Some General Questions on Knock-Off Wheels

[Larry E.]

Restoring a 1966 Coupe with repro Knock-Offs. Wheels look great on car but now looking for a spare.
Here are my General Questions>

1)Will repro wheels fit on an original K-O Hub?

2)Will repro wheels fit on ANY repro K-O Hub?

3)Is it necessary to line up the name brand K-O wheel with the same name brand hub?

4)Will an original K-O wheel fit on a repro K-O Hub?

Been around Corvettes for a long time but I will be the 1st to admit I am not that well versed in K-O Wheel knowledge.
Having a heck of a time trying to take off the center cap w/o damage. I was told when I acquired this car that the wheels
have pins or some type of "set screw bolt" that must be accessed by taking off the cap. I don't even know what name brand wheel I have.
Just ordered (L.I.C.) that suction cup center cap removal tool. Hard to believe that it will work.JMHO

Thanks in advance-Larry

[Harry S.]

Re: Some General Questions on Knock-Off Wheels

Larry, if you have not removed the center cap then you don't really know if they are real knock-off wheels or bolt-on knock off wheels. To the untrained eye they look very much the same. You can remove the center cap with a small screw driver. Just place it between the cap and the spinner and pry it out. Post a picture of what you find and we'll go from there.

[Larry E.]

Re: Some General Questions on Knock-Off Wheels

Larry, if you have not removed the center cap then you don't really know if they are real knock-off wheels or bolt-on knock off wheels. To the untrained eye they look very much the same. You can remove the center cap with a small screw driver. Just place it between the cap and the spinner and pry it out. Post a picture of what you find and we'll go from there.

Thanks Harry for the response>Yes I do know since I talked to the previous owner. He claims there is a set screw in there. (Don't ask me why)

To the untrained eye they look very much the same. You can remove the center cap with a small screw driver. Just place it between the cap and the spinner and pry it out.

Everybody tells me this but this method simply will not work for me. It is on there very tight. You would think they would have designed with a small indent that a
screw driver could grab. Maybe the L.I.C. suction cup will work. Thanks-Larry

[Patrick B.]

Re: Some General Questions on Knock-Off Wheels

The set screw will be in a small threaded hole that penetrates the threaded connection between the knock-off nut and the adaptor. It is a safety feature of repro real knock-off wheels (not bolt-ones) to prevent the knock-off nut from loosening while the car is being driven.

[Don H.]

Re: Some General Questions on Knock-Off Wheels

Larry, The suction cup works great. I have two, one in the car and one in my tool box. Don H.

[Larry E.]

Re: Some General Questions on Knock-Off Wheels

Thanks for the responses. Kinda got off subject on the "Center Cap Problem". Now back to my questions;anybody??
1)Will repro wheels fit on an original K-O Hub?

2)Will repro wheels fit on ANY repro K-O Hub?

3)Is it necessary to line up the name brand K-O wheel with the same name brand hub?

4)Will an original K-O wheel fit on a repro K-O Hub?

[Mark M.]

Re: Some General Questions on Knock-Off Wheels

Larry, I have a set of Western wheels KO's I bought new back in the early 1990's. They are USA made. When I put new tires on my coupe recently, I tried an original hub and spinner on from a set that I had out. It went on the Western KO just as the western set. To the eye the angles and sizes looked the same. As far as interchanging any repro with original parts, one would have to be very cautious. There have been a number of manufacturers of KO wheels over the years, many over seas and any of them could have used different dimensions. I guess it would depend on who's wheels and who's hub and spinner being used and whether they machined to the same fit.

[Larry E.]

Re: Some General Questions on Knock-Off Wheels

Larry, The suction cup works great. I have two, one in the car and one in my tool box. Don H.

Don: Got my order in from L/I/C. To my surprise the suction cup DID work out great. Cap came right off. The set screw was there as
we thought. Still can not tell what brand of wheel I got as I want to get a spare and have them match. On the back of the Spinner was
numbers of> 380 TH or FH(Hard to read). Does that code mean anything to anybody? Thanks-Larry

[Mark L.]

Re: Some General Questions on Knock-Off Wheels

Larry, I have a set of Western wheels KO's I bought new back in the early 1990's. They are USA made. When I put new tires on my coupe recently, I tried an original hub and spinner on from a set that I had out. It went on the Western KO just as the western set. To the eye the angles and sizes looked the same. As far as interchanging any repro with original parts, one would have to be very cautious. There have been a number of manufacturers of KO wheels over the years, many over seas and any of them could have used different dimensions. I guess it would depend on who's wheels and who's hub and spinner being used and whether they machined to the same fit.

Mark, does your wheel look like this on the back side? It has the K-H whichI'm not sure why is there if they are made by Western. Thanks

[James W.]

[Larry E.]

Re: Some General Questions on Knock-Off Wheels

Don: Got my order in from L/I/C. To my surprise the suction cup DID work out great. Cap came right off. The set screw was there as
we thought. Still can not tell what brand of wheel I got as I want to get a spare and have them match. On the back of the Spinner was
numbers of> 380 TH or FH(Hard to read). Does that code mean anything to anybody? Thanks-Larry

Update>Ok numbers on the Spinners are 230LH and 229RH on one ear. Ear#3 does not have the Pie 1 logo on it so they are
reproductions. I think I have "Corvette America" brand but have not seen that on the wheel. Thanks-Larry

[Mark M.]

Re: Some General Questions on Knock-Off Wheels

Mark, The wheels are on the car now but I know they have KH on them. I bought them from Corvette America in the early 90's. Your rim has the round nubs on the back perimeter similar to originals. The mold for original KO is different than the repros. Repros were made by Western wheel KMC in California and casting again went back to Asia. There's a great post on the Corvette Forum from June of 2009 titled Knockoff and Bolt-on Wheels Written by a knowledgeable Corvette America representative. It answers many questions about the KO repro history.