Weds

bert35csi

bert35csi

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Recently, in conjunction with Alpinas, Hardy&Beck and Weds multi spoke modular rims have been kind of "in the news" here, well, I've scored a set of the prized staggered Weds 16X7" and 16X8" rims from an E24 enthusiast. These have black centers, but I will have the centers painted silver and outer rims polished to a mirror finish at a local wheel restoration shop. From what I understand, these 2-piece wheels started out with 2 rim halves (like 3-piece rims), but were welded together during manufacturing to form a single barrel, thus a "2 piece" wheel. Think they look rather cool and beautiful. I have a set of 16" Alpinas also, and comparing the two, the Weds, with their deep dish and polished stepped lip rims are more unique, IMO.

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Curious what the weight difference is between all three wheels. I have heard the Alpinas are very heavy. Those will look great when done.
 
The Weds look very cool... Very similar to the H&Bs...

The wheels are all very similar to the design of the Alpinas. Although the Alpinas are heavy and according to Erick at Coupeking "very soft... making them very easy to repair"

The Weds and the H&Bs are basically the same except the H&Bs are 3 piece...

On the H&Bs it says Patented....

I wonder what is so special about these wheels that they were able to get a Patent?

I was under the impression that in order to get a patent you had to prove the design,mateials or construction are substantially unique and/or different then similar items...
 
The Weds' and H&B's design can be traced back to the racing 3 piece Alpina magnesium center 3 piece wheels of the mid-late 1970's. Believe it was only available as a 15" wheel.

The only difference that I can discern is that the H&B rim spokes are slightly raised (ribbed) from the face of the wheel center, whereas the Weds spokes are flush with the center like the Alpinas. I've studied both Alpinas and the Weds and the spoke contours are almost identical, saved for the removable centers and their mounting holes. Guess, the manufacture welded the 2 rim halves together to lessen chances of air leakage compared to 3 piece wheels where a sealing compound is used to caulk the rim halves.

The Alpinas are quite heavy, but I've never weighed them, likely about 25 pounds each. I was told by the previous owner of the Weds that each rim weighs about 17-18 pounds. Pretty sure the Hardy&Beck rims are in the range.
 
Wasn't BBS the supplier to Alpina?

If I remember correctly BBS supplied most race teams with their three piece wheels... The up side of BBS wheels were they had Spun Aluminum Inner and Outer Rims that could be ordered in any size so teams could actually take apart the wheels to build any size/offset or rebuild their own wheels..

BBS were also very light and very strong...

Other companies copied BBS or like Hardy&Beck they ordered BBS Rims and designed their own centers...

Again I still have no Idea what H&B were able to Patent?
 
kys911t said:
If you do not mind my asking? How much were you able to get them for?
Click to expand...

$800 for the set plus $175 for fedEx ground from the mid-west to San Francisco. Freight cost is kind of high, but I think it's due to the oversize box (X2) that housed 2 of the wheels.

A few years ago on EBay, a couple of sets of nice staggered 16" Weds sold for about $1100, so think this is the market rate for a nice set. do believe I got a "smokin" deal though. I actually considered buying this same set of wheels from the seller about a year ago, but at that time, I was hedging between the Weds and the H&b rims. Contacted the seller about a week ago, and luckily, he still had them, so now, they are mine's.:razz:
 
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Thanks for sharing info. Please post a picture when you get them on your car. Wheels are the one personal touch that can really make it your own.
 
When I purchased my Alpina's the guy had a set of 15" Wed's that were in pretty good shape.I think he wanted 400.00.(same for the Alpina's:))If someone wants me to see if he still has them just let me know.They did have tire's on them. Tim
 
Reviving an old thread

Bert - PM sent.

all - I'm refinishing a set of staggered 16" WEDS but I don't really like their center caps. Does anyone know which BMW center caps will fit these wheels? I can't figure out which BMW ones fit because I haven't found a parts list that gives their diameters. I do know that the plastic Alpina centers fit but they stick out too much because of the raised center of the WEDS design. Similarly, the fit-from-behind "metal can" design also doesn't work well. Any help is appreciated.
 
The BMW oem 68mm center caps (part #: 36136768640) snap right on to the Weds rims without any modifications. The Weds original caps are not very attractive to say the least.

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It's not so much the gold colored caps, but the overall tallness and odd contours of them. They are way oversized when compared to the oem BMW and Alpina caps.
 
just to illustrate what Bert is describing, I've linked to photos of the WEDS with and without the caps. Two things to notice compared to Alpina wheels 1) the plastic cap is taller than an Alpina cap and 2) the rim center is built up like an extinct volcano. Alpinas are basically flat across the face. The result is that the cap extends out too far for my tastes.
 
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