Wheel question for DOH fans

[Ghoste]

Did they use wheels other than Vectors for any of the recorded appearances?  For that matter, did anyone else make a Vector styled rim that was close enough to be used?

[DC_1]

I always wondered why they choose Vectors. I would think slot Mags would have been more correct for the look they were trying to go for. I always thought of the Vector style to be more suited to trucks.

[XS29L9Bxxxxxx]

Vector wheels do have "slots" however, they also have style! 


AR Vector Wheels were the only wheel I am aware of that was used for the Orange General Lee 

[JT01]

Only vectors was used on the show.

[HANDM]

If they were suited to trucks, those days are long gone. Now they only look good on a Charger/ GL, i.m.o.

[DC_1]

Vector wheels do have "slots" however, they also have style!  

Not saying they don't have style. I just think with the "Nascar" race car theme they were sportin, as well as the fact that slots were more popular in that time period for making your car look "fast", i am surprised with the choice of the Vectors.

[Ghoste]

This is why I ask.

[A383Wing]

looks like the same wheel...just a CS center cap added?

[Ghoste]

That's what I'm trying to find out for sure.

[Brock Samson]

 Ain't there two kinds of Vectors?.. one with ten spokes and the other with... ?.. 

[c00nhunterjoe]

Its supposed to be 10 spoke, 14x7 american racing vectors with carrol shelby caps on the 1st cars. Then they started using whatever they could get their hands on as the seasons progressed, such as 68's with sheet metal screws holding a 69 "I" peice on the grill

[Dukes69]

http://www.generalleefanclub.com/build/wheels/vectors.html

[Ghoste]

Interesting.

[Mike DC]

                     
                   
Those wheels were made by AR, Shelby, Western, etc.  There are tiny differences between them but not much. 


I'm also a believer that slot mags would have suited the car just as well.
   

[Ghoste]

The car I have pictured is purported to be one that was used in thre series but I don't know how you would ever prove it.

[bull]

All I know is I got a set for $160 and sold it for $300 but I should have charged $600.

[Mike DC]

That's a GL Enterprises car.  It's WarnerBros-condoned but it was never used on TV.  

About 5 of them were built in the early 1980s in a deal with WB to show them at "World of Wheels" type shows around the country.  If you got a polaroid pic of yourself in front of a "real General Lee" at a car show back in the day, it was almost surely one of these cars.   

Basically they were a more presentable version of the raggedy prop-cars being smashed up on the set every week.  They were 440/4spd cars with presentable interiors & bodywork.  They were not built by the same crew as the TV prop cars but they seem to have been built with at least some firsthand information.  They don't look very accurate to the TV props by modern standards, but when you judge them against the other GL replicas of the time they are a notch way higher.



The Hardcore Racing GL jump several years ago (the rich moron who briefly opened up a shop in Flint, Michigan) was one of these cars.  This was the jump that everyone was (justifiably) infuriated about because he insisted on jumping a legit 440/4spd car.  

Hans Ludke got ahold of the car after that and supposedly restored it.  Of course it probably just got rebodied.  

                                               

[Ghoste]

Actually it's a 383 automatic car and I don't know that I'd call the interior all that presentable but how do you tell it's a GL Enterprises car?

[Mike DC]

             
383 auto?  Okay. 

I remember some basics but the GLE cars were never my area of expertise.  At least some of them were made from 440/4spd cars anyway.


I'm calling it a GLE car because of the shaping of the 01s, the pushbar, the interior that looks like a hybrid of a factory black int with tan colored seats swapped into it, etc.  Not all the GLE cars perfectly match each other but they have similar quirks. 

These cars are some of the few early-1980s GL replicas that look even sorta correct to modern eyes.  They're not painted Hugger or Hemi orange.  It's the Vette orange shade if I recall correctly.  The dimensions on the GL graphics aren't perfect but they look to be rooted in some real prop-car info too.  The dummy rollbars are correct for the series, it's just the main hoop and the single diagonal bar up high on the passenger side. 

The pushbars vary between the GLE cars but they are usually more like the wide style.  That is interesting to me because the wider pushbar was something you wouldn't really have seen anywhere outside the episode footage itself in those days.  The show's best years were showing the earlier small-pushbar appearance.  That's also what you saw in virtually all the publicity pics & stills on merchandise, car magazine articles, etc, that could be used as a reference to how the GL was supposed to look.  The late-series GL apperance was not widely recognized by fans until the 1990s when the 17 surviving cars were sold to Wayne Wooten's club and the TV episodes were re-run on cable. 

[tan top]

intresting thread 

[chargerboy69]

I always wondered why they choose Vectors. I would think slot Mags would have been more correct for the look they were trying to go for. I always thought of the Vector style to be more suited to trucks.

I remember seeing Vectors on Vans more than cars back in the day.

[tan top]

I always wondered why they choose Vectors. I would think slot Mags would have been more correct for the look they were trying to go for. I always thought of the Vector style to be more suited to trucks.

I remember seeing Vectors on Vans more than cars back in the day.

wernt they designed for a van from the out set & adopted by the DOH mob i'm prolly getting mixed up with something else though

[Lennard]

I remember seeing Vectors on Vans more than cars back in the day.

[JT01]

I remember seeing a lot of older Corvettes from 70-81 that had vectors on them the 15x8.5s

[Ghoste]

I think it was a popular style in general (no pun intended) at the time the series came together.

[JT01]

I think it was a popular style in general (no pun intended) at the time the series came together.

I think your exactlly right being they was so popular and they look really good on about anything.

[Cooter]

From what I understand, those wheels were the wheels that were on the car when the producers happen to put it on the air..Once everybody had seen it with those wheels, well, they had to keep those for the entire run of the show...

[Ghoste]

Personally I never cared for them much but to each his own.

[Cooter]

Hell, I'm running Buick "T" type wheels wheels on mine so......

[Ghoste]

Did that GL Enterprises have any connection to George Barris?

[Cooter]

Not as far as I know...It was all Warner Bro. when it came to thinking up that paint job...I remember seeing one of the producers on TV saying how they came upon the idea for the Charger as the GL...


One day the Execs. were "Brainstorming" about which car to use..They already had a red and white Torino (S&H), already had a Black Trans Am (S&TB), so while trying to come up with a car, one of them walked over to the Window (I think it was Guy Waldron Spelling?), and looked down and there was a copper colored Charger with a black Vinyl roof sitting on the street..He said "Hey! What about a Charger?" The General Lee was born...

[Ghoste]

But wasn't the place that made the [ub;ic appearance cars some kind of subcontractor?

[Cooter]

Don't know bout the PR cars, but the show was all bodyshopped right on the set...

[Ghoste]

From what Mike is saying though, this one is a pr car.  Although I have say that if it wa for pr purposes they sure didn't break the bank on doing a nice job.  It's not a turd exactly but it doesn't seem pr worthy to me.

[Mike DC]

    
Barris was not involved in the GL in any official capacity whatsoever.  He just loves to imply that he was involved.  


The GLE cars weren't directly Warner Bros P.R. cars.  They were similar to a P.R. car when they toured the country, but the GLE cars really didn't rub elbows with WB and the show in any other way.  That was before it was normal for shows to have a "hero car" or a P.R. car at all.  They were not displayed on WB's studio tour (like many star-cars are today at WB and Universal).  When WB needed to send a GL for various magazine articles, other TV appearances at the time, etc, they typically just borrowed a GL from the regular prop-car fleet. 

[aussiemuscle]

I always wondered why they choose Vectors. I would think slot Mags would have been more correct for the look they were trying to go for. I always thought of the Vector style to be more suited to trucks.

is this why? Even though they are not vectors, these remind me of them:

the a-team van

[GL#10]

"
The Hardcore Racing GL jump several years ago (the rich moron who briefly opened up a shop in Flint, Michigan) was one of these cars.  This was the jump that everyone was (justifiably) infuriated about because he insisted on jumping a legit 440/4spd car. 

Hans Ludke got ahold of the car after that and supposedly restored it.  Of course it probably just got rebodied"

Mike

You are right they it was a rebody on that GLE charger and it was sold to a guy in Australia , as a real screen used General Lee, he tried selling it for $350k  down here , far as i know , no one brought it .

As for the GLE chargers , the W.B had nothing officially to do with them or there build , they where built for the show circuit  .

K.c

[Ghoste]

So this GLE place was just a custom shop cashing in on the craze?

[WB General Lee]

Sounds like these GLE cars are just another way of trying make something out of nothing. It was not built by Warner Brothers crew or related at all so really its a Charger painted oarnge .  The Hardcore racing car is in my town and I saw it at the Woodward Cruise. When you talk to guys like this they always try to twist the car into being something more special. They are always saying things like, "it was thought to be used or I heard it was used". If you don't have proper documentation, then it is not what you say until you can prove it. Museums try this all the time. There were cars in Volo and Peterson and it is always advertized as, this is a promotional car used by WB or a variation of this. At Woodward cruise all day I heard people saying, "oh there is another GL clone" so I taped the title to the window. Some people really knew by looking at the car though.

My car had some new wheels put on it after a crash scene. It said something on the caps that was different I will check today and let you know.