New Wiki and Latest

[angelfj1]

New Wiki and up-date

See new wiki here.

Restore your Bluemels Steering Wheel


See updated wiki here. (go to the very end of the article for details)

Smiths Heater Matrices now available

 

[tdskip]

Re: New Wiki and up-date

These are great write-ups Frank, thanks for making the effort to document this.

 

[angelfj1]

Re: New Wiki and up-date

A pleasure!

 

[Tinkerman]

Re: New Wiki and up-date

Another great job Frank!

 

[TR4nut]

Re: New Wiki and up-date

Frank-

You need to toot your horn a lot more than just quietly submitting that wiki article. I've seen many mangled adjustable wheels but your write up shows clearly the design weakness that causes them all to fail. And I can't believe you resurrected that wheel as well as you did. I have one of these in the garage right now, but it is missing ALL of the bakelite on the rim - care to give that one a go?

Randy

 

[TRDejaVu]

Re: New Wiki and up-date

Nice job Frank.

 

[angelfj1]

Re: New Wiki and up-date

Frank-

You need to toot your horn a lot more than just quietly submitting that wiki article. I've seen many mangled adjustable wheels but your write up shows clearly the design weakness that causes them all to fail. And I can't believe you resurrected that wheel as well as you did. I have one of these in the garage right now, but it is missing ALL of the bakelite on the rim - care to give that one a go?

Randy

Are you saying that you have nothing but a steel rim? If so, that would be beyond repair. Maybe a conversation piece? I have another (extra) standard wheel that needs to be restored. If you are interested, PM me.

 

[TR4nut]

Re: New Wiki and up-date

Frank-

I inherited an adjustable wheel that someone (not me, really!) thought they could add a wood rim to it. Didn't work obviously, so they tossed it to me and now I use it as a temporary wheel for moving the frame around. At least I did when the suspension was still attached!

Randy

 

[Vaark01]

Re: New Wiki and up-date

Frank,

Outstanding! Thank you.

Paul

 

[martx-5]

Re: New Wiki and up-date

Terrific write-up Frank.

One thing I've noticed about the TR3 wheels over the years...the adjustable wheels always seem to have major degradation of the bakelite rim, whereas the non-adjustable wheels rarely deteriorate except for an occasional crack. My non-adjustable wheel has one small crack, but is otherwise in perfect shape. My buddies TR3 adjustable wheel needed major surgery just as you outlined in your article. I guess the quality of the Bakelite in the two wheels was vastly different.

 

[NutmegCT]

Re: New Wiki and up-date

Frank - that is really excellent work. Congrats both on the wheel restoration, and the wiki page.

I had no idea there was a safe way to restore those steering wheels. Thanks!
Tom

 

[TR4nut]

Re: New Wiki and up-date

I guess the quality of the Bakelite in the two wheels was vastly different.

I think its just the way the spokes are attached to the outer rim - not much support there so everything breaks. I've seen several old ones that had that flex issue, the old non-adjustable wheels don't seem to have near the flex issue.

 

[angelfj1]

Re: New Wiki and up-date

Randy: I agree with your theory. As I stated in the writeup, owners would often use the steering wheel as leverage to extricate themselves from these cars. This Bakelite material just could not handle the repeated stress. A similar problem can be found in Michelotti bodied TR's. In this case using the wheel/column for leverage would result in failure of the steering column support at the firewall. This is a classic thing. I have never seen one of these cars where this piece hasn't either been repaired/replaced or needed the same.