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TR2/3/3A TR3A - new wheels?

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Aloha Tom,

A few years ago I bought some TR3 steel wheels from British Motor Cars, Ltd. They are located in Madisonville, KY and have a large selection of parts salvaged from Triumph, MG, Jaguar and Austin Healey cars. Paul Oglesby has been buying every British Car in Western Kentucky for years now. His warehouse holds the remains of hundreds of stripped BMC products as well as an extensive NOS inventory of Lucas Parts.

Paul checked that the wheels I bought were round and true before shipping. As I recall shipping to Hawaii was more than the cost of the wheels. I was satisfied with the veteran wheels.

They don't have a web site, but here are a phone, fax and e-mail address: (270) 821-6351, (270) 825-8305 (fax) and bmcltd@spis.net. They still seem to be in business because they are listed in a current phone book and were at Carlisle, PA in May this year.
 
Progress!

Took TeeYah up to get the remaining Kumho tires today. Tire shop owner checked all four rims for true. Said if "1" is perfect and "5" is disaster, I've got three "2" and one "4" (bent lip on outside of the rim of the wheel I knew was bad). He took what looked like a giant pipe wrench and carefully brought the bent rim (of the "4") back up to what looked like true. Rotated to check for wobble (just barely noticeable, but still a bit "side to side"). Re-balanced the wheel with new tire.

I drove off, keeping fingers crossed. On my test drive back home, I actually hit 60mph before any hint of wobble started. And I can't believe I drove TeeYah at 70mph and had a BLAST (but I was in a 45mph zone ... minor detail).

Then later this afternoon, the local LBC repair shop owner said he could find a decent original TR3 or 4 wheel for me in a day or two. If he finds a wheel that's better than the straightened one, I'll have the two switched and use the formerly bent one as a spare. If the "new" one is not better, then I'll use it as a spare; the spare wheel I've got now is evidently an MGA wheel and can't be used on the front hubs.

Things are looking up. Definitely some major progress made. I'm actually going to go driving for an hour or two on Friday, then start my engine bay cleanup project.

Thanks again to all my TR teachers. You gentlemen are the salt of the earth, the icing on the cake, the mustard on the hot dog, the ... well, you know.

Onward through the fog!

Tom
 
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