I've seen plenty of pictures of cars sporting original Hurst wheels and pictures of them separately, but never any detailed photos of their unique features and construction. These wheels were only offered in the 14X6" size.
Having recently purchased a set of four original Hurst wheels I've taken the opportunity to take some photos of them up close. The set I purchased have never been restored and were still wearing a 45 year-old set of General bias ply tires.
Here's a picture of the set before I purchased them, sitting in the previous owners garage.
After removing the trim rings and having the tires dismounted I was pleasantly surprised to see two of the wheels still had the original Hurst warning stickers completely intact.
Very clean wheels for being nearly half a century old. The plating on the steel rims still looks nice and bright.
Close up shot of the rivet heads inside the rim. Note there is some sort of sealing washer under the rivet head so modern tubeless tires can be used.
Backside of the forged wheel center, surprisingly almost all of the inside edges of the forging are knife-sharp.
The 'Hurst' logo is forged inside one of the spokes. The Harvey Aluminum logo can be seen as well. The wheel serial number was hand written in permanent ink inside on one of the spokes on every wheel in this set.
Note the steel tab welded to the rim so that the forged aluminum center can be fastened using 2 rivets at each spoke.
You can see one of the five spring clips used to retain the trim ring here, it's tucked into a void inside the welded tab.
Trim ring clip.
Trim ring.
There are 5 small holes in the backside edge of the trim ring right next to the spokes where the end of the wire clips nest to retain the ring. The trim rings tuck into a tightly engineered space in between the spoke and steel rim for a smart finished look.
Original center caps with faded paint (the gold turns to green) and pitted chrome.
Original Hurst long-shank lug nuts, the ones that Hurst demanded be used or risk voiding the lifetime wheel warranty.
Serial number stamped on the center of the wheel just under the center cap. What I would guess would be a forging number stamped as well.
I measured the backspacing and it is
3.825", the thickness of the center from the wheel mounting face to the top where the center cap goes is
3.585".
Weighed one of the wheels on our shipping scale at work:
20.05 pounds for the bare wheel (with valve stem)
23.15 pounds complete with trim ring and flat center cap
Very unusual and beautiful wheels, it's really not too hard to see why they are so coveted by hardcore Pontiac enthusiasts.
