blackoak Posted September 30, 2007 Report Share Posted September 30, 2007 I was needing some info on some wheels that I bought at a local auction. These are chrome wheels and have a chrome center cap with the cobra snake logo with Shelby under the snake. The rims are stamped on the inner part 15X6 made in the USA. On the back they have cast into them the Shelby snake logo with Shelby under it. They have Super Snake cast into the back of the rims. Also cast into them are Meets SEMA Specs 5-1 and MAX Wheel Load 1580 lbs. These rims have 5 lug nuts and have what looks to me like a 4-3/4" bolt pattern and the lug nut are 7/16" nuts. I'm not sure how to measure for the bolt patteren. I was told to measure from the widest two bolt hole from the back of one to the center of the other???? If I go from center to center of each hole it measures 4-1/2. I was told that these rims are not original Shelby rims and that with them having a 4-3/4 bolt pattern that they will not fit a Ford. Is there another Shelby Company that produce rims? These rims look like Cragar SS rims. I will try and post a pict, but I'm not sure if I know how. I can send a picture of them to anyone by Email if I can't post on this forum. Any info will be appreciated. I tried to upload a picture, but was told the file was to big. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColdwaterHotrod Posted September 30, 2007 Report Share Posted September 30, 2007 PM sent for photo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crispy23c Posted September 30, 2007 Report Share Posted September 30, 2007 PM sent for photo Good. Could you post it Rodney? I am curious, too! Doesn't quite sound right. I do want to say that my trailer hitch says Shelby on it as well. I did not pick it, I got it with the pop-up camper I bought for my family to go camping with earlier this summer. I had to laugh when I saw the name on the hitch. I swear that my F-150 is faster after that "mod"! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColdwaterHotrod Posted September 30, 2007 Report Share Posted September 30, 2007 Here are the photos & I can honestly say I have never seen this type of LOGO used, maybe they were a proto type rim from back in the day & never made it into production . Also notice how the 5-spokes set in more & look to have an off-set casted into each spoke where they meet the outer rim. Maybe our historian of Shelby info (Crispy23C) can shed some light on these rims. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crispy23c Posted September 30, 2007 Report Share Posted September 30, 2007 Here are the photos & I can honestly say I have never seen this type of LOGO used, maybe they were a proto type rim from back in the day & never made it into production . Also notice how the 5-spokes set in more & look to have an off-set casted into each spoke where they meet the outer rim. Maybe our historian of Shelby info (Crispy23C) can shed some light on these rims. Thanks for the props, dude...but I can honestly say I don't know those. Maybe I can find some time to do some digging on these....Interesting stuff!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackoak Posted October 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2007 Thanks for the props, dude...but I can honestly say I don't know those. Maybe I can find some time to do some digging on these....Interesting stuff!!! Here is the story of how and why I am looking for info on these rims. Like I said I bought these at a local auction in Indiana. I buy and fix up vintage and newer chainsaws and sell them on ebay and this auction had several saws there. I noticed these rims stacked up with a bunch of other rims and I just happened to notice the center caps had the Snake logo with Shelby under it. The rims were covered with a thin black film and I could tell that they were in good condition still under the film. After buying the saws that I was interested in, I was leaving the auction and the auctioneer was selling all the rims in one lot. There were very few people at this auction , and the price was right, so I bought the entire lot of rims, if for nothing else, for scrap. After I got them home I just put them in my barn and thought I would clean them up and see what they would bring on Ebay. I noticed the Snake logo and Super snake cast into the backs of the rims, and I mean it when I say, I know nothing about Shelby Mustangs, I have only owned one Ford in my life and it was a beater pick-up truck. I did see a show on the History channel about vintage hotrods and remember a part about Shelby Mustangs being rare and very collectible and also that when I was a kid 30 years ago, there was a guy that had a Shelby that lived in town and I never did forget that cool snake logo. I cleaned up these rims and took pictures and listed them as what I thought as being Shelby Mustang wheels because of how they are marked. I had several emails asking questions about the rims that I did not know the answers to. One Ebay member wanted to know what the bolt pattern was and I didn't even know how to measure for that. He was telling me that these were not Shelby Mustang rims because they looked like they had a 4-3/4" bolt pattern and he ask me if the lug nuts, which are with these rims, are 1/2" or 7/16". The nuts are 7/16" nuts. He informed me to measure from the back edge of a lug nut hole to thee center of another that was the fartherest away and I did come up with 4-3/4", or very close to that. He said he was telling me this info, and that I was mis-representing these wheels as Shelby Mustang rims. I thanked him for the info and told him I would end the auction, and I did, because I didn't know and figured why would he lie. He emailed me back saying even though these were not original Shelby rims he would still buy them and wanted to know what I wanted for them. This made me think that just maybe he was trying to put the screws to me. I talked to the high bidder on the rims, which by the way was close to 300.00$ and 5 days left in the auctiion and explained what I was told by this guy. He said that the way to measure for a bolt patteren is from center to center of the holes and not from the back edge to the center and that also he thought that there were Fords that uses 7/16" lug nuts, and he still wanted the rims. Well I go out and remeasure the way he tells me and they measured a 4-1/2" bolt pattern. I decided to do a search on Google and found this Shelby forum, so here I am looking for someone who will tell me straight, what the He!! these rims are and are they actualy Shelby Mustang wheels. I am planning on re-listing them on Ebay, but would like to know what I have before doing so. I'm sorry for such a long winded post, but I thought it would be best to explain my situation in this matter and again any info is apreciated that you can tell me about these rims. With that being said, does anybody have any ?? about chainsaws as I do know a little about that subject. I forgot, thanks coldwater for posting my pictures. I know about as much about computers as I do Shelby Mustangs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColdwaterHotrod Posted October 1, 2007 Report Share Posted October 1, 2007 I have forwarded your info to the top of the food chain at SAI. Hopefully I'll hear back something real soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EXPcustom Posted October 1, 2007 Report Share Posted October 1, 2007 I am waiting for the responce as well, you are lucky in that Carroll Shelby is very accessible and can get you the correct info on these rims. I dont see why these would be fakes as it would not make economic sence judging by the age of these rims. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColdwaterHotrod Posted October 2, 2007 Report Share Posted October 2, 2007 Here are the photos & I can honestly say I have never seen this type of LOGO used, maybe they were a proto type rim from back in the day & never made it into production . Also notice how the 5-spokes set in more & look to have an off-set casted into each spoke where they meet the outer rim. Maybe our historian of Shelby info (Crispy23C) can shed some light on these rims. I got a reply back, all these photos are now being circulated at SAI in Las Vegas, hopefully we will know something very soon PS: here are a few more Chuck sent me..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackoak Posted October 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2007 I got a reply back, all these photos are now being circulated at SAI in Las Vegas, hopefully we will know something very soon PS: here are a few more Chuck sent me..... I contacted the auction service that had these wheels today, looking maybe to find the original owner and the history of the rims, but I had to leave a voicemail and I have not heard from them yet. It was an estate auction and by the age on most of the items that were at this auction, most of the stuff seemed to be from the 60's. I know the saws that I bought were. Thanks again guys for helping out in this matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColdwaterHotrod Posted October 3, 2007 Report Share Posted October 3, 2007 Got an answer back form SAI today about your rims. As a recap, I forwarded these photos to the President, who then passed them onto the V.P & from there the photos ended up in front of John Luft who then showed them to Carroll Shelby. They said the following about the rims "This appears to be the Crager wheels that Pat Shelby's wheel company did in the early 70's. Not much value to them but interesting." also "I just got an e-mail from John Luft this morning. He had showed the pictures to Carroll and he confirmed that it was from his wheel company circa late 60's, early 70's. As such they look to be the real deal." So there you have it Blackoak, the legendary man himself verified that your rims were made in the late 60's early 70's & they are real rims, not fake, not knockoffs, but aftermarket rims made by Crager. Hope everyone learned something? I did. Also a Special & Big Thank You goes out to Amy, Gary, Gary, John & Carroll for taking time out of their already busy schedule to do research on something so small. They truly are looking out for our best interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackoak Posted October 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2007 Got an answer back form SAI today about your rims. As a recap, I forwarded these photos to the President, who then passed them onto the V.P & from there the photos ended up in front of John Luft who then showed them to Carroll Shelby. They said the following about the rims "This appears to be the Crager wheels that Pat Shelby's wheel company did in the early 70's. Not much value to them but interesting." also "I just got an e-mail from John Luft this morning. He had showed the pictures to Carroll and he confirmed that it was from his wheel company circa late 60's, early 70's. As such they look to be the real deal." So there you have it Blackoak, the legendary man himself verified that your rims were made in the late 60's early 70's & they are real rims, not fake, not knockoffs, but aftermarket rims made by Crager. Hope everyone learned something? I did. Also a Special & Big Thank You goes out to Amy, Gary, Gary, John & Carroll for taking time out of their already busy schedule to do research on something so small. They truly are looking out for our best interest. Thank you, Rodney for all that you have done in in getting me this information. I did find some more local information today on these rims. I found out that these rims were the father of the daughter that was having the auction. She said that she couldn't tell me much about them as her father had passed away last year. They had found the rims in the top of his garage in storage and she did say he was a Mustang owner at one time, but that was several years ago. I wonder if it was a Shelby? She didn't know if it was or not, but she did say that when he got rid of it he wasn't very happy about selling it. I did ask her if she found any other parts laying around in his garage, She said most of the "JUNK" like that was hauled to the landfill. I guess I will relist them on Ebay as original after market Crager Shelby edition Super Snake wheels. Does that sound like an honest description??? From just reading the many post on this forum it sound like the Shelby Mustang has a very rich and interesting history and a darned good man behind the Shelby name with all his charity work he does for kids in need. Take care and I wish you all the best with your Shelbys. blackoak the "Chainsaw Guru" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColdwaterHotrod Posted October 3, 2007 Report Share Posted October 3, 2007 I'm still researching but in 1966 some early Shelby GT350's came with 5-spoke crager wheels before they ran out, but I don't think they would have had super Snake on them until after 1967 after the Original 1 & only Super Snake car came out (see photo) just list the info that was provided & let the buyers now what you found out & Carroll did verify that these 5-spoke Super Snake rims were made by Crager in the late 60's & 70's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crispy23c Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 Whoa. Cool info. You cannot get much better than an answer from the man himself. I found nothing in my Shelby resources. Must be because these were aftermarket pieces? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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