MTFCA Forum

Hi,

I try several times to reach American Vintage Rims, Inc. for MODEL T RIMS until end of September by phone or email and don't heard back from them. Still in business? Hope as well.

That's Mark McLaren. I have been trying to reach him as well. Have sent him several e-mails but no reply.

That's bad, he made very nice quality. I thought we lost a valuable supplier.

I Purchase some McLaren's a few years ago and am very satisfied with his product. Hope all is well with him.

I see the name of the proprietor of American Vintage Rims is Mark McLaren, I sent him an email expressing interest in a set of his 30 x 3.5 inch 4 lug rims. No response yet, I hope Mark is OK.

I see that the proprietor of McLaren Manufacturing (wire wheels) is John McLaren. On the chance that they might be related, I sent an email to John asking about Mark and American Vintage Rims. No response yet.

I saw that Chaffin's shows new rims in their 2020 catalog, so I contacted them. They said they're sold out and have given up trying to get a new shipment from American Vintage Rims. They said they did finally get an answer back to their calls and got a familiar story - the owner of the business has retired or passed on and the next generation has their own jobs and don't want to pick up the Model T business. Chaffin's will not be offering rims in their subsequent catalogs.

They did mention that Coker and Universal still offer rims, made by Standweld. They are pricey and have flat stamped lugs that are welded to the rim at their base, the lugs don't have the supporting "foot" that the American Vintage Rims and original Hayes rims had.

https://www.universaltire.com/vintage-r ... del-t.html

https://www.cokertire.com/wheels/30x3-1 ... plate.html

McLaren sold the business to Mike Lebsack. Here is the link to his web site. https://www.vintagewirewheel.com/

Thanks Paul,
I did purchase the McLaren wire wheel business from John McLaren however I did not purchase the American Vintage Rim business. I do not manufacture or carry the actual rims. I also rely on American Vintage Rim to provide rims for the wire wheels I build. I have no excess stock that I can part with. Thanks and hope this sheds some light on the separate companies. Mike Lebsack

Mike, can you order additional rims in excess of your production requirements? It would seem quite simple to add 4 basic rims to your order of someone needs just the clincher rims.

It seems that the only way anyone is going to have an answer is if someone goes to Mark's house to see if he is still there. Isn't he in Michigan?

If it’s to the point of knocking on doors to get answers... maybe it’s time to start planning your new business venture...?

I guess we are lucky then, to have a local manufacturer.

Allan from own under.

Lucky you are for sure! That's my goal to visit your country in a near future. Maybe in 2 years after the COVID-19 I will go in Australia and bring 4 brand new rims on my luggages no matter what wife will say!!!

Allan, is your local manufacturer Standweld? They are the clincher rim supplier for Universal Tire and Coker Tire.

Allan wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 27, 2020 6:18 am

I guess we are lucky then, to have a local manufacturer.

Allan from own under.

Do they sell, worldwide, or just in Australia? If Ausies are willing to buy parts from the US, maybe its time for Americans to buy from Australia.

The rim supplier for Coker Tire is in New Zealand...
https://www.vintagerims.co.nz/


There is also a fella in Australia who is making rims now...
https://www.vintagerimsaus.com/

Allan, if you have one of your local source rims, can you post some pictures here, especially of the lugs? Thanks!

Terry, we buy stuff from wherever we can get it. The annoying part is the posters on this forum who will not ship to Australia. I can only put that down to being way too busy to fill in a customs form to go with the parcel.

The rims were being made in Queensland and were of excellent quality. The initial maker had his own design for the lugs which were not exactly like anything used on period rims. He has on-sold his interest in the rim manufacture, and the new owner continues to produce them, with correct looking lugs I believe. I do not think they are the Stanweld brand mentioned in previous posts. I will make enquiries over the coming weekend on our annual tour to see if I can get contact details for their supply.

Allan from down under.

From an earlier post, 'Vintage rims Australia' it is. Check out the website as shown in a previous post.

Allan from down under.

I have had a set of 21" split rims on order from Steve since June. Hopefully he gets them done soon.

Allan and others. We were manufacturing the rims prior to selling the business to Steven Hood in Kingaroy Queensland. We are delighted, to say the least, how Steve has grown the business. We believe Steve has the lugs laser cut. You will not be disappointed with the quality rims from Vintage Rims Australia.

Thanks Dick. I could remember details other than Steve's name and his business details. I missed getting my annual supply of hub bolts this year due to the cancellation of the Bendigo swapmeet. The bolts are also of excellent quality.

Allan from down under.

I emailed Stephen at vintagerimsaus.com for a picture of his current 30 x 3.5 inch, 4 lug rim offering and he sent me the attached picture. The lugs are of the later configuration with the tapered profile and no "foot" extending back from the lug. He can supply rims either in bare steel or zinc plated. He quoted me a price of about $1000.00 US to ship four zinc plated rims from Australia to my address in the U.S., subject of course to exchange rate and shipping cost fluctuations.

I will be ordering eight (two packages of four) to replace all of the various style and condition rims that I currently have on my car. My current rims, although serviceable, don't all match, have various amounts of wear and pitting, and were painted or powder coated gloss black by the previous owner of the car.

I just received an email from Steve. He has 4 of my 5 21" split rims done and more are still out being plated. Here is a picture the at sent.