When did Hardy & Beck start making their 3-piece wheels?

[CoastalCrush]

Haven’t seen the date stamped on them like @mccusernamewheels. My e30 spec wheels had the date 1987 written on the barrels. The later Hardy&beck wheels are like the ones in the eBay ad. The centers don’t flush mount withthe lips like earlier ones. 

[mccusername]

OK, new question-- when did Hardy & Beck switch from 20 to 16 spoke wheels?

 

Edit-- answered by @CoastalCrush further down in the thread. 

Edited April 15, 2021 by mccusername

[TobyB]

...and what did their rocker arms look like?

 

t

 

[markmac]

It's a good question - Rocker Arms that is.  In that '81 catalog I have, they have all sorts of engine bits offered (cams, valve springs and pistons) but no mention of Rocker Arms.  No idea.  Alpina had the same offering (rocker arms) - I can say I have never seen of those either.  Unless somehow they cast their log into the body of the thing or that it was clearly made from a different material than the factory version, I don't know how you would know.....assuming its an alloy rocker.  Probably not out of the realm of possibility that it was an offer that Alpina was making, so they would offer something similar under their brand.  Has a familiar ring to it really.

[Conserv]

11 hours ago, mccusername said:

OK, after waiting forever for one of you guys to come through, I found this Hardy & Beck ad for 3-piece wheels in the November 1979 Roundel.

It's the earliest one I've seen so far and it does call them "new". Sorry for the bad scan.

And 20-spoke, Michael, so consistent with Mark’s earlier comments. Nice sleuthing on both this image and the June 1979 Roundel story: pretty good payoff for having to do all that work, in those dusty Roundels! ?

 

(That 7-15-96 casting date appears to be “cast” rather than “engraved”, not that this matters to anyone — except moi! ?)

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

[markmac]

I started my freshman year at UC Berkeley in 1979 so not too far from Hardy & Beck in the early days.  The first car I owned, a manilla 1969 2002 was originally owned by Alan Hardy.  I would go down there here and there to pick up parts (small sh&t because that was all I could afford), and oogle over the gear in their parts department.  They still did have a fair amount of Alpina gear - I still do recall a set of 3-piece Alpina's they were offing for 1500 bucks, but then the display cases had Alpina A4 throttles, air boxes, cams, pistons - candy store for a bmw enthusiast.  They had a bunch of e-21 323i's that had been completely done up with wheels, suspension, graphics, scheel seats etc.,  Huge dollars back then.  Makes me wonder what happend to them all?

[tjones02]

I’ve been told by my father is that before opening the doors of Hardy&Beck with Hans Beck in 1974 Hans worked for Harry Weber at his dealership in San Leandro and Alan worked on BMWs out of his driveway on Grizzly Peak Blvd in Berkeley. My dad worked for Pac Bell and put a phone system in Alan’s house back then.

 

Perhaps @jdb has some recollection of when Hardy&Beck started doing wheels of their own, and or other cool stories of H&B.

[mccusername]

2 hours ago, Conserv said:

(That 7-15-96 casting date appears to be “cast” rather than “engraved”, not that this matters to anyone — except moi! ?)

 

Et moi aussi!

 

I had thought that someone put that date on them at some later time, but the fact that they are cast means... nyet.

 

Just weird that I have never seen another set with a date like that.

 

 

[mccusername]

14 hours ago, ray_ said:

I'm pretty sure Compomotive made H&B wheels

 

I don't think so. The barrels were BBS, and the 'announcement' article on the wheels from 1979 says H&B worked with Drake Engineering on them.

[Conserv]

5 minutes ago, mccusername said:

 

... Just weird that I have never seen another set with a date like that.

 

It may only be an addition to later rims, e.g., after 1990, after 1995, or whatever. Over time, there is an ever-increasing demand for more data cast onto rims — among many parts — allowing better tracking in the instance of failure.

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

[mccusername]

3 hours ago, markmac said:

In that '81 catalog I have, they have all sorts of engine bits offered (cams, valve springs and pistons) but no mention of Rocker Arms. 

 

Yes, I wonder if they ever actually made them. My car had two engine rebuilds by Hardy & Beck in '78 and '88 and came with receipts (thanks Jason!) and I don't seen any mention of special H&B rockers. Most of the special stuff is Alpina-- in fact they still used Alpina pistons in '88.

[mccusername]

September 1981, still 20 spoke-- now in gold, with amazing blue H&B center caps.

Edited April 15, 2021 by mccusername

[mccusername]

16 minutes ago, Conserv said:

It may only be an addition to later rims, e.g., after 1990, after 1995, or whatever.

 

Yes, I have now seen another set like mine with the same date cast into them. They must have done another run of them at that time.

[CoastalCrush]

02 Hardy&beck centers were always 16 spokes. The ones with 20 spokes that you are showing are 5 lug centers for an e24. 16 spokes = 2002     20 spokes= e30 and 5 lug cars

 

[mccusername]

4 minutes ago, CoastalCrush said:

16 spokes = 2002     20 spokes= e30 and 5 lug cars

 

Ha thanks. That feels like something I should have noticed. I guess pattern recognition is not my thing.