Franko, the picture of wheels you showed have Keystone center caps, where Appliance the manufacture for Keystone Wheels?
YES ...
PER: Harry R.
AP wheel inquiry....
Strange as it may seem, I worked for the company thought bought Appliance Wheel Industries in the early 1980's from W.R.Grace. Grace owned it for a short while really. (They had NO business in the wheel or any performance industy product, as they were from the "food industry" if memory serves me correctly).
In 1981, I worked for a company that ran Keystone and Appliace Wheels, called Intermark, which created a sub holding company called "Dynamark". Keystone and Appliance were "merged" and product lines merged (a mistake for sure!), and I had my first taste of corporate "downsizing" in a takeover!
Yes, some wheels from AP actually say "W.R.Grace Made in Japan", which I believe were the training grounds for Enkei Wheels to learn the "volume" we did in the states. They had learned of the volume first hand by doing our castings over there. Keystone was the best at plating, and AP had been the best in styling.
Appliance was a great company. Keystone was a great company, but they were now run by a company that was a "numbers only" place. Wheel saavy people had a hell of a time with this structure for sure, me included.
I had sold wheels in the "Valley" of So Cal at a very high volume wheel and tire speed shop, and knew from experience what it took to sell and install wheels!
We had also been one of the largest Western Wheel Dealers at the time (1976 to 1980), it was called Autocessories Wholesale at 8801 No. Sepulveda Blvd., Sepulveda (but everyone knew us as Van Nuys).
Today, I find used AP wheels in various places and have them restored. People always ask me "what are those?" as I have them polished and detail painted. I use a lot of what they called a "Turbo-Vec" which was AP's "knock off" of American Racing's "Vector".
I really enjoyed growing up in the wheel and tire part of the aftermarket industry.
I have worked for some other great company's in their day... Super Shops, and BF Goodrich when it was BF Goodrich, not Michelin owned!
Sorry but I feel that someone should know the actual "what the "f" happened" to these great company's.
Thanks for your time.
Harry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Appliance made a wide variety of wheels... I believe they WERE originally American made, but later (late 60s/early 70s) they started having their wheels produced in Japan... Ironically, the Japan cast A/P torq thrust style mags are some of the nicest wheels ever made, with castings superior to the real deal Americans they were copying, as well as other US made torq-thrust copies.