Wohlwend aluminum wheels ?

The attached picture of Moonshadow was taken in Auburn last year before the Grand Parade. The wheels look great .................. and so does the rest of the car.
Thanks to all the volunteers for their work repairing the engine.
Especially Bill Bicknell in Missouri who looked after the welding repairs and did the actual engine rebuild. Moonshadow rides again.

He sold them to Vic in Vancouver, Sorry I don't have he last name off hand. Vic's phone number is 604-729-1807.
The last I talked to Vic he was having problems finding a machine shop that could produce them at a somewhat reasonable cost. I also think Vic had other interests that were more pressing then making the wheels..

Thank you all very much for the comprehensive information.

Do any of you know who he sold the designs and programs to in Canada?

Josh Malks car at the ACD museum has them.

Just a quick follow up to my last post.  I spoke with Roger yesterday and he confirmed that the stock hubcaps will mount on the aluminum wheels the same as with the stock wheels.  Roger does not run hubcaps because he spent hours polishing the aluminum wheels and did not want to hide them behind hubcaps.  Roger has two sets of the wheels, one set on the red phaeton and another set that came on his Westchester that he acquired a few years back. Roger thinks that the original build of the wheels consisted of about five sets.  Roger bought one set and Gail Shaw and Henry Portz each purchased a set. Not sure who originally purchased the other sets or where they are now.  Also do not know if there were follow up builds of the wheels.

If you want to see what the Wohlwend aluminum wheels look like check out page 28 of the latest newsletter.  Roger von Bergen’s red 1936 Phaeton “Lucifer” has the Wohlwend wheels on it.  I don’t know if the aluminum wheels had a provision to mount the original hubcaps, Roger runs his car without hubcaps.  I will ask Roger about this the next time that I see him.  The aluminum wheels are thicker than the stock wheels and require longer lug studs.  The steel Wohlwend rear hubs could be purchased with lugs for either the stock wheel or the aluminum wheel.  The picture shows the hub with the longer studs.  I have the steel hubs with shorter studs and stock wheels on my Westchester.

When I purchased my Westchester I received a number of extra wheels.  When I decided to put on new tires I measured the thickness of the metal of the center section of about 12 wheels and found as many as three different thicknesses.  I believe that the range was about 0.20 inches being the thinnest and about 0.24 inches being the thickest.  My measurements could have some error due to paint thickness but there were still clear differences.  Someone with a good history of the change notices may know what the true thicknesses were.

 
 

Don Wohlwend was an engineer who did quite a lot of research into the design of original Cord wheels, brake drums and rear wheel hubs. He designed and had made new stronger steel rear wheel hubs machined from billet. I don't know the story on the brake drums however there would have been improvements.
The aluminium wheels were machined from a billet and I think from memory ended up lighter than the heavy duty steel wheels. I have no idea how many were made. Don sold the designs and machining programs to a guy in Canada. Don passed away a few years ago. It was a pleasure to have know him.

Going through old threads on wheels and hubcaps, I cam across a few members positing about their Wohlwend aluminum wheels. What is the story on these wheels?  Any information would be appreciated.  

It also sounds like there were a number of steel heavy duty wheels made.  What is the best wheel to hunt for?

Thanks!