I have a set of these McLean type wire wheels (tubeless); one is leaking from the spokes. They have a grey coating on the inside; what's the best way to re-seal these? Surely if I have one leaker, the others can't be far behind.
Hello, Nice set of wire wheels on your hot rod. This bit of information is not the exact wire wheel as yours, but the wire nubs do the same thing on most wire wheels. I am not sure how well the sprays work like the tire sealers. This is a tire shop/alignment center owner's project that he created for such a problem of leakage in wire wheels. He was the only guy around that did solve such a problem. I had purchased a set of 5 pristine Buick Skylark Wire Wheels from a friend. They were not "hot" wheels at the time. Four were used on new tires and the 5th was in the trunk as a spare. All were balanced and trued by the tire/alignment guy. When we added the Buick Skylark Wire Wheels to the 58 Impala, it was a process, but well worth it. The conversion of the lug bolt pattern from Chevy to Buick was done by one of the best machine shops in So Cal at the time, Henry’s Machine Works in Northeast Long Beach. When completed, those "newish" Buick Skylark Wire Wheels went right on the new pattern/axles and made our 58 Impala look outstanding. It was something that highlighted the Impala with a real custom car approach. Now, it was fast and had that touch of being a custom car. Thanks, @themoose After a month or two, we had no problems with air leakage. The shop near Henry’s Machine Works did the balancing and alignment. The wires made it a little harder to get the balancing correct, but after spending some time on each wheel, they were super smooth riding, going down the street. Eventually, we noticed the air beginning to leak out somewhere. Then it got more common and became a fast leak in two wheels and slow in the others. The tire balancing/alignment guy added a thin tube that he had made for such a problem. It was a tube that was cut down to snugly fit over the wire spoke ends coming into the rim. It was just an inside ring part of a tube. Once the tubeless tire was filled with air, it was a solid seal and no more leaks for a long while. Eventually, he recommended adding tubes inside of the Buick Skylark Wire Wheels. Jnaki Then the Impala got stolen and the Skylark wire wheels were gone. Except for the spare wire wheel still in the trunk, that I sold for more than the cost of all 5 wire wheels. Those custom cut down tubes worked, but to cover his install guarantee, he did recommend full tubes to end all leakage.
Check out some motorcycle forums. I have seen this topic before about spoked bike wheels and there are some pretty good solutions for this. I'll see if I can find some info Edit: found a vid that shows it being done to bike wheel.
I used duct tape on my old Buick wire wheels & the bent spoke Kelsey's, but I did install tubes for added peace of mind. HRP
I have a set of Vintique wires that were heavily siliconed from the factory but I stripped it off to powder coat a different color. When I got them back I attempted to resilicone and duct taped the spoke saddle area but to no avail. Two leaked slowly and the others were down in one day. Tubes aren't that expensive but if you run tubes a spare is good to have. Can't plug it and go.
I used that water and ice rubber for roofing, applied it over the nubs and hit it lightly with a heat gun. same thing with the tube parts but with bite . ten years now ,two sets of tires.
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