hi i have a 28 DB 3 window coupe, with original wood spoke wheels, each time i get a flat i have to do it my self no tire shop will touch them, im thinking of upgrading what other wheels can i use ? thanks
Some car from Dodge/Chrysler/Plymouth in the mid thirties had 4 1/2" bolt circle wire wheels that looked like Bent spoke kelsey's. I had some years ago. they would look awesome. Tim
You'll have to get different hubs and maybe backing plates/etc...it's possible 30=ish Chrysler/etc with the tapered axles may work..in fact didn't Mopar use tapered axles for a long time? It's possible the axles size and taper maybe the same. My '31/'32 DB PU also came with wood spoked wheels, I came across a front and rear axle from a 31 or '32 Chrysler with 5 on 5.5 bolt pattern, the frontend was a direct fit, and I just had to relocate the perches on the rearend.
thanks guys, i would love to find a set of wheels that Tim mentioned and some nice whitewalls will look good, can i get those wire wheels to work with out to much hassle? al so are they easy or hard to find a nice set? where can i look? thanks for you're help everyone
In the '40s local blacksmith shops were cutting wooden spoke wheels down to install 16'' rims on the spokes. The demand was quite high - horse drawn equipment used huge iron rimmed wheels & could be given a new life on rubber. Most of the "Hoover wagons'' made from '20s car chassis were in need of tires after hard wartime use. Most of the car wheels were 18'' - 20'' and tires were either not available or costly, and rustout damage common. Tires in 6.00 - 16 cost as little as $3 after the war. Major hardware warehouses sold the rims by the thousands. Probably you could salvage 4 or 5 quite easily - just use same rim ID wheels for donors.
Like Budget said, you'll have to get different hubs to use a wire wheel or steel wheel. No wire wheel or steel wheel will bolt to your woodspoke hubs. Your woodspoke hubs are a part of the wheel, as they are bolted through the wood spokes and you have "demountable rims" (the correct use of the word rim, BTW, for the youngsters) to which you mount your tire. That's why nobody want to touch em....their equipment is not suited to skinny demountable rims with no center section and so tires have to be removed the old way, with tire irons.
Sorry, but that's not quite right. You can't just cut down wood spoke wheels to install 16" rims, because the rims on a wood spoke wheel are actually demountable (removable from the wheel) and they bolt thru lugs onto the "felloe", a structural ring into which the wood spokes are installed. If you had a wheelwright's equipment and some smaller diameter felloes, you could possibly disassemble a wood spoke wheel, turn the spokes to a shorter length and rebuild the wheel to except a smaller diameter demountable rim. But, after all that work you'd still have the same problem with mounting tires which the OP complained about, just on a smaller "diameter" scale.
The easiest way maybe to go the same route as Budget mentioned, which is to replace the front and rear axles, from something newer. I'm not sure you'll have any luck finding hubs that would fit directly into your front spindles or rear axle, that would have a bolt pattern to match a wire or steel wheel. But you might luck out and find some newer hubs that could be machined a bit to fit. Would take some careful measuring and research.
Evo: I've only seen two sets of the wires I mentioned. The ones I had and one more set. It may take years to find or you may stumble up on some. There's also the chrome wires used by Chrysler/Dodge in the mid fifties. They may look a little "late" for what your doing. Tr y a parts wanted ad here on the hamb.
I hope you are not saying that the two sets of wires you've seen would somehow work on Evo's stock DB coupe, because that's simply misleading! Without some front and rear hubs (or complete axle assemblies) to match the wheels you're referring to, he is not going to be able to bolt them on the car. Once he removes the wood spoke wheels from his Dodge, there's nothing but bare front spindles and rear axle shafts left. And you cannot remove the unique hubs which are a part of the wheel itself and reuse them as they have no studs or provisions to mount another wheel expect the wood wheel they are part of.
Evo was talking about the issue of having a time with flat repair. Either he needs to get OK with the ordeal or consider upgrading the running gear. Then he'll have lots of choice for wheels.
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