[rshelby]

The wheel company was sold in 1986 or 1987. The new owners were a Fortune 500 company and had experience with metal bending, stamping and so fourth, but no experience with a foundry and the specifics of wheel making. It was more than they could handle and the business quickly suffered. They started losing money and decided the best way to correct things was to raise prices on all of their customers, regardless of what contracts were in place. They fixed the problem in the short term and then proceeded to lose most of their customers. The company was shut down and the tooling was auctioned and picked up by an English company. If you want more details, I could find out for you. My Dad tried to buy back all of the equipment and see if he could salvage the business but was about two weeks too late.

Randall