Motoworx

Mock-up rim, urgently !!

Our niche has always been to supply the rim that is unique, be it low volume or non standard or not availlable or Being required within 24hours.

The latter being the case, we had a request to produce a rim which could be used by the designers as a mock-up or fitment rim for the purpose to prove that evrything that need to be fitted to the vehicle, as a up grade would fit as planned.

We had no option but to use an existing rim produced by ourselves and machine the centre to fit into a larger outer as per the client spec. This had to be done for we had no rim as standard which would fit the size required and the off set.

We started this after midday and the picture was taken next morning just after eight, painted with tyre fitted and ready to go, the effort of a good team, well done.

17" x 10J with 35" tyre

5 / 120 PCD

Amarok VW

We can now X Ray 22" x 16J rims.

With every step forward on the way of our progress to supply unique rims, do we also sometimes have to take a step backwards.

The case in hand is that we could only X Ray rims up to 18" x 10J.

Problem being that we lately produce 20" rims and this must be X Ray approved as part of the quality system.

Problem being that we are in such a steep investment phase in our company that such luxury to be able to X Ray up to 22" rims was nowhere in the scheme of budgets, therefore al we do is put ingenuity in motion.

The old fully functional, but purely just not big enough gripper.

The result is pure technical pleasure.

The existing machine that can X Ray from a 13" up to a 22" rim.

 This was done just in time, to allow the foundry to qualify the castings as they were removing them from the casting platform.

 

What a pleasure to have.

This is the reworked and updated remnant of the "Seifert" X ray.

New Image intensifier

New coolant system

New capturing realtime software for both video and stills.

New control console.

New Toy.

Good German engineering to build on.

New niche opportunities.

We were surfing the market in search for new opportunities and look what we got ourselves involved in.

A rim for a unique application. The client import the complete vehicle, but with steel rims.

This being a decerning market, we spotted the opportunity.

We made the rim for this application and have not had a hapier customer this year.

 Our Fendt 15 x 6J rim.

 
The euphoria has not subsided of the above rim, when we received the following request to produce a Mock-up for a new developement rim for a Arctic vehicle.

 

Our 17 x 10J AMAROK / Canyon rim.

 

 

Based on the solid design of the Canyon rim did we get our foot in the door with a client that require a affordable 16" rim to be used on Range Rover vehicles.

We proposed the rim, but had to do some work on it to create some "Bling".

 

CANYON 16" x 7J

 

 

 

 

First Buyout, our main "Global" opposition.

Sept 2011 one Spring morning

"Picture this, Sicily 1942"  the prayers that we didn't even ask for, but just always thought about, came true.

With the trust in one's word and a handshake, did we have enough money to buy all the tooling and some plant, to have what was once our only "Global" opposition in the Classic car rims, or better termed "era specific styled" rims.

Everything happened quick, even in my terms. Before we realized was the 2000 m²  factory empty and everything at our premises.

The long haul of getting every piece of equipment working and functional up to our standard took little longer than what one has allowed for in the planning, but everything is in place and is starting to become a everyday tool in the equation.

This included forty five "dies" of both Classic and contemporary styles.

We started casting the  styles that we thought was going to be the "bread and butter" lines, but did we get a lovely surprise.

When the previous owners of the business decided to close down, the instruction to sell all finished product as well as work in progress was supposed to be sent to be remelted for scrap.

However this went into the market at scrap price, thus when we arrived at the potential clients with our freshly produced product, we had to learn that not only did they have excess stock but also stock at halve our price.

Back to the drawing board and amend the business plan.

With the goals re-adjusted are we slowly gaining momentum and bearing up to the strain of the soft world market, however we have already exported more this year, than in the complete 2011 year.

The following are some of what we  produced this past couple of months.

BRM rims for GT40's in 15"  & 17" both in 8J and 10J

 
COBRA for Cobra and GT40 in both 15" & 17" in 8J and 10J

And this is what our "Coconuts" look like. ( we cannot give it away)

ALPINE rims in both 15" & 17"

 

 

 

BRM 18"

This is the rim required, problem is that it's required as a 15" rim and tyres are no more available.

                                    
We made this in between our other projects, this was one of tose "nice to have, but not yet necessary" ideas.

Due to the change in availlable tyres, did the request for 18" rims in the classic "era type" vehicle manufacturers arise.

This gave the drive to manufacture the 18" era type BRM rim for the GT40 and other era typical cars.

Due to this being a two piece rim, are we capable of producing any off set rim, from a 8J to a 10J.

 

 

At last Wesbank "re-modelled"

                                            

 

We were  never proud of the first Wesbank rim's design, "not enough time to do the it correct first time, yet always enough time to redo it a second time".

When the opportunity arose to supply rims for a client who preferred the Wesbank design, we grabbed the opportunity to re design and tool up and never looked back at the decission.

We also made the design unique, this was done by casting the rim center with a "outer" (weather side) onto the centre.

This allowed us to have the center placed as close as possible to the outboard (weather side) of the rim as possible.

Should the outer not be the correct outer required for the job on hand, will we machine the outer lip away and bolt the desired spun outer to it.

    

This was done in four weeks,  from decission to castings on the floor.

 

 

The gratification and sense of accomplishment, could not be dampend by the cancelled order.

That is unfortunately the way business goes, quick to place the order and just as quick to cancel it.

The decision "to re-model or not to re-model" was based on pride, or strive for perfection.

A decission we will never regret and we are very pleased with the result, confirmed by the number of customers that bought it.

 

Le Mans contd.

The story continued as per the normal day in our exiting life's.

Due to the high performance that these rims are exposed to, did we not realise that the amount of contact surface on the rim hub face would be so crucial and this resulted in the re design and manufacture of the weight saver on the hub face.

 

Although this doesn't  look so impressive, the fact is that this was decided on at 15:00 the day before we were casting.

We had to be sure that whatever we were proposing as the solution was going to resolve the problem.

With the samples up for discussion in the top office, decisions could be made at the speed of light and all wheels were in motion to solve the problem, not necessaraly our design error, but the problem of our customer is our problem.

The result is what we will always remember and that will be our motive for the next and the next.

This is what will give us that sence of accomplishment that no money can buy.

 

Le Mans rims

The Le Mans project started some time ago. and as per normal one lives and learn.

This was the first generation and weighed in at 12 kg. not bad for a 18 x 14J rim.

 

Then we had the rim on a weighless progrmame and the the rim weighed in at 10.8kg.

 

The above show some of the work that was required to shed the extra weight.

This was not the end of the struggle, the next hurdle was that due to the width of these rims on the inboard side, could the pit crew of the racing team not change the tyres without a     struggle to get the tyre over the valve.

The following modification resulted in a smooth tyre change at the race  track to the relieve of the pit crew.

 

 

This modification saw the valve mounted in the casting, with no obstruction inside the tyre seat area.

This also allowed us to reduce the number of bolts to halve of the first generation, which resulted in a 0.5kg weight saving.

 

 

Birth of our NEW Lemans 3 Piece Split...

We were approached by the developers of the "Barnard Hyper Car",  and their idea was to have this car fitted with standard SSR Rims (See below) . The sleek lines of this beautiful car, did not gel with the starkness of the rims designs and we went to the drawingboard.

 
 

 
After some serious brainstorming and doodleling -

And it was at this point that the birth took place of our new Le Mans 3 Piece 18 inch x 14 J rims.

and in metallic grey it looks even better

   

WOW - Even if we say so ourselves....

Almost a year later and ta-da!!! SUPER CAMPER- ain't she a beauty!  It was only until we saw the article in Leisure Wheelsof March 2010 that we realized that not only were we working on realizing our dream but also that of the owner of this Eight Wheel Wonder.

Yes, from the start we were in awe of what we are producing - 8 wheels 20" x 10J for this monster - and only when the bigger picture (pardon the pun) emerged did we sit back and appreciate the experience and more so the opportunity.

Motoworx wishes the owner a million miles of enjoyment with lots of wonderful memories in this dream camper.