Technical What Would You Guys Value These Kelsey Hays Wheels At???

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Free to me.

 

Free??? How so????


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Are you trying to buy them or sell them? If selling, I'd put them in the blast cabinet first. If buying and you get answers all over the place here, try over on the Fordbarn.

 

Are those 16" or 17". Can't see the condition of the stud holes with the caps on. Good ones go for $200.00 $250.00 apiece if they are 16" and in good shape. Hard to tell condition from the pics.

 

I’m hoping to buy. 16” 5x5.5


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Those look like 16" bent spoke Kelsey's. Run them on a spindle to check for runout. If the rims are not bent, have good lug holes and not rust pitted they go for at least $200 each. Blasted and powder coated figure $275 to $300 ea. There was a seller at the LARS last summer with a set of five Kelsey's and wanted $2500, they were as close to perfect as I've seen. Black lacquer and pinstriped. Don't know if they sold.

 

As said, look for rust around the valve hole, egged lug holes, curb rash, damaged spokes and pitting. But most critical, check the runout--by which I mean, do they spin true, or do they wobble. Wobbles result from impact, and/or being overtorqued onto a later wheel without an adaptor.

There are a lot of bad KH wheels out there. It took me eight tries to get four good ones. If they're 16" and true, value ranges from $100 each (pitted) to $200 each (clean).

If they're bent, they're usually unfixable, so not worth a damn unless you have a garden hose that needs coiling.

 

The last set of 16" bent spoke Kelsey-Hayes I bought were nice, they only needed sandblasting and painted, I bought 5 of them for 300 bucks, that's been a while.

Today a nice set of 4 would probably go between 400 & 600 bucks. HRP

 

Guys offering these for $300 including the repop hubcaps. Originally had them listed at $600. He just sent me pics of the lug holes & they all look good. I don’t really have any way to check the run out. Seems like a decent deal considering new repop caps are around $120.00.


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Condition is everything. They look very rusty. Specifically the last picture the bottom rim looks very rusty/ pitted and the lip doesnt look too straight. It is what it is but if your going to finish these wheels those issues will need to be adressed.

 

I’m for sure going to get them blasted. I’m not planning on doing powder coat. Probably just paint.


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Do they still look useable in your opinion?


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Like Clark said pay attention to the hole for the valve stem also. They tend to rot away. Sounds like you are buying from pictures. To far away to go look at it or have a hamber look at them for you???

 

It's a pig in a poke. Given the pitting, if three turn out to be good, you did well. If two are good, you did OK. But OK deals can be had any day of the week. If you need them now, go for it; if you're just stockpiling for the future, well, that's up to you. You passed on that titled frame for a few hundred more, and it had more upside. Though these are easier to store. After my expience I decied I would only buy local (so I could see them) or from people whom I trusted that were willing to check them for me.

 

Ha ha. Yeah. I’m surprised the wife signed off on these. She was against it at first, but I didn’t push the issue & the next morning she brought it up without me asking and said to go get them. I guess it ended up not being about the money & more about storage/moving issues. I’m actually meeting the guy right now. So we shall see. Maybe I’ll just end up buying the good ones. Hopefully their all good.


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A bit of a gamble if you can't check them out personally and be able to check them for run out.
I don't have a photo handy but I set an axle I have up on a Black and Decker Workmate clamping it in the workmate to bolt some wires to the hub to check for run out. One of those no modifications involved things as the axle is going under my roadster project.

 

I need 1 good one if anyone is selling !

 

Give them to me.

 

Ha ha ha.


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Oh, come on...I'm right down the road from you. I can make them look pretty.

 

You guys think they are a lot more valuable than I do. They look to be really rusty and pitted up . You would have to put a lot of work and money into them. Last bent spoke I had, I gave away. I sold a set of 5 of the straight spoke wheels and tires a couple of years back for $250 and they had no rust.
I tend to look at value as to what I would be willing to give for something so I would say a hundred bucks. I guess I don't value them too much.
But the OP asked for opinions and thats my opinion.

 

I wouldn’t buy a vintage wheel sight unseen. I like to at least give a roll on the ground to see if I can see any out of round, ovaling, wobbling or general weirdness. Lots of things can happen in a wheels life.

 

I bought two 15" wires that had the tires still on them. It was a mistake. The tubes lost their air and trapped water inside where I couldn't see. Cost me $35 each to sandblast and hours of welding and grinding to save them. A little while later ended up buying 9 wire wheels from a guy in the next town that were in great shape for $180.

 

What city do you live in Dave????


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Well I went and looked at them & took a gamble. They don’t seem to be pitted & look to have surface rust more than anything. One of the wheels is kind of dinged up on the edge so I dont know if I can fix that. The rest look to be in pretty good condition & I think they will clean up with some media blasting. The one question I have & that I noticed when inspecting them was that one of the wheels is about a 1/2” thinner than the other 3. (3) measures 5 3/4” & one measures 5 1/4”. Maybe you guys can shed some light on this for me. You can see the variance in the pictures. Not really sure if that’s going to be an issue or not. Also I might have screwed up because I didn’t bring a tape measure with me & took the guys word that they were 16” wheels & now that I have them home they measure 17” across. Am I measuring them right??? Maybe I just got duped.


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A 16" wheel measure s like 17 and 3/16 or a 1/4 across the face

That's from memory and might be a little off but my point is a 16" wheel doesn't measure 16" at the face. It's over 17"

Also fyi when measuring width you measure in the rim where the bead sits you don't hook the tape measure on and measure the overall width

 

No you're not measuring them correctly. Measure them where the inner lip of the tire sits.
There's still hope if they don't blast out OK.

 

Wheels are measured where the tire seats.










Bones

 

you sissy's out in california dont know nothin about rust.

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i could show some rusty wheels from here in the swamp, but i wont. those look pretty good from here except the one spot on one wheel. never seen threaded studs sticken out the sides like that, must have been some ones idea for mounting balance weights i am guessing? i also agree about old flat tires holding water, dont bid on them at auctions anymore