Good day everyone,

My name is Jim Dunphy and I represent NUTEK Wheels located here in Orange CA. We have recently joined 6speedonline as a board sponsor and we truly enjoy being apart of the 6speed community. Being a car enthusiasts it is great to see all the different vehicles and concepts that each of you have performed on your cars, as well as projects and concepts by other sponsors.

We are glad to be here and look forward to providing interest and service with our brand. Please feel free to contact us via PM, email, or phone with any questions or details about our product.

Also, we conduct our own in house manufacturing at our facility here in Orange CA. the only feature we outsource is our finish work for Painting or chrome plating, but everything else we produce in house. Our website has a video section that details are manufacturing process...and we welcome all of you to take a look, or if you are ever in the area please feel free to drop in for a tour.

Thank you for the opportunity to introduce you all to NUTEK

Jim

 

Welcome, those are some serious wheels you have!

 

Welcome,

I was able to view these wheels in person as they are displayed at Lee's Foreign Auto in chicago...Fit and finish look first rate and i love the designs!

Lou

 

Thank you for the welcome wishes, and I appreciate the positive feedback about our wheels.

Here are a few samples of some different concepts that we have produced in multi color combinations

Jim

 

Welcome! Very nice wheels!

 

welcome, anything for cayenne?

 

Hello Jim,

I must say the wheels look very nice. I had a few questions for you though.

You had mentioned that complete manufacturing is done at your facility, assuming the wheels are forged:

1) I was wondering if you cast the aluminum yourself at your facility?
2) Do you perform the forging operation at the facility, and what size press do you have available?
3) What grade aluminum is used ?

I hope you will answer these questions. which will give me an insight into NUTEK Wheels.

 

No Problem,

Excellent questions...
1) We use T6 6061 Forged aluminum centers...we don't believe this information to be top secret, we purchase our raw forged centers from APP or Centerline, both are rotary forged process...our blanks are 19-24". We use two suppliers because each offer different center profiles for different design features.
2) The manufacturing process we conduct in house is the design, machine work, and assembly. We have 2 Femco WT70 Lathe machines for the front and rear profile, and we have 2 HAAS CNC machines. A VF3 axis machine, and a VF5 axis machine. On our website in the about section we feature some production videos that show our facility and the build process...we also have steel assembly fixtures that we use to build our components, and a silicone machine that applies a direct amount of silicone to seal the wheels.

3) We use T6 6061 grade aluminum, this is standard for most of todays suppliers, and another important part of our wheels is the rim components, our rim inners and outers are also T6 grade spun aluminum, and feature doubled rolled inners and outers for increased strength. Our rim components are from a supplier in Korea that Gene assisted in tool developement for our specific components. Our specs for our centers meet the rim flange within a tolerance of 5000ths, you basically need to tap our centers in to our rim components...this allows our wheel centers to be assembled in a manner that is relative to a hub-centric assembly, this also relieves stress on the assembly bolts and provides a proper balance on the finished part. The assembly bolts we use are another key component and we use 8mm bolts that are 12.9 grade steel.

We use local suppliers for our painting or Powder Coating, and we also use two suppliers for chrome plating...these are the only steps we use as an outsource.

I hope this information is useful and answers all your questions. We also welcome anytime during business hours for people to drop in and see our operation...we have nothing to hide...the wheel industry has matured throughout the years and there is really nothing that is top secret in this business, however some companies may have policies about keeping certain aspects of their manufacturing private, and usually that is because they are really not the ones building the actual parts.

We welcome people to come and see our operation, this really helps our customers and consumers for our brand, as well as other brands become educated and informed about what they are purchasing.

Jim

 

For the Cayenne, we can build a 20x10.0 or 22x10.0, these size choices are pretty much available in any of our styles...attached is some samples of our wheels, the first is the 325 wheel we did for a Cayenne back in Jan. Unfortunately I was not able to get photographs of the wheels on the car because they were sent to Russia.
I think the 325, 304, 505, and 515, are nice choices for the Cayenne. Attached are some pictures in that order for you to review.

The wheels will be machined for factory lug hardware, and can also be machined to accept the factory Center caps. Build time is 3-4 weeks, and depending on the finish we've completed wheels in a 2 week time period.

Please feel free to call or email me with any questions.

Thank you,
Jim

 

Jim,

Very informative and great post, exactly what I was looking for!!!

It is true that nothing is secret, everything including the grade of aluminum is known. The reason I asked is to know if Nutek wheels used the T6 6061 Aluminum. Some companies use other grades and some companies will cast the inner and outer barrels and only have the centers forged. Many brands get away with a lot and it is unfair to customers like me and others. As a foundry owner I am aware of the effort required to produce T6 6061 Aluminum, and many companies will provide substrandard billets. But since you are buying from APP that should not be a problem.

But I am happy that Nutek has a good manufacturing process. It is very important.

One last question, do you buy forged centers from APP(APP uses an 8000 Ton press)? If not, are the centers forged with an 8000 Ton forging press?

Thanks for your time.

 

nice wheel ,do you sell directly to the public

 

FP13, thanks for the great questions...I'm glad I was able to provide useful information. You mention owning a Foundry...in respect of the board rules, maybe you could PM me your information about what Foundry you own?

Again we buy our Raw forgings from APP and Centerline, we use the two suppliers because different sizes have different profiles that we use for our designs. Both require purchase minimums...this is another detail that some may not be aware of, but we usually are required to buy 100pcs at a time...this is a large investment to inventory, but it provides us the confidence that we will deliver within the time period we quote. Our build time is 3-4 weeks std, and we have done special rush orders within a 1 week priority for shows etc...

Jim

 

Good question, we our set up strictly as a manufacturer and do not sell direct to the public at our facility. However we encourage each and every potential customer to contact us directly so we may provide our support to insure they get exactly the product they have taken interest to invest in with NUTEK Wheels.

Our many years of experience in this industry have allowed us the knowledge of who is reputable to conduct business with in this industry and I personally feel that it is best to always buy wheels and tires from a store or local shop that services the area in which you live.

There are some companies that provide mail order services and are very reputable, but there are also many that are not...some mail order companies provide nothing more than just a price...the problem is that if you spend the money and get the product and have any issues then you are left to find someone to take care of it...now I am not saying that this is the usual practice, but throughout the years I have been in this business I have heard the horror stories and how people ended up spending the money twice, or in some cases getting completely ripped off.
There is real truth to the saying...YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR! Sometimes if the price is so good, it may be too good to be true.

By purchasing from a reputable dealer, or source provided by a said manufacturer then as a customer you can be confident that you will be provided what you paid for...your deposit that has been placed with that dealer is evident to both the dealer and manufacturer, should either company fail to provide product, you the consumer can be face to face with that dealer to get your money back, or be provided another brand or product.

Again, there are many mail order suppliers that are very reputable to deal with and provide great service, but if you have the opportunity to purchase face to face from a reputable dealer in your area that the manufacturer will support you and that dealer, then I encourage this practice for our product.

Because we offer so many options for our wheels we really want customers to be a key part of the creation of their wheels...our wheels are an investment, and lets all be honest that today's economy is not the best and we are talking about wheels that range from $5-10k, this is not chump change, each of us all work hard everyday with the hopes to enjoy certain luxuries, and business does not just fall from the sky these days, quality and service is key, and prices are always negotiable, but quality and service is not.

Sorry for the length of this

Jim

 

just played with your wheel designer on your website. thanks for your reply.

 

Is she cute? What's her name?


@Jim: I will send you a PM with my details. Again I really like your designs!!