Alpina and Borrani (CMR) 13” Steel Rims

[uai]

8 hours ago, Lorin said:

What is unique about the Alpina nuts ?

They have a unique shape

[zinz]

Here’s the side by side comparison (as best as I can). Seems the original Alpina lug nuts are slightly chamfered on the top and the lower shoulder is not as pronounced as the Coupe King reproduction. 
 

Original

 

Coupe King’s

 

I bought the CoupeKing repros and they are high quality. ...the originals are very hard to come by. 
 

Ed Z

 

[Lorin]

4 hours ago, uai said:

They have a unique shape

Since the thread size and seat taper are non negotiable, I had a hunch they might be shaped differently !!

[mccusername]

The Coupe King lug nuts are very nice but definitely for later alloy wheels. I'm not sure if they would seat properly for the steelies.

 

I've seen a couple of different kind of lug nuts described as the 'correct' Alpina ones.  I think it's very likely Alpina used more than one type over the years. They all seem to be 'fatter' at the top than average, 19mm or 21mm, I forget.

 

One type is show in this old Alpina ad. They have a smooth, slightly domed top--

 

 

 

The type on Michael's car look even fatter and have a 'step' on the top. This is someone's picture I found on the FAQ a while ago--

 

 

 

Reproductions would be excellent! If nothing else they are distinctive and cool looking. I would be in for several sets.

 

Michael

 

 

 

 

[BritshIron]

The lug nuts shown here were purchased new at Ireland Engineering. They work perfectly on the Borrani wheels.

[BritshIron]

One more thing that's sort of interesting about these Borrani wheels. They are date coded April 1968, and fitted to my car which was made in September 1967--but sold new in the USA as a Federalized January 1968 1600-2 model.

 

I purchased remanufactured, chrome hub centers from Dimitar on FAQ. The front hub centers would not fit, and as it turns out the Borrani wheels are hub centric on the front hubs. In other words, they were made so that there's essentially no clearance between the wheel center and the hub on the front, as shown in the photo above. The rear wheels and hubs do have sufficient clearance to fit Dimitar's chrome hub centers. I ended up having Dimitar's hub center caps machined slightly so they would fit over the front hubs too. Dimitar tells me he has run into this front "hub centric" situation about three or four times when selling his hub centers to owners of early 02 cars.

 

I'm guessing this hub centric design for the front Borrani wheels had something to do with wheel stability while racing, but that's just a guess. Anybody who knows more, please post. Aloha, Robert

 

 

[zinz]

I bought those same chrome hub caps and had the exact same problem with them not allowing the wheel to seat correctly on the hub. 
 

Ed

[modernbeat]

While these aren't dead-nuts accurate, and don't pretend they are Alpina, they are of the period and were common on steel wheels in the '60s and '70s.

Round-top short acorn nuts.

 

https://www.dormanproducts.com/p-8142-611-133.aspx

 

[ray_]

18 pages about steel wheels.

 

You weirdoes!

 

?

[Conserv]

1 hour ago, ray_ said:

18 pages about steel wheels.

 

You weirdoes!

 

?

 

I have a stinkin’ suspicion that we have discussed lug nuts for Alpina rims far more than Alpina ever discussed lug nuts for Alpina rims...

 

Just saying.... ?

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

[Lorin]

1 hour ago, ray_ said:

18 pages about steel wheels.

 

You weirdoes!

 

?

And this won’t be the last page !

[RFord888]

7 hours ago, BritshIron said:

One more thing that's sort of interesting about these Borrani wheels. They are date coded April 1968, and fitted to my car which was made in September 1967--but sold new in the USA as a Federalized January 1968 1600-2 model.

 

I purchased remanufactured, chrome hub centers from Dimitar on FAQ. The front hub centers would not fit, and as it turns out the Borrani wheels are hub centric on the front hubs. In other words, they were made so that there's essentially no clearance between the wheel center and the hub on the front, as shown in the photo above. The rear wheels and hubs do have sufficient clearance to fit Dimitar's chrome hub centers. I ended up having Dimitar's hub center caps machined slightly so they would fit over the front hubs too. Dimitar tells me he has run into this front "hub centric" situation about three or four times when selling his hub centers to owners of early 02 cars.

 

I'm guessing this hub centric design for the front Borrani wheels had something to do with wheel stability while racing, but that's just a guess. Anybody who knows more, please post. Aloha, Robert

 

 

Could this explain why on the front wheel, the center cap sheared off after a mile of driving? 

[Conserv]

11 minutes ago, RFord888 said:

Could this explain why on the front wheel, the center cap sheared off after a mile of driving? 

Yes!
 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

[BritshIron]

@RFord888: Regarding your question, that did not happen in my experience. When I attempted to mount the front wheel hub centers from Dimitar it was obvious that the front units would not fit without modification. The front re-manufactured hub centers bulged at the base when the lugs were tightened. I contacted Dimitar, and like a great vendor, he sent me two more of his hub center products. I then had these two hub covers machined to allow for the imperfection. 

It would be great to hear more about your hub cover shearing off. In my case, I can't quite understand how the hub cover would have failed in such a way,  even if it was ill fitted. Aloha, Robert

[pehlivanov_tii]

Hi guys, 

Yes, as some of you guys stated to some cars there is this issue that requires slightly modification of the caps. So far i have sold many many sets and such cases are still pretty low percentage (not more than 5 %). I still don’t know what is the reason. Probably could be different or replaced hubs all over the years, but i cant be sure. However I managed to make the proper machine modification, so this would not happen any more. As i said the % of those cases are pretty low, but I need to be sure of the quality that i provide with my products, so this is fixed and if someone who bought from me ever see issues with my caps, please do let me know and will send the later, machined version - they have something like lifetime warranty  by the way here is a not machined cap fitted to my original tii hub and seats perfectly to the bottom. 

 

 

Edited May 10, 2021 by pehlivanov_tii