Some advice on old Radirs and other ancient aluminum wheels.

[Nads]

Well remember I told you how I hit a some debris in the road and I thought I'd busted my tire?
Well I hadn't. I spent money on a new tire and the wap-wap sound came back after about fifty miles, just enough time for two of the lug nuts to back off.
I checked the situation thoroughly yesterday when I got home. It seems that the lug seats on the soft aluminum had recessed to the point that the wheels weren't seating flat against the brake drum I ended up grinding the lug nuts down about an 1/8". I had to chase the threads after that. I suppose I could have doubled up on the washers to move the lug nut out.
I drove the car this morning and it's A OK.

I recommend that if you have a set of old wheels, especially aluminum ones you oughta check to see that the lug nuts don't go past the flat mounting surface of the wheel. The noise isn't just annoying, if the wheel falls off it could kill you.

I guess with old wheels that have probably been mounted and dismounted tens of times over their lifespan they're bound to get chewed up. Oh and corrosion doesn't help matters any.

[Plowboy]

I also have a set and a half of the old Radirs. After looking at them they kind of scare me. Those Rivets are frightening and I don't want to get 2 hours from home (everything is 2 hours from me) and have problems. I was going to run them on the Specetruck but I am going dig deep and go for a set of the new one piece ones. I will save the Old Radirs for a slower future "death rod" project.

Nads did you have to put tubes in all of yours to get them to hold air?

[C9]

If you're using mag wheel lugnuts and they are just a touch long Centerline has a nice, thick, sturdy washer that will do the trick.
These washers are the hot setup on the uni-lug mags as well.
The normal - and sometimes thin - washers that come with mag nuts will "cone-in" for want of a better word and the wheel torque is not as it should be a little way down the road.
Not to mention the uni-lug hole gets mushroomed inward and next time around you can't hardly get the lugnut on.
The Centerline washers stop that problem as well.
Along with doing their part in retaining the proper torque values. (re-torque after you've run the car a bit.)

I'm not wild about *uni-lugs, but sometimes that's all you can find in the wheel you want to run.

*Uni-lugs are the oval shaped holes in the wheels hub that the lugnuts go directly into.

[Kerry]

This might be a dumb question but are all unilug lug nuts the same width where it goes into the wheel slot? I just picked up a set of torque thrust lookalikes. I thought the unilug lug nut width was about .700 but the slots in these wheels is smaller, somehwere around .630.

[DrJ]

How many times do I have to tell you guys that Raders were WalMart wheels? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

[bobbleed]

I diddn't know they had Wal Mart in the 60's. I wish the Wal Mart around here sold Hot Rod parts............

Hey Polwboy, you wanna sell a couple of those wheels? I've got a line on a real nice pair and would like to make a set.
I need 15" x skinniest possible.

[C9]

[ QUOTE ]
are all unilug lug nuts the same width where it goes into the wheel slot?

[/ QUOTE ]

Never really measured any of the other uni-lugs I had, but one pair in the garage has the oval measuring .700 x .830.

The lugnuts used measure .685 in diameter where they go into the wheel.
Hope that helps.

Just so's everybody is clear about this, these are the oval-holed wheels that take a round washer and lugnut and are not the wheels that take a special oval washer with a round center hole and then the lugnut.

You may find you have to clean up the outer edges of the top of the oval hole cuz they've 'coned-in' due to the thin mag washers bend in and damage the hole by causing an inward mushrooming.

The uni-lugs work pretty good, but I much prefer a round hole in a specific bolt pattern.
I'm amazed that SEMA approved them.

[DrJ]

OK, whatever, in this ref. "WalMart" = any discount "cheap products" dept. store chain of the day.

Could have been Zody's, Unimart, Akron Store, Treasury, K Mart... whatever....

[Plowboy]

My Radirs take a lug that is larger than the ones that I use with my torque thrusts. Not a unilug. Nads said in the last Rader post that he used 5/8 shank bolts from Auto zone, if I remember correctly. I was wondering where you got the funky bolts to hold them on. Maybe those aren't the bolts I need to go and buy then!

[Nads]

Thanks for the heads up Jay.
Indeed the AutoZone washers are on the thin side and they do cone in. I only had one wheel give me this problem, it was the most weorn out looking of the set but the only one that didn't leak.
Plowboy I did have to use inner tubes with them.
On the good side it only took 1/2" weight to balance this wheel.
The '60's driving just fine now though. I had it up to 75+ this morning and there was no vibration or shimmy.
I do trust these wheels, perhaps not as much as steel wheels and hub caps.
Having said that I lost one Moon Saturn hubcap on two different occassions and those bastards cost $65 + shipping each time. And the clicking those shitty things made was unbelievable, not to mention the lack of an air valve hole.


PS, one more question.
The rusty brake drums are now visible and they look horrible. Can anyone suggest a high temp paint that might work? I don't want to paint 'em red if I can help it.

[ray]

all this shit we go thru to run old wheels, it would just be cheaper and easier to run some 20's.

[Smokin Joe]

Spiegels DrJ? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Charlie Chops 1940]

Yer killin' me Ray!

Charlie

[C9]

[ QUOTE ]
The rusty brake drums are now visible and they look horrible. Can anyone suggest a high temp paint that might work? I don't want to paint 'em red if I can help it.


[/ QUOTE ]

I shot the rear drums - new - on my 32 with VHT header paint.
It's flat black and it still looks ok.
Gloss black powder woulda worked, but I forgot to do it and was in the middle of final assembly ... ya'll know how that goes.
Fwiw - the Dupli-Color header paint works well, but it's a much flatter flat - does that make sense? - than the flat VHT.
Next time I clean em up, back to the VHT.
Gonna stick with the DP engine paint though ... good stuff.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Plowboy - you can find those lugnuts at the larger swap meets many times.
You could do what my little brother did on his Centerline dragracing mags on the back of his Henry J.
The CL's were for 5/8" lugs and the axle lugs were 1/2".
He got some bushings somewhere and used them to make up the missing 1/8".
All you'd need would be some 5/8" tubing with .062 wall.
If I remember right it was really common stuff.
Maybe even available at your friendly local hardware store.
Be careful to cut the right length.

[Nads]

PS Jay, these aren't unilugs.

Dr.J, how long do you think it will be before K-Mart Sparkomatic cassette to 8-track adapters will become collectible?

But you know what?
You're right, I remember even in the mid 70's those Radirs and M/Ts and Howards were cheapo wheels.

My how times have changed!!!!

[Rooster]

Pretty standard stuff for runnin old wheels to have to cut the lugs or double the washers. Guess that's just another one of them things I figure everybody knew so I didn't bother to share. Cragar's do it after a while too, so it's not something to do with a brand, more an age factor. I don't think I've got a shank lug left that's got the tapered end left on it...

Good call on finally saying something about it Nads...

[quickrod]

[ QUOTE ]
all this shit we go thru to run old wheels, it would just be cheaper and easier to run some 20's.

[/ QUOTE ]i believe that's pernounced"tawenezz" http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[DrJ]

[ QUOTE ]

Dr.J, how long do you think it will be before K-Mart Sparkomatic cassette to 8-track adapters will become collectible?


[/ QUOTE ]

Would it be worth more along with my Sanyo model FT 816 or the FT 819 8-track player?
Where can I git one of them Sparkomatics? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Oh, along with the Rader wheels these same discount department stores" used to sell the now searched for Velzy surfboards.
Velzy at one time made a good custom board but then started mass-production making what we called "Velzy pop-outs" which were nothing more than a Clark foam blank with a couple layers of glass.
No hand shaping whatsoever.
They were $79 and change when "real" surfboards were $150 on up.