Libre Wheels / Mr Torq Thrust

[7T1240]

Here is a before and after pic of one of the Libre's refinished for me by Mr. Torq Thrust, aka Terry Vaughan. I found the wheels on Craigslist on the east coast advertised with the following description:

4 14' American Racing torque thrust looking wheels, no rash $40

It took several email / phone calls to the seller to determine that these wheels were in fact 14' x 6' Libre's with a 4 bolt pattern. I agreed to purchase. Shipping, at $52, was more than the purchase price of the wheels!

I found Terry Vaughan after doing a search for "Libre Wheels" on ebay. He emailed me the following link to his website:

http://mysite.verizon.net/res1ksb2/

As evidenced by the after photo, he has the machinery and know-how to do excellent work. He can be reached via email at:

terry.vaughan@verizon.net

and he is located in Burlington, Washington.

Regards,

Gary S.

[Arne]

I'm impressed! How much per wheel did it cost for that first class restoration?

[7T1240]

Hi Arne,

4 Wheels @ $110 / wheel = $440 + $40 for shipping. I also made some other miscellaneous purchases, i.e. centercaps and valve stems, which brought the total up slightly.

[Arne]

Sounds reasonable, as long as you weren't into the wheels themselves very deep (as you indicated). Because they look like new.

Anyone recall if original Libres were available in 15x6? (For TR6, most likely.) Because I'd love to have Libres, but would prefer to run a more modern tire size.

[Ron Carter]

Hmm. what did they do to "restore" the wheels? I had my American LeMans wheels sand blasted, and the lips polished for $110 for all four? Valve stems and center caps would be a bit more but not 110 per wheel.

Are these magnesium wheels or aluminum (they look to be magnesium)?

Ron

[Arne]

At first glance it looked to me as if they had re-machined the lip, not simply polished it. After another look, I'm not so sure. If the lip is the machine finish, $110 per doesn't sound bad. But as you noted Ron, if it's simply polished that seems a bit steep.

[7T1240]

Before I shipped the wheels to Terry Vaughan, he requested that I send him pictures of all four wheels so he could give me an estimate on the cost. After my doing so, here is his response:

Gary : I can make them look like this if thats what you want.

It would appear that your bill would be $450.00 with the welding and

machining the outer lips.

if you want to proceed then ship them over.

I paint the spokes an Iron cast color and my monitor is set light so I am not

sure what color you see at your end.

Terry

So, yes, they were machined, and also required some welding, which I believe was to correct curb rash/gouges. When he states "I can make them look like this...", he attached a photo of a Libre wheel as an example.

BTW ron carter, I subscribe to Sports Car International, and loved both your car and the feature on it.

Gary S.

[Ron Carter]

Gary that makes a lot more sense...welding and remachining the wheels would be expensive, and falls in line with your estimated cost. Sorry it wasn't clear at first what you had done to refinish your Libras.

Thanks for your nice words, I have family up in the Spokane /Liberty Lake area, I will drop you a line next time I am up in that area.

Ron

[7T1240]

Gary that makes a lot more sense...welding and remachining the wheels would be expensive, and falls in line with your estimated cost. Sorry it wasn't clear at first what you had done to refinish your Libras.

No apology necessary, Ron. On the contrary, explaining that Mr. Vaughan's skillset includes welding and that his toolset includes a lathe are pertinent to this thread, as I was hoping to connect the forum to him as a resource, not turn folks off to him because they perceived his work as expensive. It was good you asked for clarification on what work was done.

"Thanks for your nice words, I have family up in the Spokane /Liberty Lake area, I will drop you a line next time I am up in that area.

Ron"

Ron, that would be great. And Arne, if you are ever in the Spokane area, you should do the same.

Gary S.

[v12horse]

Your wheels look great Gary.

I just had some wheels professionally restored and they machine cut the backs, bead blasted, primed, and painted the wheels. There was no curb rash at all. It was 300 for refinishing the set. I thought it was a great price as I was quoted 175 per wheel by a different company and the place that I had them done is going to mount them at no additional charge. If anyone in the Bay Area needs wheels restored of any sort, I highly recommend where I had mine done at.

-Ben