DeTomaso Mailing List: October 98, Message #203

Mr. Drew asked for some real world experience for three piece rims.  
FWIW I had a set of BBS three piece rims in the early eighties on a 2.8 
L ford capri.  The rears were 13 x 8.5 (235 50-13 cn-36)and the fronts 
were 13 x 7 (195 60-13 cn-36).  These wheels were light!  You could also 
get them in very specific offsets.  You also had to put them together, 
30+ socket head allen screws, washers, two O-rings, torque wrench etc.  
The whole thing worked out very cool....for the first year.  Cleaning 
off the brake dust was a chore from around all those little socket 
heads.  At about 20 K miles is when the exciting part started.  The 
allen screws started to randomly fatigue fail.  I eventually drilled the 
rims replaced all the stock 3mm metric hardware with 3/16" harware.  
That worked for a while....about 20 K more miles.

Concluding observation: BBS three piece rims in the early eighties had 
fatigue failure problems with the allen head cap screws.  It is left for 
the reader to leap to any other conclusions about three piece rims. :-)

Brent
4130



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