Magnum 500 or Cragar rim advice

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Joined
Oct 2, 2012
Messages
257
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Location
Arkansas
My Car
1972 Ford Mustang Convertible
I like the Magnum 500's, I want to purchase a tire and rim package. I have found at least 3 companies making them. Any thought

or comments on the following companies?

Wheel Uniques, Legendary or Dynacorn.

Or do you prefer Cragars?????

 
Both are awesome, you can't go wrong. Quality of Magnums can vary. The cheaper ones need to be kept clean and out of the damp/cold or they'll corrode. We have winter here and I've sprayed WD40 on mine to stop the condensation building up and rotting them.

 
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Not sure who his supplier is but I bought a couple sets from Whiteys Wheels from the Carlisle Ford show. One set didn't last 6 months and started rusting heavily. The other set I got a year or two out of them before the rust showed. Thin chrome bad quality.

 
I have a set of Wheel Vintiques on my 69 vert I purchased in 2007. They still look really nice. I do annual wash, clean, wax off the car and typical cleaning on the car the rest of the time on the car.

 
I like the Magnum 500's, I want to purchase a tire and rim package. I have found at least 3 companies making them. Any thought

or comments on the following companies?

Wheel Uniques, Legendary or Dynacorn.

Or do you prefer Cragars?????
I prefer the torque thrust over the Cragars. As for Magnums, that would depend on the color of car. You really can go wrong with either. Also, if you can find someone with one or the other buy them a six pack and barrow thier wheels for an hour. I plan on doing this with Mach71351c

 
The magnum is a much stronger wheel than the Cragar. This is based on friends that slid their cars with cragars into a curb and the center of the wheel that is cast breaks, personally saw this several times. The Magnum would probably bend but not break. Someone said Aluminum magnums I have never seen that.

The originals were plated then welded together to get the plating into the small tight places. If they are plated after welding they will rust really fast due to no plating in the cracks.

David

 
I've had my Cragars on the car for about 18 months now with no issues - but it pretty much lives in the garage. One of the other members (Nance, whose car inspired mine) has complained about rusting with his as well.

A lot of the other members have Magnums and love 'em, and then few of them (Austin Vert, MeZapU) have the wider 15x10 Magnums on theirs (rear wheels) and love 'em as well. But it seems to me that the vast majority of '71-'73s have Magnums - which is fine - they look great! I just wanted something different for mine, and decided to go 'old school restomod.'

I was originally going to go with Torque Thrust IIs (all chrome), but noticed at local car shows that almost everybody around here has 'em on just about any and every kind of car you can think of... so I decided that old school Cragars were for me.

If things ever get to the point that 15" tires are no longer available, I'll make the switch to 17s... and right now the 17" Magnums are on the short list along with Torque Thrust IIs and a couple others.

 
You really can't go wrong with either. I love the Cragar SS and I love the Magnum 500s they both look great on our cars.
You said it way better than I could. One of these days, I'll get a handle on "brevity." rofl

 
Dynacorn has come out with new alloy magnums

they have

15 X 7, 8 and 10

17 X 7 and 8

There is also a chromed version of the 17 X 7 and 8's

I can get prices and or pictures for anyone who is interested.

New chrome is not like it use to be

 
I ordered my 500's from Specialty Wheels Ltd. They made me my custom backspaced rear wheels. Quality is top tier.

 
Interesting topic. When I bought my car (in California), it had a set of Magnum 500's on it. NOT originals unfortunately. I have always liked the look of the 500's on the Mach 1. I drove the car for a few summers with these wheels, but always had a bit of vibration that I couldn't seem to get rid of. Here's the point of this story; if some "A" hole with an impact gun gets to install these Magnum 500 wheels, it will and did egg shape the bolt holes (if care is not taken to center each stud and nut) and as Magnums 500's do not have centers, the wheels can end up running off-center slightly. As my 14" tires were virtually new, I opted for a new set of 14's from Wheel Vintiques which are US made and (I believe) from original tools. That was two years ago and so for no rust or vibration because I NEVER use power tools on them. Quality was excellent.

 
Magnums must be "lug-centric" balanced and not "hub-centric" like most all modern wheels. Balancing them via the hub-centic method would certainly cause vibration issues.

[video=youtube]

 
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Magnums must be "lug-centric" balanced and not "hub-centric" like most all modern wheels. Balancing them via the hub-centic method would certainly cause vibration issues.

[video=youtube]


Very good video, can't get it any plainer than that!

My new rims were balanced using a "Lug Centric" adaptor and are darn near perfect. My point was that the lug hole can and do get distorted by improper installation. Some of the holes on the rims I scrapped were easily 60 thou oversize and egg-shaped, the lug seats were as bad. No way to balance these. A waste of otherwise good rims.

 
My opinion. 15 inch OEM magnums or the highest quality repop you can get. The black contrast to the chrome outdoes the Cragar look in my opinion.

Back in the 80's Cragars were for Chevys in my neighborhood. Ford Factory wheels, or American Racing for a stock type look or Keystone Classics for a slightly custom look.

I am restoring some Ford 15 inch Magnums. Glad I found them!

View attachment 31532

 
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