painted gold, perhaps to resemble the Dow 7 coating that was commonly supplied on the magnesium Halibrand Sprint that inspired it. Unlike Dow 7, the paint was prone to chipping. It took a lot of work to get these rough sand-castings this even and smooth. The most popular vintage E-T wheel was known as the E-T V (five), a Torq-Thrust copy. The E-T V five-spoked wheels were considered good-quality wheels with decent castings and good machining. E-T wheels often used distinctive center caps. Although they shared the same mounting pattern and chrome-plated, molded plastic construction as the original American Racing Equipment Torq-Thrust caps, E-T caps were made with a pronounced oval outside surface with the distinctive green and chrome E-T logo. These center caps, and a modern, two-piece version of the E-T five spoked wheel called the E-T Five, are available today from E-T. Some of their early street wheels were produced with the E-T Unilug, an oval-track-shaped steel washer that could be inverted or replaced to change the bolt pattern of the wheel. One version has a centered hole that fits Chevy 4 3/4 wheels, and the other styles offset hole fits the Ford and Mopar 4 1/2 pattern in one position and the 5 on 5 pattern when its flipped around. Like many wheels being produced today, the current E-T Five is a two-piece wheel that uses a cast aluminum center and a rolled aluminum rim. This type of construction makes it possible for a manufacturer to produce a wheel with any offset by varying the placement of a universal center. E-T is now known as Team 3 Wheels. etwheels/
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 08:48:50 +0000
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