What the kids got me for Fathers day!

[RickB]

Nice kids, only a little gentle suggestion from me and this is what I got when I returned home after 8 days in Alaska.
A set of Ansen Sprint hub caps for my little green froggy:

 

[RaserX]

Cool lOoking hubcaps. Im new so I don't know the significance of ansen sprint. Could you enlighten me?

 

[RickB]

The Senter brothers got together with Jack Andrews in 1947 and formed AnSen (first part of each last name) Automotive Engineering.
They developed lots of "go-Fast" parts for hot rodders and racers.
The wheels are Ansen Sprint wheels, sometimes called Slotted Mags and sometimes referred to as Jellybean Mags for the shape of the holes.
Ansen developed a lot of great stuff that was popular with all kinds of car owners, and the wheels might have been the most popular thing they made.

Mine have the right lug spacing but they are a tad bit too wide for the Midget. However I enjoy the fatter tires they allow me to run.

Here's a story in Hemmings about Sol and Louis Senter and Jack Andrews:
https://www.hemmings.com/hmn/stories/2006/12/01/hmn_feature28.html

Louis Senter was inducted into the National Sprint Car hall of fame (in 2009 IIRC) and you can find details about him and the things he did online with a bit of searching.

I felt the wheels would be the perfect thing on my amalgamated frogeye Midget with the Nissan running gear, Miata seats and early Midget (Mk1) boot. Right now I'm pretty happy with how it looks, I need new seat covers soon and will need to stay ahead of the rust issues, but it's giving me a lot of smiles per mile.

 

[RaserX]

Awesome! Can't wait to read up on it. Pics?

 

[RickB]

I need to take another good picture of the car with the caps, but here's one with the wheels before I got the caps:

 

[RaserX]

Nice. I called those aluminum slots growing up. Always cool.
I see you in the snoqualmie area. Man I love that area. I was stationed at whidbey island. Love to be able to climb mountains in the morning and scuba in the ocean in the evening. Deception pass was a favorite dive site... Sorry off topic.

 

[Trevor Jessie]

Rick, what type camber do your front wheels have? Mine were a few degrees positive, and once I installed some negative camber trunnions it now is about -1.5 degrees on each side. It lessens the effect of the wheel offset, but more importantly I think it is going to help slow the wear on my tires.

 

[RickB]

I think I could really use a set of those.
My front looks a little like /---\
Not nearly that much but you get the idea.

 

[Trevor Jessie]

If your front looks like that, then you already have negative camber. My wheels were tipping out at the top like this \--/.

 

[RickB]

Is that with the weight on them or jacked up off the ground?
I think I need to get out a framing square and park on a level surface and see just what they are doing. I don't trust my eyes very much.
I have a picture of it from the front somewhere, I'll post it.

 

[taskadog]

If the wheels and hubs are true, how will exchanging wheels change camber.
I understand that with the same angle, the amount of actual offset will increase with tire/ wheel diameter.
Are larger wheels the reason to decrease the camber at the trunnion?
I'm just trying to understand more about steering geometry.

 

[Trevor Jessie]

Larger tires will not change the camber. Lowering the car will change the camber at rest. Wider radial tires will wear faster with excessive camber (pos or neg). When I drive my sprite I spend most of my time on curvy roads and I like to take the corners fast. The negative camber helps keep the contact patch flat and prevents rolling to the sidewall.