Hot Rods I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD SEE THE DAY.....

The junk yard here in town has a pile of steel wheels that is at least 20' high and a good 50'- 75' in diameter. Every car that comes in, they pull the wheels off, pull the tires off and throw the steel wheels on the pile! There is a growing pile of aluminum wheels there too. He has been doing that for the last 15 years at least. The yard in in the flood plain, so it gets partially submerged every spring.
Any steel wheel you would want is probably in that pile somewhere, but you would probably kill yourself trying to dig through that mess to find the wheels you want. Gene

 

Dorman sells OEM wheels for a reasonable price, you might luck out there.

 

Ha, tri-five Steelies are what I’m running on my old truck.
Have had them for many years.
r


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Hello,
I can see the dilemma. But, if you want your nephew to keep the “flame” going, shell out the cost of new rims, so his hot rod/cruiser will not go down the road sideways or have steering/alignment problems. New, round rims go a long way to the security, and that as an older hot rod guy, you are not cheap or cut corners. Do it the right way and show him how you think those new ones are for his build.

Family safety and help goes a long way in this lifetime. He will thank you later for leading him the right way. Plus, even though it is not the lowest cost, you don’t know what you are getting, just because it is cheaper. At least with the new shiny rims, he has a good base to start his accessory choices and looks.

Jnaki

My brother and I only bought a used 56 Chevy rear axle Positraction set up with springs at a scrap yard. At the time, it was only 3 years old and in great shape after the inspection. But, for the rest of our build and future car repairs, it has always been new stuff OVER old stuff. It is just not worth it for us or our families. Let your nephew think you know all of the right things to do in those hot rod builds. Show him that you care about his build and not be a person who thinks cheaper is better.

We have been close to our niece since she was a tiny little girl. These days, the relationship is still strong and that is very cool. We are the cool aunt and uncle side of the family.

Here is a thought, if you have those exact steel rims, give him your rims. Now, you can choose the wheel of your choice from a long list of cool looking wheels.

 

Actually $100 each for new steel wheels isn't really that much if they are good quality. Metal fatuge's. the lug nut holes wear out. the bead surface gets rough and rusty and leaks ect. The hole for the valve stem deteorates ect . Say you buy a $25 rim. then you gotta sandblast it prime & paint it . and it still might leak a bit around the beads. its aggravating always having to inflate a tire. and the loss of pressure will shorten the life of tires. I do use a lot of used rims and tires on my stuff. However Im not pating anything for them. and on most things like my trailers they are Bias Ply and have tubes. My wrecker dollies have very small wheels and tires. I was always having tire problems with them. always having to inflate them. My wife was working at Wal Mart. She bought me 4 new tires already mounted on rims and got 10% off. cost her a bit over a $100. I already had a spare. so now I have 4 good tires that don't go flat and 5 spares.

 

Hoarding my last ones I have. For the GMC I am using Tri Five wheels, they seem to be easier to find since those guys chuck em for 5 spoke americans. I needed some meaty ones for the rear so I ordered outers from my circle track supplier and punched the centers out of my 56 wheels.

 

Lots of younger guys probably never heard of punching the centers out. The centers used to be riveted. and you could knock them out. and install the center on a different rim or reverse the center in your old wheel. I always welded them back in. To check that they where centered. you mounted the bare rim on the front hub. set a beer bottle next to it and spun the rim if the gap between the bottle and rim varied it wasn't centered.

 

I feel your pain Root, I have been looking for 14" steel wheels that will clear disc brakes. They are as rare as hens teeth.

 

The cheap "sandwich" bread is impossible, they must be using imported cake flour (no protein) to bake it. The weight of itself causes it to break in half, forget about trying to spread butter or anything on it.

 

I have FOUR of them! I also bought 4 being discontinued McCreary tires some years back; 2 of each style, then mounted them on the wheels. Darned if I did't mount them up wrong, 1 each on the black and gold colored rims, rather than 2 on the gold, 2 on the black in the same style tire. Better than mounting them wrong as far as tire direction goes; I've done that too. Mismatched! Rather than swap them out, I'm just going to repaint the rims, but it's not the way I wanted to do it. McCreary's be came American Racer I think. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

Hi Truck64.The time frame that I was referring to was about 60 odd years ago.
Good luck.have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

Here's an attic full of '55, '56, '57, '58 wheels with a few of the wider station wagon wheels.
Pass. wheels are $65 + shipping.
Wagon wheels are $85 + Shipping
Place your orders with a PM!

 

Nice doug fir rafters

 

I had pristine stock 14” wheels for the 64 Mercury, had a helluva time sourcing 14” tires! I sold the stockers to a Galaxie restorer, bought 15” chrome reverse from Wheelkid, and we were all happy.


Walt
Outsiders CC

 

Selling these locally . 13 inch Opel GT, Rallye Kadett SR steel wheels. almost 50 years old , bead blasted, painted with new 205/60 x 13 tubeless tires. Guy agrees on the price and comes to collect, checks the small date stamps on the reverse side of the 4 rims and see,s 12-72, 12-72, 11-72, 10-72, No deal. He wants 4 rims with the same date.
As Roothawg said, "i never thought i would see the day ".

 

As I stated earlier if you can buy quality new wheels for $100 its cheeper than buying a used rim and paying shipping and having to blast it and paint it ect.I have over two hundred wheels. I sell them for a price range of $10 to $35. I don't ship wheels. I advertise on the Facebook Marketplace and have sold several.

 

The supply has dried up I remember in the 60s trying to find 48 Mercury wheels a one year deal. For my 40 ford.

 

GM part #5009 is a 15x6 steel wheel from 80’s-90’s s-10/Blazer. Also, for the 14” wheels, find a local dirt track. Most of those guys run metric GM cars and usually have a pile of old wheels laying around. They will clear the small disc brake setups


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I feel your pain Root, I have been looking for 14" steel wheels that will clear disc brakes. They are as rare as hens teeth.[/QUOTE]


GM pattern? If so, look for whels that have a PENATGON shaped center hole. On the inside, you'ii see how the hoop tapers from the center. GM began using them around the the early-mid 70's through the 80's on RWD cars. I found mine at a tire and wheel shop that never threw steelies away - they had the room to keep building more racks!

Sadly, that shop is long gone... and I'm on the hunt for a pair of 15x6 chrome-reversed wheels that I can dustblast and powercoat for my '57 Chevy, and one 15x6 6-lug c/r wheel - guy at a swap meet GAVE me 3 after giving up looking for the 4th. Anyone in SoCal have anything, or know of a shop or yard with a shitload of wheels?

 

I am right with you BuckeyeBuicks about the cost of everything including old cars.10 years ago I could still afford a decent old station wagon the prices have just gone thru the roof over the years. Junk yard cars are even selling for big $$$$$.Bruce.

 

I've got 10ea. 49 - 53 Chevy car rims in good condition. Yes, they need cleaning and painting.

PM me if interested.

Tom

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Anything other than pickup wheels is pretty much gone from the yards anymore. Most everything has been fwd since the 90's, with a few exceptions. If you can't use a pickup wheel, you're pretty much out of luck in most yards.