2 bar knockoffs without locks...
 

Picked up two of these up this weekend, one right one left...
anyone know how to tell if they are they originals - the center inserts are Stainless Steel and the black is PAD PRINTED as original.

----Good find! They appear to be original two bars to me. If you are interested in flipping them I would be interested.......Bill S

Send them to me and I'll see Bill gets them... :-)

Very cool pieces.

----BAAAWAAAHAAAHAAA!.......Bill S

----Lee,,, Very similar but not exactly the same.......Bill S

Look similar to the hubcap spinners that were on first gen Chevy 2s.So what Chevrolet do these fit?

----Technically, these spinners never came on a production 63 Corvette, but they were used on pre-production show 63 Corvettes and also used in testing. The early adaptors that were used had a tooth system instead of production style adaptors with 5 pins to locate the wheel. That 1st design failed under strenuous testing so GM and Kelsey Hayes came up with the later Corvette style KO's. These early spinners had the same thread as the later 5-pins and could interchange. I believe that GM used different pieces from "Dayton Wire Wheel" early on as they had used DWW for a long time for other show cars and Corvairs. The older style tooth system of attachment worked OK with the Corvairs vastly lower torque.
----The "2-bar" spinners are out there and look cool, but I believe they would be a point deduction during judging as its been pretty much proven that no 63 Corvette ever was delivered with KO's. Back in 75/76 my boss at Classic Motors came up with a box of 2-bars. My memory says there were around 36 in the box. The last time I saw a 1st design complete set of 2-bar KO's on a Corvette was in the late Al Maynard's garage around 10 years ago on a ZO6 silver 63 coupe. Al was well aware that they didn't come on the car. He basicly had them on the car because no one else could........Bill S

They are absolutely beautiful on a '63 Corvette. For some reason I like them better than the three bar.

Bill - is this the Corvette you are referring to?

https://s26.postimg.org/ir9uv8dqx/screenshot_6035.png

https://www.mecum.com/lots/FL0118-31...rvette-z06n03/

Wow look really nice!Thanks for the info!

A friend of mine has a set of KOs on a '65 396 Vette. One of them came loose and did a lot of damage to the quarter. I don't know if they are still on the car or not, but I bet if they are that he is checking them every time he drives it.

----Not sure, Lee, but Al was as big a luminary as any of the mentioned former owners so I would be surprised if his name wasn't mentioned. Not aware of where Al's car resides today but he had a good relationship with Dana as Al also owned the 68 Z convert for quite a while. I think that milestone car is still in Dana's garage.
----As far as losing KO's, it happens. Its happened to me. I once watched my rear drivers side wheel pass me by and disappear into the woods. That has never happened again! Certainly guys sometimes don't get the spinners tight enough, but also some have made the mistake of not counting the revolutions made when attaching the spinner. As I recall its 7 1/2. That's important because you can inadvertently index the wheels on the lug nuts instead of the pins. When that happens the nut wont go down the entire number of revs. The results of that mistake can be very bad!......Bill S

----Forgot to mention an easy way to check tightness on original KO's. Just run a short line with a black magic marker from the spinner to the cone when the spinner is deemed tight enough. Then take a look at weather the two move apart as often as you want!

I have found a couple of photos of the Dick Thompson Don Yenko campaigned 63 Z06 which wears 2 bar knock offs/wheels with no cones in the Sebring March of 63, car wears number 1 placard.
http://library.revsinstitute.org/dig...d/137291/rec/4

However I am pretty sure the same car was being run (under number 48 placard) in the NOV 62 Puerto Rico races as a shakedown --- Car appears the same - white Z06 - (a photo of the car while at this race is also in the REVS collection which shows the dual outlet master cyclinder verifying it as a Z06) with the triple stripe down the center and driven by Dick Thompson. - this car has white steel wheels (which in itself means nothing... as the wheels had issues so they weren't being used, wouldn't be smart to use the wheels if you only had one set (due to availability) either...
http://library.revsinstitute.org/dig.../195759/rec/15

IT is rumored that 14 cars were delivered with the wheels, the invoices would show this, these cars would have probably been turned into race cars. YENKO /Thompson got their car before the letter went out stating about the shipment delay of the Z06's due to the wheel problem, if a car had the wheels, this Z06 would have been one of the few, having been delivered so early... anyone know anything about the Yenko Z06 paperwork?

----Firstgen,,, There are two problems that I feel were prevalent back then. The 1st was the supposed porosity problems with the KO castings. The 2nd would be the gear-drive wheels and adaptors. I'm fairly sure that the combination of the 2 caused everyone who received an early ZO6 for racing purposes fairly quickly put them aside and chose wider real magnesium or steel wheels. The pic you showed means that that team didn't trust the KO's or felt the need for wider wheels, and used steel wheels because they couldn't find anything lighter.
----Thought any more about what to do with these 2 ???.......Bill S

X2!

There's a set of wheels with two bar spinners for sale on the NCRS site, if I had a '63, they'd be on it.

X3!!!