Misc. Help me confirm this, or dispute it.

[hill n gully]

I was born into a S Cal jeep club back in 1963. The club we belonged to was very active in parades. At some point between 1962 and 1966 my dad made 3 sets of - what I believe - the very first custom wheels/rims ever made for a Jeep. These were a 5 spoke aluminum center attached to a chrome ring (? Proper term). My father was kind of a armchair engineer and what promoted him to build these friends was the fact that we were in a lot of parades and he wanted his Jeep to stand out. It did. Unfortunately I was too young to know what was going on in the jeeping world back then and was hoping that maybe somebody could tell me if there were custom rims being made for Jeeps at that time. I still have the original mold and four of the rims

 

[CJ]

Holy !!! What a history.
Unfortunately I'm going to say that most is gone except from your memory.
Please continue to share as we want to learn.

 

[Belizean]

What model and years were the jeeps ? Also can we see the wheels ? Cool story.

 

[hill n gully]

Sorry for the late response. The information I gathered from older siblings and uncles is that my father kept one set, one set went to our neighbor ( who was also a club member and helper in the project) and the third set went to the owner of the foundry. It's unfortunate that I didn't realize the uniqueness of them when I found them rusting away next to his shop. A few years later I found a casting, which he informed me had a flaw in it. So I made him a clock out of it. He had two Jeeps both CJ's. The first one I believe was a 61 or 62 with a four-cylinder, and the second one was definitely a 1965 heavily modified V6 with Overdrive . Do not know what the neighbor was driving and The foundry owner I don't think even owned a Jeep.

 

[Belizean]

Interesting. They are unique.