So over the weekend, I bought a total of 52 vintage Ford Wheels (1928 model A through 1948) at an estate sale in San Diego, it was 125 drive for me so I was coming home with something, so it turns out it my buddy's first gen Cummins long bed filled to the tippy top of the bed rail worth of wheels lol. So fast forward to today, I got done doing the yard work around the house and I figured it was time to organize and clean the wheels up and figure out what I wanted to keep and sell (I want to keep them all but the reality is they will just be spider condos), most of the wheels were pretty straight forward and other than there is a lot of them it really isn't worth mentioning other than I did find a single, 1937-1939 16x3.5" wheel which it is the first one I've ever seen in person or at least acknowledged and I know they came on the V60 cars so I'm sure there's others out there they can't be that rare but I did find it interesting because it's the first one I've ever personally seen anyways I'm getting off subject and as usual I am making a long post out of an easy question. I ended up with a total of seven 1935 wheels on top of the 4 I had acquired over the last 6 months at swap meets. When I had all 11 of them stacked up in the pile I noticed there are two different spoke patterns, I know there are Kelsey's and I am almost positive these are not them unless there is different styles, Kelsey Hayes to me look good but very busy because of all the bent spokes, the Ford Wheels look really good but kind of dainty like they're not real strong, so today I noticed for the first time I had two different sets of what I thought were Ford Wheels one set and looks kind of like a hybrid of a Ford and Kelsey. What I am wondering is what is the second wheel that has the bent spoke?
I forgot to mention they all measure 16x4, I did not even realize there was different styles until I had them all sitting next to each other.
It was popular at one time to cut larger diameter wheels down to 16" when 16's became the standard size tire, do the welds at the spokes on the odd-ball wheels look factory? I wonder if they aren't cut-down 17" or 18" wheels. Not sure, just a thought.
Besides the orig 16" Ford spoke wheel there was a 40 spoke Kelsey, a 36 spoke Motor rim & Wheel all bent spoke. There was also a 40 spoke Kelsey 4.5" wide and very rare. 1936 Ford std cars all had a 3.5 " wide ,wide 5's also used in 37-39 V8 60 cars. The last pic in your post appears to be a made up wheel.Very commonly done at the time.Look at where the spokes are welded to the rim (at the edge).Compare to the gennie where the spokes are not at the outer edge. I would not trust those made up wheels,probably okay for a trailer.
as said above, cut down from something else. Compare the external welds with the internal ones. Still usable, - for hanging your garden hose on ! ps, I have found some later model wheels that had KH and a date, stamped on the rim. I assume that the KH meant Kelsey Hayes.
The odd wheels also appear to have the inner spokes bent down more than their original angle, right after the weld to the inner hub, it looks like the inner spokes are tweaked over, maybe whoever built them preferred to bend them over a bit more rather than cut them down. Those are neat, a lot of work went into those, and they appear really well done. As others have said, I'm not sure I'd want to run them on a car. But they're a neat bit of history. If you had 4 really old 16" tires that were still mount-able, I think they'd make a really neat set of rollers.
So I have a total of 3 of the odd ball wheels they came from 2 different locations, they appear to be Kelsey Hayes I just wire wheeled them. What is odd I have never seen this style of Kelsey or at least I've never paid attention to it now I'm going to have to look closer every time I see a set of 35 wires at a swap meet.
If it isn't too dark outside already, I will run out there right now and try to get a picture of the three "Kelsey Hayes" wire wheels together, to me they look like a factory wheel, I'm not saying they are but it would be very odd that they were done in the same style two came from San Diego and one came about a hundred miles north from Riverside. Both houses ironically the gentleman were into stock model A's and they could be considered hoarder type estates (hence why I went to them too lol). I asked the guy throwing the estate sale how much for the wheels and the price was pretty close to normal swap meet prices then I said what if I buy a bunch of Wheels and he said what's a bunch and I said probably 50ish then all suddenly The price came down. Because I bought 50 Wheels I didn't look at any of them super close, I bought 2 1940 Ford wheels that I assume slid into a curb because they are badly bent. I also bought a few 36 to 9 wheels that look like they were driven flat all the rest of the wheels were in pretty good shape including the 7 wire wheels (there was five Ford wires and 2 of these oddities), what made it crazy is when I got home I have a Model A chassis that I'm going to put under my Hupmobile and I noticed I had one wheel that was a match. Anyways that's a long story short. Let me go outside and see if I can get some better pictures I will post them at some point this evening.
Okay upon further inspection the wheel that came from Riverside (the really nasty red and black wheel in the picture ) I think is a factory Ford wheel (I got to look at the other Wheels I own to stare at how the spokes mount at the hubs all I know is the wheel is 32 spoke) I believe it is cut down to a 16 as you all suggested, it came from the estate of a guy that had a small orange grove here in Riverside, he is the same guy that had four model A engines that were turned into belt drive implement engines that I bought a few weeks ago (so far I have made one run but that's another story). considering how well he did the model A engine stand/belt drive things I would be willing to bet that wheel is definitely modified... I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing but I guess it I believe I paid $5 or $10 for it I'm not going to complain I just don't have any room for "junk" lol and with one wheel what do you do with it turn it into a hose reel or a bar light? I don't drink so it probably won't be a bar light although a shop chandelier may not be out of the question lol. Okay now the other two wheels are 32 spokes, the spoke layout match one another, on the back of the wheel as I had shown an hour or so ago it is stamped KH, they are pretty neat if they are cut down larger Wheels it is done really well as it looks like a factory welded spoke ford wheel. I am going to keep my eyes peeled to see if I can figure out if it is a factory wheel or not, if I could find two more I would definitely run them on my "Fup" (Ford/hupmobile), if they are a cut down piece I already have an idea what to do with them, I got a buddy who is basically making a late 1930s teardrop trailer clone (I restored tons of trailers so I have given him probably every vintage part you would need), anyways these wheels would be absolutely perfect as long as they are true. Here is the picture of the Kelsey Hayes Wheels along with the oddball red and black wheel (ignore the dots by the spokes that was my paint pen so I could count the spokes it was actually darker than the pictures make it look I was having a hard time seeing). Also if I haven't said thank you to anybody that responded I just want to say thank you now, I appreciate the help, I I'm pretty good at identifying Wheels but occasionally I get stumped and this is definitely one of them, I also have a couple of artillery Wheels I haven't figured out yet but that's another story to another day. What I do know is I need to quit buying the stuff because I always think I'm going to find the matches for a set and it never happens I just end up with a ton of spider condominiums on the side of my shed.
The most recent set of pictures are all cut-downs-compare the welds to the welds on the hub. Also all the spokes should be straight, any bend in them is a indication of them being cut down. "Bent-spoke" kelsey-hayes wheels are riveted, not welded.
Wheelkid is confirming what I was thinking. They were probably 33-34 17" or '32 18" wheels to start with, so a '35 cap still fits, the center is basically the same. But the outer hoops were cut off and spokes were either cut down or bent over to fit the 16" hoop and then welded. Neat, and well done by the standards of the day, but not up to factory specs, not something I'd put on a hot rod. If your buddy can use them on an old timey trailer that isn't real heavy, that'd probably be a real good use for them.
I literally just texted him saying I got the perfect wheels for him. We will see. He isn't exactly what I would call a project finishing kind of guy so I am sure these wheels will end up in his shed. Ask for the trailer I can't imagine a 4'x10' teardrop weighs 1200lbs when it's full of camping gear I am sure the wheels are up to that task.
Thanks for the education. When you get to the artillery wheels, I will let you know that Studebaker made some in the 5x5.5 bolt pattern, as I have a pair. A random search about them brought me to the hamb for my first visit a long time ago.
It's funny you say that I happen to have one single five on five and a half inch bolt pattern artillery wheel. I would go out and get a picture of it but it's midnight and I think I put it in the stack of spider web condos (AKA my vintage wheel stack)
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