Recommendation - Reinventing The Wheel, Tewkesbury

[GibsonSG]

Evening folks, just wanted to share a tale of good service from Reinventing The Wheel at Tewkesbury.

I'd bought a set of manky Enkei hollow spoke 14's to replace my daisies and wanted a full refurb - the wheels were rougher than the pictures actually suggest.

I called them on Good Friday on a purely speculative basis (you never know who is open and who isn't) and left a message and the owner called me back on Sunday morning to discuss my requirements. I dropped the wheels in on Tuesday morning and picked them up this afternoon (Friday), and they did the tyre swap over, balancing etc.

Cost was £450.00 inclusive of VAT and that included straightening a slight rim bend in one plus the tyre change over etc. Not cheap, but I'm really chuffed with the finish; I know a lot of people prefer the big wheel/stanced look but I like the gentler hand of standard suspension, light wheels and have even dropped to 175/65/14's. I'm getting on a bit and my back isn't what it used to be!

I have no affiliation with Reinventing The Wheel, just wanted to share good service as I know it's hard to choose someone just from looking at their website.

[GibsonSG]

[GibsonSG]

[Steffan]

Nice wheels really suit the car. I can well understand your moments that finding a decent wheel man is difficult. Looks good enough to me!

I must mention that I do admire your pen name the Gibson SG is a great guitar. Still have a 335 at home I will never sell that guitar, although I am an acoustic man peronally hence Armstrong guitars are my weakness.

Enjoy the car the MX5 brand really does offer exceptional value and a bulletproof build. Just watch the underbody!

[GibsonSG]

Thanks Steffan - an SG was my first "proper" guitar, I bought it when I was 19 and still have it now (48 this year). It's done hundreds of gigs, has been refretted three times and both pickups have been replaced. Apart from that it's original

I do tend to use a twin cut Les Paul Special a lot more nowadays as I prefer the P90's to humbuckers but I have a special place for the SG and they are exceptional for raw rock and roll.

335's are awesome, I had a 135 (single cut with P100's) about 10 years ago and that was a great guitar. Good to see a fellow guitarist on PH!

P.S. By Armstrong are you referring to Rob Armstrong's instruments? If I recall correctly he built/builds guitars for Gordon Giltrap

Edited by GibsonSG on Friday 10th April 21:09

[Steffan]

GibsonSG said:

Thanks Steffan - an SG was my first "proper" guitar, I bought it when I was 19 and still have it now (48 this year). It's done hundreds of gigs, has been refretted three times and both pickups have been replaced. Apart from that it's original

I do tend to use a twin cut Les Paul Special a lot more nowadays as I prefer the P90's to humbuckers but I have a special place for the SG and they are exceptional for raw rock and roll.

335's are awesome, I had a 135 (single cut with P100's) about 10 years ago and that was a great guitar. Good to see a fellow guitarist on PH!

P.S. By Armstrong are you referring to Rob Armstrong's instruments? If I recall correctly he built/builds guitars for Gordon Giltrap

Edited by GibsonSG on Friday 10th April 21:09

Yes indeed I am referring to Robbie Armstrong who built several superb acoustic guitars personally for me after Gordon Giltrap introduced me too him 30+ years ago. I also have a completely rebuilt Original (???) Levin acoustic Jumbo made in 1964 a guitar sold to me by Neil Cope, a long term Luthier friend and rebuilt by Alan Exley, another Luthier friend, whose handiwork must be seen to believed. That guitar will always be with me. Gordon Giltrap also sold me a magnificent 12 string hand made EKO, all solid woods just beautiful the ring in the tone is just wonderful to enjoy. Another keeper. There are a lot more. I am Compulsive/Obssessive by nature, as my collection of kit cars (15) and rising, demonstrates this on the KC pages on here.

I do have various strats and and an old Ibinez active base which are also fun. I have been lucky enough to meet and spend some time with Bert Jansch and Davy Graham brought about by GG who is still very much with us and playing beautifully as only he can. Once we are back in the UK I will make sure I get to meet up with GG a very genuine fellow, no side at all and spellbinding as a guitarist. Really very helpful even to guitarists like me, who are really pianists but who decided at university carrying a piano around was impossible.

Finally enjoy your MK nice looking cars with those wheels. The longevity of these is legendary and the running costs are minimal. Great cars and wonderful on the open road in summer, (if we get one!) and with a hardtop pretty weather resistant in the winter.

Good luck to you with in your guitars. I have thoroughly enjoyed playing the guitar for over 60 years. it is a superb instrument as Paganini said "like an orchestra". In my case not quite like that but it got me into the arms of a fair few maidens over the years which is more than sufficient reward for me. And a damned sight easier to carry than a Piano!

[GibsonSG]

Wonderful. I'm more of an electric player myself but can appreciate a fine acoustic and we do have some super luthiers in the UK. I'm less of a guitar collector but more of a "home for waifs and strays". As well as the usual suspects I've got a couple of Roger archtops, made by Wenzel Rossmeisl in the fifties before his son went off and did great things for Rickenbacker and Fender. They are lovely instruments, not especially valuable, but very charismatic.

Kit cars - I've only ever had one and that was a Mk1 Mini Jem. I'm sure a man with your kit car history will know all about these! It was a right dog when I bought it (c.1992) so I effectively rebuilt it but eventually sold it to a gentleman from Germany in about 2002 who continues to campaign it in historic racing to the best of my knowledge. I never truly got on with that car, the handling was always quite vicious; it veered between extreme power understeer and violent lift off oversteer. I much preferred running my Imps at the time; always lusted after a G15 but didn't have the cash. That was what I was planning to buy when re-entering the old car world last year but somehow ended up the MX, which I don't regret at all. Sometimes trying to recreate the past is not as good as taking a fresh view and the MX has been a darling, sadly showing up a number of flaws in my daily cars in the process......

[Steffan]

GibsonSG said:

Wonderful. I'm more of an electric player myself but can appreciate a fine acoustic and we do have some super luthiers in the UK. I'm less of a guitar collector but more of a "home for waifs and strays". As well as the usual suspects I've got a couple of Roger archtops, made by Wenzel Rossmeisl in the fifties before his son went off and did great things for Rickenbacker and Fender. They are lovely instruments, not especially valuable, but very charismatic.

Kit cars - I've only ever had one and that was a Mk1 Mini Jem. I'm sure a man with your kit car history will know all about these! It was a right dog when I bought it (c.1992) so I effectively rebuilt it but eventually sold it to a gentleman from Germany in about 2002 who continues to campaign it in historic racing to the best of my knowledge. I never truly got on with that car, the handling was always quite vicious; it veered between extreme power understeer and violent lift off oversteer. I much preferred running my Imps at the time; always lusted after a G15 but didn't have the cash. That was what I was planning to buy when re-entering the old car world last year but somehow ended up the MX, which I don't regret at all. Sometimes trying to recreate the past is not as good as taking a fresh view and the MX has been a darling, sadly showing up a number of flaws in my daily cars in the process......

I agree entirely.

Guitars should be played for the sound that they actually produce and not for the label on the headstock. Perhaps the worst acoustic steel string I have ever played (on a decent label!) was an Acoustic Steel string Gibson. Absolutely awful guitar and we did check it was a genuine product. Like a plank of wood to play there was simply no tonal ringing and the action was dreadful.

Equally cars should be enjoyed for the driving experience they give you not the label on the car. The Mini Jem I well remember had a number over the years. Very variable in their build and suspension geometry as most Mini subframe base cars kit cars are like that, and no two are every exactly alike. The Mini was famous for crabbing rear wheels! An inch out in the subframe fitting, which is all too common and the whole suspension geometry can be miles out.

A Jeremy Mash design I think? Personally I preferred the kit cars based on Ford mechanics and a seperate chassis. Much easier to reset the suspension and alter the handling to suit. Violent understeer and violent oversteer particularly in my V8 Dutton are a real problem despite my best efforts to tame the wayward aspects of this car over the years. Hence I rarely use it.

Despite my personal love of kit cars I do have an MX5 because I like these cars. Entirely different to driving a kit car racer and very much more comfortable and forgiving. Kit cars on long journeys can be very wearing and most sports cars are very much more comfortable and easier to drive. Hence I have both!

I think you will get a lot of pleasure out of these cars and I cannot think of a better, more cost effective, daily driver. I did have Ginetta G15's and G16's years ago and I absolutely loved them. The Walklett brothers were exceptionally able kit car designers and the Coventry Climax (imp) engines were really exceptional power producers for those times.

Enjoy your MX5 you are likely to have a faithful servant with those cars!

Edited by Steffan on Saturday 11th April 18:41

[GibsonSG]

You've probably solved the riddle that I never understood regarding that Mini Jem. I'd owned tuned Mini's by this point but the Jem was so much nastier to drive. When I rebuilt it I used the same suspension mounting point that the original builder had used, youthful naivety meaning that I never doubted the original geometry.

Good to hear that you had a G15, I knew Dave Weedon (well, our respective wives worked together for a long time)- he bought the moulds for the Clan Crusader and extolled the benefits of the Clan's monocoque over the G15's body on frame but a good G15 just looks so right. Sadly in this case looks would have won me over.

[Steffan]

GibsonSG said:

You've probably solved the riddle that I never understood regarding that Mini Jem. I'd owned tuned Mini's by this point but the Jem was so much nastier to drive. When I rebuilt it I used the same suspension mounting point that the original builder had used, youthful naivety meaning that I never doubted the original geometry.

Good to hear that you had a G15, I knew Dave Weedon (well, our respective wives worked together for a long time)- he bought the moulds for the Clan Crusader and extolled the benefits of the Clan's monocoque over the G15's body on frame but a good G15 just looks so right. Sadly in this case looks would have won me over.

I can fully empathise with your feelings on the Ginetta G series of kit cars thy were head and shoulders above all the opposition at the time and really quite exceptional cars. Personally I always hated the Clan Crusader looks I thought it a singularly ugly car. Svelte and smooth is what sports cars should be: not damned ugly. I never like the Clan designs I did own one but only beriefly but then I have owned a lot of kit cars.

The Mini kit car builds all had the tendancy to suffer from misplaced subframes. Very common and very easy to miss in a build. The consequences can be very tricky at speed and getting that problem sorted was not easy in those times. The front engined mini based kit cars were always a challenging design concept IMO because of the overall height of the A series lump right out in the front. The Biota was a horrible looking car and there were a number of equally duff attempts. The rear engined, (sometimes, IMO erroneously), called mid engined designs, were better but the subframe setting up was still critical to handling success.

Hence my preference for the more traditional (?) front engine, (preferably with low height unit), rearwheel drive designs which can and has produced some really svelte and stylish sports cars. I do think your MX5 is a very good bet for reliability and practicality and Maxda build the things with obvious care. Enjoy yourself with the car you have, as ever, the bird in the hand......... Best of luck to you!

[thecremeegg]

Can you get decent tyres for that sized wheel? One of the main reasons I got rid of the 14" wheels was that there were no decent tyres available and any that were meant spending extortionate amounts!

[GibsonSG]

I went for Vredestein Sportrac - I like Vreds a lot and have used them on other cars. I think they've carved a bit of a niche with their winter and all season tyres plus offering quality tyres in unusual sizes.

I can't recall the exact price of them but it was less than £50.00 per tyre fitted and balanced.

[Steffan]

GibsonSG said:

I went for Vredestein Sportrac - I like Vreds a lot and have used them on other cars. I think they've carved a bit of a niche with their winter and all season tyres plus offering quality tyres in unusual sizes.

I can't recall the exact price of them but it was less than £50.00 per tyre fitted and balanced.

Thar being the case the costs seem reasonable to me. £50 per tyre fitted is pretty reasonable providing the tyre does perform. I can see no reason why Vredestiein's shoud not do that. Tyres make a huge difference on a car and indeed most road vehicles. My days of motorcycling (long gone), really taught me that fact the hard way! I would expect the OP not to have problems,, such mods are a matter of choice.

[GibsonSG]

thecremeegg said:

Can you get decent tyres for that sized wheel? One of the main reasons I got rid of the 14" wheels was that there were no decent tyres available and any that were meant spending extortionate amounts!

Just checked, they were £55.00 inc. fitting. I actually went for 175/65/14 as I wanted less mechanical grip and softer edged ride than the standard 185/60/14. I'm not any kind of hot shot driver but they grip and communicate well to me, certainly far better than the no name rubbish that it arrived on.

If you check Dan Trent's PH Fleet blog back catalogue for his Eunos he went for Dunlop Sport BluResponses and found them to be excellent and cost effective.