New (to me) Ford Wire Wheels

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Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2014: New (to me) Ford Wire Wheels
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Seth from NC on Thursday, August 21, 2014 - 09:40 pm:

So I been needing to have my wheels rebuilt. Rather than spend that money I decided to get some wire wheels instead. They'll look great on my speedster and be better at ludicrous speed. I have small drums so I had to knock off the big drums and get some small ones for the hubs.

I have sand blast them and get them cleaned up for painting, but got a good price for front and back hubs and 5 wheels.




Pretty excited to get these babies painted in yellow.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Erik Barrett on Thursday, August 21, 2014 - 09:52 pm:

Good looking wheels. Be sure to check them for straightness. Also if you are going to use Rocky Mtn. Brakes you will need a spacer between the wheel and hub.
Erik


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dave Hjortnaes, Men Falls, WI on Thursday, August 21, 2014 - 09:54 pm:

Looking good so far. Now you need new inner dust caps for the fronts. Also new hub caps and new wire wheel nuts.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Seth from NC on Thursday, August 21, 2014 - 10:02 pm:

I have caps for the outside, seals for the inside, and brass hub caps to match the rest of my car. I didn't know about spacers though - I have AC brakes in the rear. I was going to test fit everything before I painted any of it in case something needed tweaking. I'd like new nuts, but for now I'm just going to wire brush the ones I have and paint them black. I wish I could get some that were brass plated.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Rob Heyen on Thursday, August 21, 2014 - 11:24 pm:

Seth,

Looks great. Thanks and keep us posted as you go,

Rob


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Erik Barrett on Friday, August 22, 2014 - 01:21 am:

Yes, test everything before painting. My experience has been that some tweaking is needed to use 26/27 wires with small drum outside brakes. I prefer powder coating over painting on these wheels. Opinions vary.
Erik


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Seth from NC on Friday, August 22, 2014 - 06:48 am:

Well - powder coating is an option - but, only as a base for paint. Eliza is yellow and her spiffy new rims will be yellow too.

I was thinking about maybe getting the new wheels powder coated primer gray, and then painting them yellow. Only problem is I don't know if that will work or not. Can you paint right on top of a powder coat? Need to do some research. Even if I don't get them powder coated - every single 26/27 rim was painted originally. These will just be getting a bit more Race Yellow than that straw color.

There are 1 or 2 spokes that have just a wee bend in them, but the rims themselves are VERY straight. No real dings/scuffs/etc. I'm very pleased with them. Once I get the wheels on for test fit I'm going to spin them and check the runout while straightening those couple spokes. They need to run nice and true as part of the whole point is to feel comfortable at 100+.

HAHA just kidding. Eliza occasionally feels frisky and will hit 60, but wire rims or not that maxes out my 'pucker factor' threshold.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By jeff cordes on Friday, August 22, 2014 - 09:03 am:

You will need some spacers to move the wheels out on the rear hubs in order to clear the outside brakes. Otherwise the wire wheels overhang the small drum and there isn't enough space for the brakes to clear the wheel.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Seth from NC on Friday, August 22, 2014 - 09:29 am:

Well I'm glad I know that NOW! Dang it. I had just taken off the brackets for the rear wheels and finished welding them up because I liked where they were. How much space would you guess I need? I mean, I can put some fat washers on the lugs but I don't want to sacrifice too much thread length. Nothing is EVER easy.

I supposed I should mount all of the hubs and then go ahead and swap my spare tire over one of the wire rims and then make sure the fenders are in the right place - I'm saving money right now to send fenders off to get brass plated. I don't want to be putting them on and taking them off 50 times once they're plated.

I've been trying to search on google for other forum threads where someone has Ford wires and accessory brakes but I'm striking out so far.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Larry Bohlen, Severn MD on Friday, August 22, 2014 - 09:53 am:

Seth,

The wires on my touring are powder coated and it is nice and very durable. A good powder coating place should be able to match your yellow.

Are you keeping the 21" wood ones?
How bad are they. They look pretty good.
I'm working on a '14 speedster also and that what I want to run instead of the wires. My speedster is going to be a bit more traditional than Eliza.

Larry


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dan Hatch on Friday, August 22, 2014 - 10:14 am:

Seth: you need to rethink the washers. T hubs are not like other car hubs. The hub itself supports the wheel, not the lugs. Best way for rear brakes with wires is go big drum. Dan


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Seth from NC on Friday, August 22, 2014 - 10:27 am:

Yeah, I'm keeping the demountable ones. They're actually going to get rebuilt here semi-soon as they're going on a Montana 500 car for 2015. They aren't "bad" right now per se. I could probably drive on them for a lot more miles without it being a big deal. I'm not really worried about them now (drove to work in Eliza this morning). They never click or make any noise when I drive but back in July I grabbed a spoke to pull myself while I was on the creeper and it clicked. Well that surprised me so I rolled car out garage pushing and pulling everywhere and found a couple more that clicked. I could either have them rebuilt for about $850ish (by the time I shipped them back and forth) or I could spend $1100 and have 5 wires with hubs and I want wires anyway. I'll spend a bit more by the time I get them painted, but I would have had to stain and paint the wood ones when I got them back too. Just will feel better about the wires being on car if I decide to zip up to 60 mph.

The biggest thing about the powder coating (just like every other darn thing) is the $$$. I'm sure an uptown powder coating shop would just love to match the yellow body color and bake my wheels right up. But, for a fraction of the cost I can get enough high build primer and paint to do the wheels and the whole body.

Most people think I made Eliza up or have changed her a whole bunch, but she's looked much the same since before WWII. That's a Faultless Hoosier body and a homemade windshield (from T parts). The fenders are just one-offs of Mercury Speedster fenders, I just got Ken to make 'em so they hug the tires more than the Mercurys do. They are going to be brass plated, but that's not that crazy as there's that T in England with the whole body made out of brass. I don't know, she's a far cry from anything factory but she's been like this way longer than a lot of folk's "1915" T's.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Walker on Friday, August 22, 2014 - 11:16 am:

Interesting car, Seth. What's under the hood?

I now have a reasonably complete '15-'22 roadster body to put one on my '20 T RAJO fairground racer, but will probably enhance and enjoy its current speedster configuration for a little while.

BTW, I was born in Havelock. You have something to do with the USMC?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Larry Bohlen, Severn MD on Friday, August 22, 2014 - 11:17 am:

Seth,

Sounds like a plan.
:-)

You will like the way the tires go on the drop center of the wire wheels so much easier then dealing with the split rims. The wire wheels are bit lighter to which is a plus.

Take it easy.
Larry


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Seth from NC on Friday, August 22, 2014 - 01:49 pm:

Haha Larry - I ended up buying a split rim jack just to make life easier with getting tires on and off. It really hasn't been too terrible, certainly not the epic battle that some folks have reported on clincher tires. Although I will say that after I moved these wire wheels around some I was thinking "Gosh, were my wood wheels this heavy? I thought the wires were supposed to be LIGHT?"

David I work here at the Depot on the base! Doin' some contracting. I'm actually in logistics support of the upgraded H-1 Huey and Cobra. My dad is a Marine (aviation logistics, apple doesn't fall far from the tree), so I've been all over the place.

Under the hood is half of a flathead V8! LOL, that's what I tell people when they ask me out in town. I've got some sweet accessories. Stipe 280 cam, adjustable lifters, 351W valves, Dan McEarchern bronze timing gear and crank gear, low head, high comp pistons, but NO water pump! Haha, and the rest you can see in the pic.

Bosch triple gear drive with a DU-4 magneto, Zenith S4BF carb with matching intake, dual exhaust manifold from Mr. Chaffin, and don't tell anyone but on the other side I have a 1 wire 6V alternator to charge the battery and run my head and tail lights and ahooga horn. I know half the folks looking at the picture were thinking "There is too a water pump!!" lol. I don't think I could keep up with Fast Frank in a drag race but I'm putting out a bit more than 20 HP.


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