E-T rims wheel centre co. walnut creek california

[moparmaniac10]

I have a set of old mags that came off a 66 coronet I had. I believe the brand is E-T as it is stamped on the front. On the back it is stamped wheel centre co. walnut creek california. I have uploaded a photo of one. I am trying to figure how much these may be worth or if they are even worth redoing. They are universal lugs holes (oblong) and have no curb rash or dents. The center caps need to be redone. I have heard about old magnesium rims that look like these but not sure if these are or not. Any help would be great.

 

[moparmaniac10]

I started doing more internet searches and found that these may be the first aluminum rims that were produced by E-T. They have 3 different eras of rims and this one is in their first lineup. These used the unilug cause it was easier to work with at the drag strips.

 

[moparleo]

Actually there were 2 different washers available. A washer that was offset that was used to change the bolt pattern spacing by simply installing the washers either way. So by using either an offset washer or a center hole washer you could get three different bolt pattern spacings with the same rim. The sole purpose of the uni-lug system was to allow one rim to fit three different cars by using the appropriate washers, cutting down on the cost of making and having to stock three different rims instead of one. I sold these rims in the early seventies and they were a good quality, lower cost option to the Cragar S/S and Ansen Sprint wheels of that time. To test any rim to see if it is magnesium. the bare rim will turn to a very dark color as soon as it is exposed to water. Magnesium will polish to a very high luster but will oxidize before your eyes when wet. The only way to prevent this was to clear coat the wheel after polishing.

 

[Cuda360]

I'm not sure about wheels from 40 years ago, but most modern wheels advertised as "mag" contain little-to-no magnesium. For the oxidation reason moparleo mentioned, magnesium wheels are quite uncommon.

 

[moparleo]

Mag wheels is just a generic term used these days to describe alloy rims, usually aluminum alloy.