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Super snake wheels would be made if Shelby performance ordered more? Every body wants super snake wheels, let us buy them from Alcoa ourselves.

SS730HP

By SS730HP,
in Shelby Performance Parts

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91z28350 Team Shelby New Member

91z28350

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With such a beautiful design, has any thought been given to making them in a 20x10/20x11 staggered set with offset and backspacing for a 315 sized tire? One of the problems I had with the Alcoas (as much as I loved the look, it was the reason I went with Shelby Wheel Co. CS-1's) was that to get enough width on the rear for a 315 tire , you had to send out 1/2 of the set and get them widened after the fact. I really like the Alcoas, and would gladly replace my CS-1's with them, but they really need to be sized appropriately from the get go. My two cents, and good luck on trying to get this rather exasperating task complete.

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svt13 Team Shelby Member

svt13

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Posted

Hey SVT13,

Let Jer work!

...And work yourself too :-)

I am sure he is trying his best.

 

The only useful posts are those from newcomers who confirm being potential Alcoa buyers.

(He knows most of us already said we would take a set or more...).

 

 

Amigo's supersnake is too distracting lol

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Jer Team Shelby Enthusiast

Jer

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Hey SVT13,

Let Jer work!

...And work yourself too :-)

I am sure he is trying his best.

 

The only useful posts are those from newcomers who confirm being potential Alcoa buyers.

(He knows most of us already said we would take a set or more...).

 

 

Thanks, yes, I am working on it, I promise.

 

Jer

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Jer Team Shelby Enthusiast

Jer

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We're continuing to discuss this, and more progress has been made.

 

Just wanted you all to know we're still hard at work on this project.

 

 

Jer

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2008vistablue Team Shelby New Member

2008vistablue

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Sorry Jer the honeymoon is over. :banghead:

 

OUCH.

 

 

 

The way I see it is if you want something ask for it. The worst thing that could happen is they say no.

I would love 20 X 11 KR rims. If they can’t be made no skin off my back, but at least I asked.

 

This is extremely unlikely. 20" KR rims are rare enough (I believe only 3 sets were ever made, as prototypes) but an 11" width is also pretty much out of the question.

 

 

 

 

I would just like to add how many companies out there give their customers this kind of access to a Vice President.

 

I'm here to help. Shelby EXPECTS me to be here and hear you all.

 

 

 

Jer

 

 

Hi Jer,

 

I've been following this thread with some optimism. I know some folks would like the wheels with different engravings so maybe consider a standard wheel package and then an aftermarket machining company if someone wanted say: added engraving or wheel widening. It would keep the initial wheel variation / cost down and allow those with deeper pockets or tied to some additiona engraving to pay for it off the standard base cost. Sorry if you thought of this already.....I'm sure you got where you are because your sharp. Just want to make sure all the rocks are turned over because I'd LOVE a set of Alcoa's again!

 

BTW my boss is a former accountant at Alcoa, unfortunately she didn't get me a set of alcoas when she was there.....rats!

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2008vistablue Team Shelby New Member

2008vistablue

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I'd buy another set.

 

 

Get at the end of the line....you already got a set and win all the local car shows cause they bling so much. How about letting the avg. Joe get in line first for a set?

LOL and yes I know I still owe you for that drink at Hooters!!!

 

Fast forward to when Jer gets this deal done and everyone is gonna know Jer is DA MAN!!!!

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SVT NAJA Team Shelby Member

SVT NAJA

Posted
Posted

Hi Jer,

 

I've been following this thread with some optimism. I know some folks would like the wheels with different engravings so maybe consider a standard wheel package and then an aftermarket machining company if someone wanted say: added engraving or wheel widening. It would keep the initial wheel variation / cost down and allow those with deeper pockets or tied to some additiona engraving to pay for it off the standard base cost. Sorry if you thought of this already.....I'm sure you got where you are because your sharp. Just want to make sure all the rocks are turned over because I'd LOVE a set of Alcoa's again!

 

BTW my boss is a former accountant at Alcoa, unfortunately she didn't get me a set of alcoas when she was there.....rats!

 

 

+1... Keep it simple!

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Mr. Haney Team Shelby New Member

Mr. Haney

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The Alcoa Dura-Bright finish was first introduced to the trucking industry at the Mid-America Truck Show in March of 2003 and released for sale in the middle of 2004. Alcoa makes 95% of all the aluminum wheels used by the trucking industry. Truckers have been polishing their aluminum wheels since the came out in the late 1950's. The problem with this is it is a labor intensive job to keep the wheels appearance looking like chrome, when you can have team drivers running a truck over 200,000 miles a year in all road conditions and weather. I myself would polish my wheels 4 to 5 times from April to late October to get rid of the damage the road chemicals and bring the luster back from the previous winters abuse. A finely set of polished wheels will not hold the finish for more than 1 or 2 days when encountering road salt and calcium chloride mixed with water and high humidity and the proper temperatures outside while you are driving 500 to 600 or more miles a day.

 

Alcoa came up with the Dura-Bright finish to counter act the abuse of the chemicals ruining the finish on trucks wheels to reduce maintenance and labor costs for the trucking industry. In 2003 Alcoa gave out a considerable amount of info about the process to generate interest in this new, not yet released product. The reason for this is not only did you have to get the trucker to pay for Alcoa to finish the wheel as polished, but than you also had to pay an additional 30% for the Dura-Bright finish to be applied to the wheel, when compared to a milled aluminum wheel used to reduce truck weights over a steel wheel. Alcoa was giving away 10 sets of 10 wheels at the truck show in March 2003, I happened to enter both myself and a close friend for a set of these wheels at the time of the show, my friend won a set of them. These wheels were shipped to my friend and left Alcoa's facility 12 months before they were introduced for sale to the trucking industry for him to give feed back to Alcoa about his experiences with them in real world trucking conditions.

 

Now what is the Dura-Bright process? Good question without much of an answer. The explanation I was given at the truck show was, the process involved a chemical reaction that allowed the bond of the finish to actually adhere to the molecular aluminum content into the surface of the wheel, but the depth of the finishes adhesion/bond to the aluminum is very thin. It is a finish that is applied after the wheel is made and polished. So any type of abuse or machining after the fact will destroy the Dura-Bright finish if the machining or damage goes through the top surface of the aluminum. I had a new trailer built in the summer of 2004 with Dura-Bright wheels. I can say the finish will not fail due to winter road chemicals, but will fail due to road debris striking the surface and going deeper than the finishes molecular bond to the wheel. The road debris over time will slowly sand blast the finish of the wheels exposing raw aluminum. the only way to counter this is to strip the wheels surface down below the Dura-Bright finish and re-polish the wheels.........if I thought polishing the standard wheels was labor extensive without the Dura-Bright finish, you should try stripping the Dura-Bright finish to polish a set. Also the Dura-Bright finish has gone through changes since its introduction to give a much better finished product that has a finer polished appearance to it now than it was when it was introduced. If Alcoa was building the SS wheels back in 2007 you wouldn't have liked the quality of the finish and wouldn't have bought them, let alone fighting to get them back. My personal experience with them is such that I'll never own another set of wheels with a Dura-Bright finish, but I ruined a set of them hauling sand/gravel from sand/gravel mining operations and 450,000 miles of driving in a little less than 5 years. I also hauled road salt in the winter months........they will stand up to chemical abuse better than anything else I've seen in 20 years of trucking. I still would prefer to polish my wheels each summer to have the high luster of a finely polished aluminum wheel when compared to a new Dura-Bright wheel. As I've gotten older I now pay someone to polish my wheels each summer to keep the finish up.

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Mr. Haney Team Shelby New Member

Mr. Haney

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I have a feeling the problem with Alcoa and the SS wheels is the fact Alcoa is requiring a large enough order to justify making a run of wheels. I doubt any other auto wheel manufacturer is using this process, it is a patented process and is not licensed by Alcoa for anybody else to use that I know of. Alcoa also has gotten very secretive about the process since it introduced it in 2003 to the trucking industry and it became a successful product. If you want this process done to an aluminum wheel or any aluminum finished product, Alcoa is going to build the wheel/product and apply the finish for the final seller of the wheel/product to the general public. With this knowledge, you have to realize Alcoa isn't interested in doing this unless they can see a return on the production costs when compared do doing thousands of wheels for the trucking industry a month. If SA was an OEM manufacturer and could guarantee them 100,000 pieces a year, the wheels would be built at a reasonable cost

 

The smaller the production run of SS wheels the higher the costs will be. Alcoa may have said to SA that we will build you the wheels at the low volume you want, but to do this we need to raise the price 100% to you or we can't continue making them. SA may have decided that the price increase wasn't going to be able to be passed on to their customers, since they had already established a market price of $500 each in the past runs of production of this wheel. Ebay prices are not a true market price of a product that is no longer being manufactured for resale to the general public. If SA and Alcoa come to terms on building SS wheels in the future, the $5000 a set Ebay purchasers will be furious. The price will drop to less than what it costs to buy a set of new wheels from SA and they'll be stuck with fact they spent a ton of money for a used wheel.

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Morgan19d Team Shelby Member

Morgan19d

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He said he would update with any new info when he had it and Jer is a man of his word. I am sure with all the commotion for a new run of the SS wheel, he hasn't forgotten to update us. Let's give the man a little breathing room to do his job.

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Jer Team Shelby Enthusiast

Jer

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Thanks for your patience, guys.

I am indeed working on it, and hope to have word soon.

 

 

Jer

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