My 70 Coronet R/T came with its original woodgrain wheel, which worked but was in horrific shape. Instead of waiting half a year for a restorer to tackle it, I figured why not buy a repro for the same price? The only option is the one from PG Classic. I got it and it sure looked fine. However, it had two fatal mechanical flaws:
1. The splines are too tight. It won't go on the shaft the same distance as the original wheel, leaving an unsightly gap. (However, it does go on just enough that it's arguably safe...)
2. There is an internal short between the copper horn ring and front plate/spline hole. The first problem here was the black wire from the horn ring had actually rubbed through its insulation against the front plate, but even after fixing that there is still a short. Since everything is welded/bonded together, I have no hope of fixing this and proper horn operation is impossible.
The utter lack of basic QA here is shocking. Thirty seconds with a multimeter would have revealed #2. Maybe #2 is even a fundamental design flaw, and the vendor had no basic electrical understanding of how the horn ring works!
So this was an expensive $450 lesson. Going with a cheaper aftermarket wooden wheel from Classic Industries and hoping for better luck. To be fair, I've bought other repro items from PG Classic that turned out fine. But you simply can't &*(#$ up on basic quality assurance for items this expensive.
1. The splines are too tight. It won't go on the shaft the same distance as the original wheel, leaving an unsightly gap. (However, it does go on just enough that it's arguably safe...)
2. There is an internal short between the copper horn ring and front plate/spline hole. The first problem here was the black wire from the horn ring had actually rubbed through its insulation against the front plate, but even after fixing that there is still a short. Since everything is welded/bonded together, I have no hope of fixing this and proper horn operation is impossible.
The utter lack of basic QA here is shocking. Thirty seconds with a multimeter would have revealed #2. Maybe #2 is even a fundamental design flaw, and the vendor had no basic electrical understanding of how the horn ring works!
So this was an expensive $450 lesson. Going with a cheaper aftermarket wooden wheel from Classic Industries and hoping for better luck. To be fair, I've bought other repro items from PG Classic that turned out fine. But you simply can't &*(#$ up on basic quality assurance for items this expensive.
