Projects All you 'steelie-wheel fellas' You ever reverse 'em(home made)?

Wow is that perfect!!!! I wish my $1000 wheels ran that true!!

I'm going to make a set of 15 x 8 wheels for my o.t. 69 el Camino.. I'm sick and tired of vibration. My wheel balance guy uses one of those rolling pin balancers and shaves the tires after spinning them to make sure they are on true. He always says its the wheels, he thinks most time they just slap the centers in them throw a measuring tape against them and weld them up..

 

No kidding, I work in a speed/performance shop, Weld Wheels these days are wobblier than a three day drunk!

 

Here's a pair for the record book. This is a pair has been around a while and I got them from my buddy Pete. They are what I believe to be Buick 15" rims mated to 16" Ford centers. Really crude at best but have been on the road for a long time. I'm on the fence as to whether to use them on the rear of my Vicky but I will mention, they run out dead on. No idea of how they fixtured them to weld them up but they did well whoever was responsible.

 

When I first met Pete Chapouris he said they made the movie wheels for his 34 as mentioned with the spindle used to true it by rotating it. He also said they damaged a few wheels in the making of the movie.

 

I reversed the rear wheels on my '39 Fargo a long time ago. Managed to find NOS hubcaps at the local Chrysler dealer and NOS '67 Olds Ninety- Eight trim rings from the GM dealer. Two of the trim rings were not stamped for the tire valve stem which made it perfect for my reversed wheels. Really like unexpected bonuses like that.

 

Funnily enough I watched this just yesterday (Bad Chad fan), and I'm about to give it a go on a spare set of rims for my Beetle rod. Thought I'd come here and consult with the old-schoolers before proceeding

 

As a teen in the late 70's early 80's I ended up swapping in a posi rear end in my 66 Plymouth. But the new diff was too wide and my wheels interfered with my rear fenders. I contacted a local shop that worked on a lot of circle track cars and had them cut the centers out of my wheels and re-weld them in with as much offset as they could.
They had them done in an afternoon and I think it was less than $50...no big deal

 

I've looked at these before. Looks like the 15's are 12.48" and the 16's 13.48". Still look handy.
https://www.heywheel.com/page11.html
Mike

 

Sorry no pictures but two or three years ago I cut the centers out of a pair of wide wagon wheels for my cousin, he cleaned them up and put Pontiac centers in, got the back space he wanted and welded them up, it went on a ratty looking drag car...now I wonder if he still has 'em

 

I see that Heywheel sells complete 5 inch Bolt Circle (aka "wide five") wheels in 15 and 16 inch diameters... for off road use only, of course.

 

My avatar my Dad built everything. Three dirt late models and a coupe . Cut and add strips , weld , repeat.

 

Here is a link to a pretty good article on the subject;
https://www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2006/02/Steelies/

I've had this link bookmarked for ages and almost forgot I had it
Bobby

 

Of course it says off road use only, that way when someone who is welding impaired gets a hold of them and has a problem on their hot rod, they can say oh it was improper use meant for off road only.