Hot Rods I've always been a steelies kinda guy but lately I have been thinking

Keep the steel wheels and hubcaps, Mags are for guns.

 

Just saying I've got these for Sale made in 1969 Tires are two years old never put on a car !

 

I can’t afford to change wheels because that means I have to have extra tires. I do change hubcaps. Wheels on a car is like a pair of jeans on my wife....Different styles for every mood and occasion. Sometimes I prefer NO hubcaps if you know what I mean.

 

Hello,
From the time of our first car, steelies were the wheel of choice. The only other option was a chromed reversed wheel which cost an arm and leg for the whole set. So, various colors of paint adorned each steel wheel until one color stood out from the rest. As a little pre-teen kid, I got good at taping off a rim from the black tire and spray painting the different colors on those steel wheels on the 1951 Oldsmobile sedan.

Different colors, different hubcaps were all tried to get one final look for my brother’s cruiser/hot rod. Dodge Lancers, Olds Fiestas, Corvette hubcaps, all were tried and the final choice were the famous Moon Equipment Aluminum Discs.

Then, when we decided that what little sticks out around the hubcaps we were also adding in to play, it did not make than much of a difference. So, we stuck to basic black for the background to the hubcap’s outer edge. The Moon Discs were the widest diameter coverage of the bare steelies, but we had to take care of drilling the attaching holes and using screws that would not puncture the rubber. The black paint gave a good trim color to make the Moon Discs stand out, even with white wall tires.

Jnaki

My next two cars all had "steelies" as the higher costs of the fancy 5 spoke mag wheels was out of the picture. So, creative usage of color and hubcaps played a big part of the "steelie" empire for the next in line cruisers.

The 40 Ford Sedan Delivery came with black steelies with small hubcaps. I added beauty trim rings to finish the low cost look. The Impala stayed with black until just before I purchased some Buick Skylark Wire Wheels. I wanted to see what silver would look like on the all black Impala.

In between our hot rods for the street and daily driving, we were able to build our first street legal drag racing coupe to run at Lions. With what limited budget we had, it had to be steelies all around, including new slicks.

1940 Willys Coupe

Finally, on our 1940 Willys Coupe 671 SBC build for B/Gas and C/Gas, we had steelies that could be interchanged with just about any 5 bolt Chevy axles. The first idea of my brother was to get the car running, so the need for any fancy mag wheels got put on the back burner. We ordered 7” Bruce slicks and mounted them on new Chevy black rims. (The Bruce Slicks were interchangeable with the 58 Impala)

Impala with Bruce Slicks

After our foray into the custom build of Buick Skylark modifications to the Impala, it lasted months of hot rod cruising and racing.
(Thanks,Moose)
Eventually, they disappeared one late summer night in 1964. So, I had to get stock black Buick steelies for the last and final look of the black on black Impala before I sold it to a friend.

So, start with steelies and end up with steelies, all due to the high cost of chrome reversed or the new mag wheels.

P.S.
Eventually, 10 years later, we had enough cash to get our first set of American Racing 5 Spoke Torq Thrust Wheels.

So, we did constantly keep thinking that the mags were the best look on any hot rod or cruiser at the time.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ers-to-match-car.1152942/page-2#post-13117416

 

My vote keep the tires black with side walls

 

You mean no redlines?????.....

 

Steel only.

 

I really like both photoshopped images - Halibrand’s and Americans. Although I’d go with light centers on the Americans. Definitely black walls.

But I’m warped. I grew up racing powerboats, and although lusting after new Camaro’s most of us drove wagons (and later custom van’s) as tow vehicles. First thing you did was put mag wheels on your wagon so as to look like a racer and not your Mom. Extra points if you had matching wheels on the trailer.

 

I'm old school enough to not want 20s with 40 profile tires give me 15s and 70 profile.