I'm putting together a plan for my 60s style hot rod project. I'm not into gasser type cars. I have a 40 Desoto coupe and a 56 Desoto 330 Hemi. It will be a manual transmission of course and I've located a flywheel. I havent decided what transmission yet. Not sure what would have been used back then. I do have a Saginaw 4 speed I could use. I havent decided on what rearend yet either. Aslo would like suggestions on what type of wheels. First thing that came to mind was the magnesium torque thrust wheels.
early 60s was so different than late 60s. Mid 60's.. 64/65/66 were the hot years for many new mag companies being formed, and the ones you want were right up there as first choice around here...and that exact style was made by a lot of those new companies. Us poor school kids had to buy used chrome steelies or old original Raders, etc. .
Us poor kids had to buy a can of spray paint for our steelies. We did have a choice of colors though. That was a joke, I was born in 56, I wasn't doing much on cars in the 60s. There is a pretty big difference between what was done in the early 60s compared to what was done in the mid 60s and even more differences from what was done in the late 60s. By the late 60s, cheap used mags were readily available, you could afford to get pretty much anything you wanted, as long as it wasn't the real magnesium wheels, they were still expensive. I actually bought my 1st pair of mags when I was 13, in 1969. I didn't have a car, but the Cragger SS look-a-likes were really cheap. Gene
In the 60's I mostly remember chrome reverse wheels, at least until the pony cars became common. The bucks up guys would run Cragger SS wheels or Tourque thrusts.
I turned 16 in 1971 , but growing up in the 60s it seemed the really hot cars ran Cragers or gray five spoke mags everybody else had slots, chrome reverse or black painted steels with baby moons and narrow whitewalls. I prefer the gray spoke mags for that era. Good luck with your project. Larry
I was never a bucks up guy but while in high school in the late 60's I was fortunate to be friends with a guy that knew our local Funny Car ace who happened to be sponsored by Cragar, he got my 14x7's for $75 for all four.
Chrome reverse, Cragars, American torque thrust. painted wheels with baby Moons and without, full disc Moons, just painted wheels with lug nuts, hubs painted silver. These are all of the wheel deals I did on my cars mid 60's and as someone stated, custom wheel company's blossomed late 60's, as I remember the real magnesium wheels were not marketed for street use, more for race car applications. Good Luck with your ride, Enjoy !
I had a 40 Plymouth business coupe with a 1955 DeSoto 291 hemi. Matte black paint red interior with white piping. I put on Moon disc. Thought about putting on my Foresight Speed Masters .
Early 60s, black painted steelies, skinny whites were new & 'in'. Chromes if ya was in that tax bracket. Mags were later...
So when did the aluminum slots come in? I was thinking 63-5 maybe? As a kid my folks were still young enough to go out where all the hot rod guys were cruisin. I recall several "jacked up" cars running the Ansen sprint style wheels out back. The family had convertibles. Mom had a 62 Caddy, my aunt had a 64 Impala conv with a 327 and 3spd column stick (new), my uncle had a 63 Galaxy conv with a 390, my other uncle had a 63 1/2 "fastback" with a 427 mid-riser and a 4spd. Did I live the dream life as kid or what? Dad was running his 427 hi-riser powered 61 "boxtop" back then in the ARCA ranks. Motown's suburbs were full of hot stuff, most got wheels right away in true day-2 fashion.
In high school I worked at a junk yard after school. I remember seeing lots of torque thrust D wheels. I grabbed a couple sets and ran them on my 57 Belair up until Mom bought me a set of crager SS wheels. I’ll bet there were at least 10 more cars in that yard that had them.
Bet you wish you'd grabbed all of them and held on to them now! Torque Thrusts and the look a likes, Cragar SS, and 5 slot aluminum were what I saw the most of, with a few chrome steel 5 slots sprinkled in.
Andy Southard Jr's book is segregated into 2-year segments which illustrates trends as they evolved during the '60s. Available on Amazon. .
Yep, early you ran the latest skinny white wall if you were up to date. And few ran black walls on any hot rod or nifty street car until the mid/late 60's Mid 60's Black walls on Cragers were cool if your car had the engine to back the look up. In 63 I couldn't even afford spray can paint and bought a half pint of black enamel at Western Auto and a small cheap brush and painted my wheels on my 51 Merc black. About that time the rich kid in school had a 57 Belair hardtop that he had the local body guy remove the hood trim and round off the ends of the places where he trim went and repaint it Sierra gold and cream and put a new set of 5 spoke Cragers on it. The only set of mags that anyone at school had then as far as memory serves. Sometime in 64/65 he swapped that for a 65 Chevelle SS 327 4 speed that he put Cragers on before anyone even saw it. All the while that the rest of us were more worried that we had tires that held air. I remember one of my buddies who drove his folks car all the time popping the hubcaps and painting the wheels black and then putting the caps back on so he could pull over and pop the caps a few miles from the house, throw them in the trunk and go cruising looking less like a kid driving his folks cars. He even figured out how he could crank the torsion bars to give it a jacked up look only to get busted one night when he was cruising the Ave one night an his folks pulled up alongside in their friends car as the two couples were out for dinner and driving down the Ave.
I sure do. There was a lot of stuff there I wish I would have saved. They had 3 rows of Chevys from the 60s. At least 5 65 Malibu SS convertibles and lots of 396s
Locally (Tacoma area), alloy wheels were extremely rare until about '66. Painted stockers, some home reversed painted steelies, wheel covers were common (particularly mid-'50s Corvette as the 'Vette owners could afford chrome wheels and sold the stock caps), and a handful of chrome wheels like Astros. Used to see mid-'50s Buick/Caddy/Mopar wire wheels once in a while too. Magnesium wheels weren't popular on street cars as they didn't do well in our climate, only after the aluminum versions came out did they start to show up in numbers.
The photo I posted was taken in 1966 the guy I bought the car from put them on the car the day he bought it, mid year 1963. HRP
Slots seemed to be popular starting in the early 70's, maybe late 60's. I remember dad put a set on his 34 3W in about 71-72.
It has some painted steel wheels on it now. I believe they are some kind of later mopar wheels because the have the hole for the locating pin that’s on the stock Desoto rearend. I bought some new 15x8 steel wheels from jegs a couple years ago for it so I could put some wider tires but haven’t done it yet. So now I’m thinking slots or Torq thrust Ds If i switch to alloys.
Hey hey Txturbo..we met up a while back..I had the 39 Desoto you came to look at .....wanted to buy yours...start a build thread..love that year car...by the way you can cut off the locating pin...
Yes I remember. I’ll start a build thread when I actually get started. Still planning and stock piling parts.
In my home town around "62 there was a guy with a tail dragging "39 Chevy coupe, bubble skirts and flipper hubcaps on the front.
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