A-mold wheels?

[Kevin Doyle]

:confused I am hoping someone will explain what the term a-mold means and how do you identify this type of wheel?Thanks Kevin.:confused

 

[Kevin Doyle]

:confused I am hoping someone will explain what the term a-mold means and how do you identify this type of wheel?Thanks Kevin.:confused

WOW 27 views and not one answer glad this isnt jeopardy!Kevin.

 

[Ghost]

I believe they were on the ZR-1?


http://www.car-vette.com/acart/agora.cgi?product=A_Mold_Wheels

 

[G Winter]

I did a search on google using A-mold wheels. I got results but not very defining. There are 2 piece wheels , 3 piece wheels , forged wheels and diff types of cast wheels. I couldn't find anything that really describes A-mold wheels. The impression I got was that it was a general term for cast wheels.

Glenn

 

[Edmond]

I thought that A-molds were the ZR-1 and Grand Sport 5 spoke style wheels.

 

[Vettefan87]

I thought that A-molds were the ZR-1 and Grand Sport 5 spoke style wheels.

That does sound familiar but I don't really remember for sure.

 

[racsluos]

I thought that A-molds were the ZR-1 and Grand Sport 5 spoke style wheels.

That is correct.

 

[Edmond]

Okay, we have an answer!

Personally, I love the look of the black a-molds. I think Chris Kennedy was thinking or had gotten a set of them. The black a-molds with painted calipers looks good on any car!

 

[racsluos]

Okay, we have an answer!

Personally, I love the look of the black a-molds. I think Chris Kennedy was thinking or had gotten a set of them. The black a-molds with painted calipers looks good on any car!

Me too - I have a gold 1987 and I think gold is one of the few colours that isn't complemented by silver/chrome wheels. Definitely want to get the black ZR-1 style repro fivespokes from AFS wheels one day....*soon*...

Also that'll give me the muscle-y 17" look, which I much prefer to the stock 16s

cheers

 

[bossvette]

good thing I didn't answer; being a Diemaker who has also worked on Molds
A mold to me means the cavity in a mold or pattern that a part is cast from. Typically before the advent of CNC machines all molds and Patterns were machined by hand and there are slight differences in the cast parts from mold to mold. there are often duplicate tooling which is usually assigned a tool number with a "A" or "B" suffix depending on how many molds there are.
the letter A (or whatever mold it is) is usually cast into the part so the parts can be identified as to where they were produced.
Now to confuse you even more most molds have multiple cavitys which are numbered.

so to me an A mold wheel was produced by a duplicate tool

 

[racsluos]

good thing I didn't answer; being a Diemaker who has also worked on Molds
A mold to me means the cavity in a mold or pattern that a part is cast from. Typically before the advent of CNC machines all molds and Patterns were machined by hand and there are slight differences in the cast parts from mold to mold. there are often duplicate tooling which is usually assigned a tool number with a "A" or "B" suffix depending on how many molds there are.
the letter A (or whatever mold it is) is usually cast into the part so the parts can be identified as to where they were produced.
Now to confuse you even more most molds have multiple cavitys which are numbered.

so to me an A mold wheel was produced by a duplicate tool

Hey bossvette,

Might be a case of these specific wheels being A-mold and the name sticking with them despite not being unique to them.

 

[Edmond]

I thought they were called a-molds because they kinda look like a deformed a in a ways.

 

[G Winter]

Thanks Bossvette, now I even understand what I was reading about casting.
I just couldn't seem to put it all together.
Off the subject question, you use CNC mills for your diemaking ? and what kind if you do.

Glenn

 

[LT4man]

I thought that A-molds were the ZR-1 and Grand Sport 5 spoke style wheels.

You are correct. Also the 96 Collector Edition has A-mold wheels which are painted silver.

Chevy had an abundance of A-mold wheels because of the demise of the ZR-1. That is the same way regular Vettes got the big brake (ZR-1) package.

SAVE THE

 

[bossvette]

Thanks Bossvette, now I even understand what I was reading about casting.
I just couldn't seem to put it all together.
Off the subject question, you use CNC mills for your diemaking ? and what kind if you do.

Glenn

where I am now we have 2 Trac Mills (its a small 10 man shop)
a 2 axis and a 3 previously I have run Fadals,Mazaks,Monarchs,Haas and Rambaudis (sp) with several different software variations.
we also have a Agie WEDM

 

[G Winter]

I work for a company that builds pan washer for bakerys. We do our own inhouse machine work. We had an old 1977 Monarch VMC 75 with a relay logic GE controller. It died about a month ago and we got a new Acer 30 60 with an analim controler.. really sweet. Lot of fun right now converting all my programs. We also have a top of the line,, sarcasim,,, Yang CNC lathe with a Funuc controller.
I am the lucky one that writes all the programs.We didn't have programing software, now there is some on the new controler, CAM , I think it is called.
I never had the blessing of formal education in this , all school of hard knocks.With the experience you have had I can see where to go with some of my questions.

Glenn

 

[ecss]

:confused I am hoping someone will explain what the term a-mold means and how do you identify this type of wheel?Thanks Kevin.:confused

A-Mold was a company located in Mason, OH that I believe imported aluminum wheels made in Japan.

It is or was a subsidiary of Ube Industries of Japan.

The five spoke A-mold manufactured wheels appeared on the 94 ZR1's and people started to call them ZR1 wheels. If you look on the backside of an OEM wheel you'll see the gm part number and JPN on them.