Thoughts on a Style TRX-1 in 16" or 17?

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johnb@macarbon
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Jan 29, 2014 5:52 am

Thoughts on a Style TRX-1 in 16" or 17?

Post by johnb@macarbon »

Hi All,

Its been a few years since I posted on BigCoupe. I sold my '83 635 euro in 2014.... and its doubled in value! It also went back to Germany. I miss it.

Reason for me posting is that after selling the 635, I got into R107 mercedes (I'm a little sick I guess!) and wound up developing a product line for the car including bumpers, lights, interior and.... wheels. We took the classic 14" Bundt wheel and scaled it up to 16". To keep the initial order quantity low, we make them as 3 piece wheels. We have both an OEM looking version and a more 'Bling' version with polished lips and exposed bolts. I was thinking the other day that the 390 TRX wheels on the 635 (Style1 & 2) are actually very attractive wheels. The Style 1 is similar to the Mercedes Bundt and they were both made by Fuchs. I suddenly realized we could make a 16" version of the 390 TRX Style 1 wheel without a huge effort.

I'm thinking with the increased price of good 635s and their status as classics now well cemented, it might be a good time for the project.

I wanted to see if anybody had some thoughts on the some questions I came up with.

1. Would people be interested in 16 or 17? If we design 16" and then want to do 17, it takes a step lip - which I think isn't very nice. I know a lot Shark owners run 17s but I think the owner who would be interested in these wheels would be going for originality. My gut tells me 16".
2. A 7" rim is easier to do than a 7.5. Any thoughts on width?
3. Would people want staggered? Say 7" in front and 8" in the rear? Or since they are going to look OEM, would they go square?
4. Do many run a 16x8 in the front?
5. We can do both an OEM look with a silver lip and hidden bolts or a bling style with polished lips and exposed bolts. I kind of think OEM look is the place to start.
6. These TRX-1 seem to be a shade of grey rather than silver. Anyone know the color code?
7. So here is the big question.... we sell the Bundts for $2600 for a set of 4. Target cars are 635, 5 series and 7 series in the 1977-1985 time frame. The are a lot of wheels avaialbe for BMW for less than $2600... but none that look like this? Anyone think its an interesting idea?

We've bought a TRX-1 wheel. Question is whether to pursue the project or not. At a minimum, It would give me an exuse to try to buy a 635 again!

The first poic s the TRX-1 wheel. Second pic is of a 635 with them installed. Third photo is our Sl shop car with our 16" Bundts installed. Forth pic is of an SLC with the 'bling' style.

I appreciate everyone's thoughts. Thanks for your time!
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Soperman
Posts: 537
Joined: Tue Nov 25, 2014 2:44 pm
Location: London, UK

Re: Thoughts on a Style TRX-1 in 16" or 17?

Post by Soperman »

Is this the sort of thing you had in mind?

http://bigcoupe.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=30414
E24 M635CSi
johnb@macarbon
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Jan 29, 2014 5:52 am

Re: Thoughts on a Style TRX-1 in 16" or 17?

Post by johnb@macarbon »

So that link shows the one option today: taking a TRX wheel from circa 1982 and machining off the barrel, drilling the holes in what's left and installing them in refinished or new barrels.

We make the entire wheel, new from scratch. For the Mercedes Bundt, we had to scale the wheel design a bit to go from 14 to 16. With the 390 TRX, since its already 15.XX, it would be scaled just a small amount. For those who want a more low key, stock look, the bolts are on the inside so the 3-piece aspect is pretty much hidden. For those who want the more splashy look, it would be like the pics in those photos: the bolts are on the outside and the lips tend to be polished. Its possible to do the other combos: exposed bolts with silver lips or polished lips with hidden bolts.

With Mercedes, there are NOT a lot of good looking wheel options if you want to move off of 14" wheels. E24 owners are in a much better spot from what I can see. I guess I'm wondering if people think there would be a demand for something that looks very close to the original TRX wheel but fits the modern rubber.

We currently charge $2600 for a set of the bundts in whatever config you want. These would be the same. We don;t need to sell hundreds of sets to make it worth doing. We're just wondering if anyone thinks there might be a sub-group of owners looking to stay stock looking.

There are a couple of other TRX wheels of course. The TRX-2 design, which looks somewhat like the bottlecaps, could also be interesting to do as well. I had some trouble finding one and I thought the -1 looked a little more distinctive so decided to get one of those to check out. I don't see much demand for the the 415 TRX as those were basket weave wheels and there are plenty of options that look really close.
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