Rebuilding original wheels.
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2026 7:01 am
The back wheels on Henrietta were beginning to chatter to me when rounding corners, so it was time to tighten things up somewhat. To preserve her patina, I chose to rebuild wheels of similar appearance.
Working on a spare from my stash, I found someone had been there before me. It already had shims between every second spoke. On dis assembly I found these rather thick shims were drilled and countersunk screwed to the sides of the spokes. They were going nowhere. Part of that rebuild also involved a sleeve around the hub. This of course meant the opening up of the gap between the spokes. For a restoration, I would have gone no further, but I had nothing to lose by going on and a wheel of like patina would have been hard to find.
These pieces are part of the job.The discs were die punched from sheet metal. Then a Dremel tool was used to cut the crossed slots.
In turn, the slots were punched down to raise the tang on the sides, before the disc/shim was driven down on the spoke tenon. The result is a firmly attached, full circle shim which not only tightens the spoke in the felloe, but also tightens the tenon in its hole in the felloe.
I pressed the whole together on a large hydraulic press and was particularly pleased with how true it was. I used some epoxy resin to fill any voids before bolting the outside plate and brake drum in place.
This wheel was fitted to Henrietta, and the one removed received the same treatment. Remarkably her original wheel had exactly the same screwed -in-place thick shims as the one from my long time stash.
I have driven the car on the first wheel, and had to do the same to break the taper on the second.
At the modest pace I drive her, on the quiet local roads, I am pleased with the results so far. Time will tell how long they will be of service. Meanwhile, she looks as always and I can use her until I can find replacements which need just the tenon end shims.
Allan from down under.
These pieces are part of the job.The discs were die punched from sheet metal. Then a Dremel tool was used to cut the crossed slots.
In turn, the slots were punched down to raise the tang on the sides, before the disc/shim was driven down on the spoke tenon. The result is a firmly attached, full circle shim which not only tightens the spoke in the felloe, but also tightens the tenon in its hole in the felloe.
This wheel was fitted to Henrietta, and the one removed received the same treatment. Remarkably her original wheel had exactly the same screwed -in-place thick shims as the one from my long time stash.
I have driven the car on the first wheel, and had to do the same to break the taper on the second.
At the modest pace I drive her, on the quiet local roads, I am pleased with the results so far. Time will tell how long they will be of service. Meanwhile, she looks as always and I can use her until I can find replacements which need just the tenon end shims.
Allan from down under.