How To Tell If A Rays Wheel Is Genuine Or Not

[Spunky Munky]

Hi fellas,

I know a few threads have touched about this topic but never discussed in length so hence this thread...

Now the question is, how do you tell if a Rays Engineering rim is genuine or not? I mean, with the obvious copies such as the Varrstoen, Rota and other replicas aside, how can you tell if a rim is a copy or genuine? I'll give you an example, I recently bought a set of second-hand TE37SL's from a seller. They are said to have been stripped, prepared and then repainted and look great. They also have the "Rays Co" engraved on the back of the hub holes and the Rays sticker behind the wheels can still be sign partially intact on many of the wheels, but the usual "Rays Engineer" and "Made in Japan" engraving on the front lip are not visible. So does this make my wheels still genuine?

The interesting thing is a few of my mates have TE37's and SL's and some have the above engravings on the wheel lips whereas many others do not. These people are reputable Jap car enthusiasts so I don't they would buy copies (not to say there's anything wrong with replicas) but the point I am trying to make is, how the heck can you tell if they are originals or not?

I did some research and found that apparently original Rays wheels have the hub holes slightly out of line to the spokes which is what my wheel has. So how else to know? My wheels even come with genuine Rays wheel stems/caps and the lip TE37SL sticker and all of the above genuine signs so does this make them 100% genuine? I am told when repairing wheels, they need to be re-tooled, stripped and painted over? What does all this have to do with destroying the two engravings discussed above?

I know a lot of people want to know the difference to please shed some light on this topic fellas.

My wheels look like these without the usual engravings but has the original SL stickers, wheel valve stem/caps etc (pics courtesy of Nismoid Ash, ChrisGTR_25 Chris & Google):

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[GTR-N1]

My first thoughts would be to weigh a Rays rim against a faux copy.

[Owgasm]

So the first picture is your wheel?

The fake ones don't try to be any more than a replica.

They don't badge and engrave them with "rays eng" etc on them to pretend. They are advertised exactly as they are.

If your te37sl do not look like the one in the first picture, I would be questioning.

But you said the rest is accurate with internal engravings.

[JnJ]

how about posting the pics of your actual rims.

[Nikkirosee]

Sorry I'm no help but I have a similar question. I'm having trouble finding out if my rims are genuine Nismo rims. They are engraved "RAYSENG" on the back,  however I can't find any nismo wheels that match however after researching I found they look a lot like the Volk AV3 rays racing rims the only thing that's missing is the "vr" logo in the middle. I've added both a picture of the volks racing wheel and the rim that I have. It's almost like the middle parts been taken out and the nismo logo has been placed there. Thoughts? 

[R.3.2.G.T.R]

Sorry I'm no help but I have a similar question. I'm having trouble finding out if my rims are genuine Nismo rims. They are engraved "RAYSENG" on the back,  however I can't find any nismo wheels that match however after researching I found they look a lot like the Volk AV3 rays racing rims the only thing that's missing is the "vr" logo in the middle. I've added both a picture of the volks racing wheel and the rim that I have. It's almost like the middle parts been taken out and the nismo logo has been placed there. Thoughts? 

Just a Nismo sticker on yours