wheel straightening help...almost

[Gross Scruggs <GScruggs@wposmtp.nps.navy.mil>]

Wheel Straightening.  Having recently moved I can't find the business card of a
shop I encountered about two years ago, and can't find it on the net... a clear
comment on my capability.  While attending the Porsche club swap meet at Dulles
airport I encountered  a display of only wheels.  They were OEM Porsche wheels
and were simply beautiful.  I nearly bought some for their art value as I don't
have a Porsche.  I talked at length to the guy at the display, he gave me his
card which rested on my desk in Annapolis until the move.  They also sell tires
but mostly straighten wheels. How they do it is the good part.

Helicopter manufacturers are required to test their rotor masts to within some
godawful tolerances.  For this they use some very sophisticated measuring and
muscular straightening equipment.  When this equipment gets out of calibration
it is cheaper to replace than repair and it is sold to whomever can find a use
for it.  This place is Dover has one of these systems.  They bolt a wheel to a
new, not used but new, hub assembly then the wheel is slowly rotated with probes
measuring the 'squareness' of the wheel.  A computer driven hydraulic ram then
pushes on places calculated to restore the squareness of the wheel.  Process
iterates until the wheel is perfect.  Then they refinish the wheel.  No heat is
used so there is little chance of changing the original temper (that's not the
right word but a better one doesn't come to mind).  The tolerances of this
machinery, although outside helo requirements, is superior to that of OEM wheel
requirements.  As I said before, the wheels I saw were magnificant. 

So, there is a place in Dover DE that sells tires and restores wheels to a
precision that our Audis deserve... but I can't think of their name!!  I can
neither find them on the net yellow pages and have no clue where in my stuff the
card might be.  Help.  

Regards,  Gross Scruggs
87 5kTQ,  
Bumper sticker on aggressively driven ZR1, "Finger Out, Foot Down"