<VV> broken wheels (was center fit) very little corvair

[Ray R. (aka Grymm)]

I still have the factory aluminum wheel from my 93' Probe GT that I broke. 
I was crusing down the interstate late at night (about 72mph usually around 
here) and a long piece of something fell off the flatbed tractor trailer in 
front of me...  wound up crossways in front of me blocking all of my lane 
and half of the other...  I hit it with the drivers side wheels... and got 
flats both front and rear (no loss of control issues whatever.. which 
impressed me).

When I walked back to pull the thing out of the road (to spare anyone else 
the same fate) I found it was a lenght of hollow steel... roughly the size 
and shape of a 2x4 and about 14" long.

Well While I stood there scratching my head and trying how to handle TWO 
flats in the middle of the night I noticed something looked funny on the 
front...   turned out the entire "face" of the wheel, including the 5 spokes 
and the outside bead face complete with still attached tire had sheared 
clean off the rest of the rim.

This broken wheel resides on top of my toolbox (the face portion only, wish 
I still had the rest)... jagged edge all the way around the back side of it 
where the rest of the wheel USED to be!

Off topic, but any time that car comes up I have to mention.... that 93' 
Probe GT was the most unreliable POS I've ever owned... had lower mileage 
than most of my other cars (about 70K when I bought it) and I really do 
think it spent more time in the shop than in my driveway.  In the 50K miles 
I drove it, it quit running more times than I can recall and had to be towed 
(usually electrical/electronic issues), blew up the lousy automatic trans 
twice, broke that wheel in half, half the interior trim was coming apart, 
and finally the engine developed a very nasty metal/metal noise...  I tried 
to drive it  15 miles to the scrapyard but it got pushed by my dad's SUV the 
last 5 miles or so.  Also of note this car took a lot less of a beating than 
many of the others I've owned...

The really funny thing is that I sold my very first Vair' to buy that car 
because at the time I was going to be traveling long distances every week 
and needed something very reliable.... so much for that plan!  None of my 
Vair's ever left me unable to drive home... though I did have to walk a 
couple miles to an auto parts store for an oil filter and some oil once 
after my harmonic balancer came apart and cut it in half... but I then 
proceded to drive over 150 miles home stopping every few minutes to push the 
balancer back away from the filter!

Ray "Grymm" Rodriguez III
Lake Ariel, PA
CORSA member
66' Corsa 140/4 coupe
65' Corsa 140/4 coupe (under construction and almost done!)
63' Monza PG coupe (under construction- quickie driver build)


Original message
> ...unless you consider the Keystones on Ron Bratton's Mustang and Sam
> Hollingsworth's '69 SS Chevelle, both of which had centers come loose
> from the rim although the lug studs remained intact (and is thus non
> sequitur but it's a good story anyway).   Ron's Mustang had the
> driver side rear wheel come partially apart (what IS it with driver
> side?) and wobble so bad he locked up the brakes and stopped in the
> middle of the road and the wheel almost re-assembled itself again.
>
> He still has the same wheel today.  It's in his basement.  Keystone
> refunded his money and he bought Cragars.   I was surprised they let
> him keep the one that tried to come apart... but they did.   It
> almost did come apart and the joint that was supposed to hold the
> center in the rim was visible... there was some sort of epoxy or the
> like, looked like JB-Weld.
>
>
> Sam's Chevelle wasn't as fortunate.   He had lined up beside
> something else on Williamson Road on a weekend night at "pole
> position" at Williamson and Hershberger (where the best races
> started) and they both launched from the light when it went
> green.  Sam's Keystones were new... he launched and halfway across
> the intersection both rear wheels spun the centers completely out of
> BOTH rims, one of which wadded up the driver side rear fender and
> jammed there, the other folded up the OTHER fender and exited the
> vehicle and bounced across the road and into another car parked on a
> lot across the intersection.   Sam said it was an odd feeling
> watching his right rear wheel pass him and head towards the lot
> across the street.
>
>
> He would, after that incident, often as a running joke break into
> that parody of that country song "You Picked A Fine Time To Leave Me,
> Lucille"...
>
>
> "You picked a fine time to leave me loose wheel...  over the
> guardrail and down through the field....
> I hit a big tree, but it didn't stop me, and this time I'm hurtin' fer 
> real...
> You picked a fine time to leave me,loose wheel..."
>
> We'd all join in...                  I AM SERIOUS.   None of this is
> a joke.    ...although it should be.   ;)
>
>
> Sam sued Keystone.   They paid off the damages to his Chevelle, he
> got it fixed, immediately traded it in on a new Monte Carlo.   It had
> GM rallys on it which stayed there through the end, until relatively
> recently when he finally let the old car go after keeping it for over
> 25 years.  We got to see Sam's Monte slowly disintegrate over the
> years until its paint was dull as dirt and rust in all 4 corners and
> the doors was suggesting eminent demise.    Now he goes everywhere in
> his 41 Chevy street rod.
>
>
>
> tony..  got non-hub-concentric wheels on my Plymouth Satellite and
> the '65 ragtop
>
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