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Cragars vs. Keystones


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I'm barely old enough to remember the Keystone Raider wheels. The Klassics are still being made, I believe. I was once told there was an argument that Cragars were the better rim, or that Keystones were better. 

cragar.thumb.jpg.f097be63eee25f227e01f10

This is the classic Cragar design............

raiders.thumb.jpg.24478523ddb159d0b70d37

Here is a pic of a Raider.......

I'm just curious as to which rim you guys prefer..... They are very similar in design, so what caused the disagreement as to which was better?

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Cragar's were the wheel to have when I was in high school.  Had them on my '65 GTO, many cars and sets of mags later.  I remember that they were an easy wheel to keep clean, the classic look complemented my Goat quite well.

The  pictures of the two mags illustrate what I remember being wrong with the Keystone wheel, the lug bolt holes were slotted versus non-slotted on the Cragar wheel.  I remember hearing stories about Keystone and other slotted lug bolt mag wheels cracking or fracturing around the slots.  I never saw it in person, but there is almost always someone who swears they have or it happened to them!  Musta happened to somebody or else Cragar made the story up to sell wheels!!!

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When I was in high school everyone in my area thought that the Cragars were the "name brand", meaning more expensive, Keystones were considered the "imitation", meaning cheaper. So, if you had money, or wanted to show off, you bought the Cragars, if you were poor, or cheap, you bought the Keystones.I don't know if that was actually true, but that is what everyone thought!

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I had Cragars on a car in 1971, and the wheel was heavy.  The quality though was outstanding.  I never liked the Keystones, I remember though only the kind Sox and Martin used, like what Carl just showed, the squared off edges bothered me.

The wheel to have though was the American Torque Thrusts.  E.T. had a real nice wheel too, similar to the Americans.

The Cragar was a nice wheel.

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The wheel to have though was the American Torque Thrusts.  E.T. had a real nice wheel too, similar to the Americans.

 

Absolutely! If I could get enough of them, I'd use nothing else on my models.

Of the pics in the OP, I've never seen that type of Keystone, or it I did, I thought they were Cragars. "Keystones" to me means the Klassic Kustomags, as used by Sox & Martin. I'd use more of those on builds if I could get them.

Dunno why, but I've never been a big fan of Cragars. I use them sometimes but they're not my favorites. BTW, the best kit Cragars I've ever seen were in the JoHan '66 Marlin annual.

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Cragars and Americans were the top line wheels, the coolest hippest and most desirable. Americans were, of course, the first "mag" wheels on the market in 1956. Keystone was sortof a second-string line. Within the lines were various styles of wheels as well. Both of the wheels in the top photo have steel rims, and they weren't the coolest and lightest all-alloy wheels, like these. All-alloy Cragars or all-alloy Americans were the ones to have...simply because they were the ones the real racers used. Everything else was also-ran...but the steel-rim jobs were more practical on the street if you tended to get a lot of curb rash. The alloy-rim wheels could crack if abused. Once they cracked, of course, they wouldn't hold air. The steel rim wheels could still hold air if the rims got bent.

Cragar-SS-1-Piece-Aluminum-Polished-Whee

And the prep under the plating on the center of that Cragar in the top shot really is pizz poor, as mentioned by Mkie_G. I wouldn't accept it, but that's what a lot of stuff looks like these days, and people seem to think it's fine.

 

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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I had Cragars on a car in 1971, and the wheel was heavy.  The quality though was outstanding.  I never liked the Keystones, I remember though only the kind Sox and Martin used, like what Carl just showed, the squared off edges bothered me.

The wheel to have though was the American Torque Thrusts.  E.T. had a real nice wheel too, similar to the Americans.

Absolutely! If I could get enough of them, I'd use nothing else on my models.

        I'm with you two. American Racing's Torq Thrust Wheels were THEe Wheel. Chrome's for Show.  

        Hey Snake, did you know Replicas and Miniatures of Maryland Casts some Nice Torq Thrust Wheels;)

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@Snake and Ed,  I've used a couple pairs of Comp Resins for the rears, they're nice too in case R&M are out.

Concerning Cragars vs. Keystones,  maybe the car itself would be important to consider.  My Cragars were on a real clean low mileage 57 Bel Air, I had Firestone Wide Ovals for tires, F70x14 front, G70x15 rear, the motor was a big block so the bigger rims out back were OK.  I remember Cragars on some cars didn't look right.  I didn't buy the Cragars, my ET's were stolen, the car left sitting on the frame in the weeds.  Luckily the hood was chained down from the inside so every thing was otherwise OK.  This happened out in the boondocks in the middle of the night, so the folks had some time to be jerks.  I felt I was lucky.  The insurance would not pay extra for the ET's and I had just bought the motor and trans, so I took Cragars as a 2nd choice.  They looked nice on a shiny black '57, my opinion.

Hmmm, I'm wondering if TJ is talking about models, or the real thing?

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I was asking about 1:1 wheels, friend....... Your story reminds me of an incident that happened when I was a kid. Someone was trying to steal the rims off of my old man's Satellite he had at the time. The car fell off the jack, making enough noise to wake Dad....... He runs outside wearing only a shot-gun. He was able to scare off the thief, and kept his rims! I guess he was lucky that time...............  They were Raiders, BTW......  :)

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I was asking about 1:1 wheels, friend....... Your story reminds me of an incident that happened when I was a kid. Someone was trying to steal the rims off of my old man's Satellite he had at the time. The car fell off the jack, making enough noise to wake Dad....... He runs outside wearing only a shot-gun. He was able to scare off the thief, and kept his rims! I guess he was lucky that time...............  They were Raiders, BTW......  :)

So was the thief a "raider."

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The other thing I remember about Keystones was that J.C. Penny's sold a mag wheel that looked similar to the Keystone wheel.  They may have been Keystone seconds or just made by Keystone for J.C.P. branded as Scat Trac or something like that.  They also were a sharp lined wheel when most other wheels were smooth and flowing which the Cragar definitely is.  The chrome plated Cragar SS wheels  from '60's to mid-70's were not wavy or over polished as described, I remember the set I had on my GTO being very smooth without any hint of waviness which was typical for the Cragar SS wheels I saw on other guys cars.  I do remember seeing Cragar SS wheels in the 80's and later with the waves chrome finish on them, most people had moved on to polished American's by then though.   Another factor might have been price or perceived value, I remember the Cragar SS wheel costing more than the Keystone wheel. 

Here in the Rainbelt (Pacific Northwest) the chrome on Keystone and J.C.P. wheels didn't hold up very well, which is one reason we run a lot of alloy wheels.  Chrome reverse wheels start pitting and rusting after a couple years if run year round on a daily driver, so word gets around what holds up and what doesn't.

Edited by Skip
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In the 60's I worked for Good Year in their retail stores in southern California. In addition to tires and the normal auto repairs you would expect they sold General Electric appliances, TVs and stereos. We also  sold various after market wheels. They had Cragars, Keystones, ET, and Shelby wheels. The different  companies all offered several different styles of wheels. The Cagars seemed to be bought by those wanting a more showy look. The Keystones were bought mostly by the cruisers. Shelby had the best looking "dish slot" wheel at the time. The ET's had both dish slots and painted spoke wheels looking much like an American wheel at a much lower price. The one draw back or advantage, depending on how you looked at it, with the ET was their "Unilug" mounting. The bolt area had a recessed oval area where you would put a "Unilug" depending on the bolt circle of the car. You could move a set of wheels from say a Ford to a Chevy by just changing the "Unilug" as that would change the bolt circle. Great from an inventory standing, but you better re torque those lugs after a very few miles and keep an eye on them.  My '67 El Camino 396 4speed was just two years old when I went to work there and I put Shelby 14x7 and 14x9s on with Polyglass GT F60x14 and L60x14 tires on.

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Absolutely! If I could get enough of them, I'd use nothing else on my models.

Of the pics in the OP, I've never seen that type of Keystone, or it I did, I thought they were Cragars. "Keystones" to me means the Klassic Kustomags, as used by Sox & Martin. I'd use more of those on builds if I could get them.

Dunno why, but I've never been a big fan of Cragars. I use them sometimes but they're not my favorites. BTW, the best kit Cragars I've ever seen were in the JoHan '66 Marlin annual.

Snake: Check out Scenes Unlimited, also.  He reproduces several sets of American spoke wheels, and the quality and service are outstanding!

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  • 4 years later...
On 7/22/2016 at 2:17 AM, Mike_G said:

The polish on the Keystone wheel is better than the Cragar wheel, at least in the pics above

The Cragar wheel looks like it was "horsed", making it wavy when it's plated

I preferred Keystone Raiders ( on my Z28's ) in the 70's as they had a spoke that was more "flared" , say, like bell bottoms, for the era. It looked cool when rolling slow vs, a SSwheel.

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