Technical Looking for replacement steel wheels to run radials on lowered shoebox

I have read most of the posts on wheel / tire combos for Shoebox Fords until my eyes started twitching.
I have a lowered ‘51 Custom Deluxe Tudor.
Car sitting on a rotted set of wide white bias.
Want to use 205/75/15 or slightly narrower radial tires. After reading about the warnings on installing radials on ‘51 rims, what OEM wheel, from junkyard can I install on my car? Want to stick with 15x 5.
What backspace? Thank you.

 

Just check them closely for signs of cracks, or if they are riveted together, a preemptive strike, use tubes, and cross your fingers.
I just last week had a set of (also!) 205-75x15 tires put on a set of 59 Studebaker wheels (no tubes).

I've run the same combination on my daily driver 59 Stude wagon (recently sold) for just over 93,000 miles without problem.

Old, is old, worked hard for MANY miles. Check the inside of rim area for cracks, check closely around the rivets for ANY sign of movement, looseness.

Like I said, riveted wheels may benefit from using tubes. Radial tubes aren't cheap, but neither is getting a flat on the freeway.

Mike

 

I run 15x5 chrome wheels on my 56. They are the same offset as stock. I suspect it will be hard to find wheels in a junkyard that will be what you need and are any better than the ones on the car. If I were you, I would just check the wheels you have over good and run them with the radials. My 56 had 205/75/15 radials on it when I got it on the original wheels and they never had any issue.

 

I am running a set of original 15 inch with 205/75 radials and have not had any problem. Don

 

What are the warnings?

 

Some posts say original wheels could fail when running radials. Others say use tubes with radial tires. Many good posts on this issue. Just thought I could find newer 15x5 wheels with 4.5 bolt pattern with correct backspace.

 

I'm running 205/75r15 radials on powder coated original wheels on my '51 Ford Coupe tubeless and have for many years.

Dave

 

The backspace is not likely the problem, as much as the center hole.

But like others mentioned, lots of us have run old steel wheels with radials without any issues. I've never had problems with rivets leaking air, either.

I expect new wheels would be a little bit "safer", but driving a newer car would be a lot "safer".

 

New cars are not as fun to drive, let alone work on!

 

Glad I didn’t know tubeless radials don’t like old wheels.
Put probably more mikes on old wheels than newer wheels.

 

Not sure about 51 wheels but i found 40 ford wheels had an issue with the valve hole. Modern inner tubes fit TR13 valves old rims can be TR15 or larger. You can get a plastic collar to adapt them.

 

I have also never run tubes in radials or old wheels. Or, for that matter, I haven’t even run them in bias tires on old wheels.

 

LOL breaking the centers out.

If the wheels are not rusted out run 'em and don't look back.

 

I know you're talking about 15 inch wheels but when it was time to put wheels and tires on my '50 I used a set of low mileage (75,000) wheels off a 64 Ford Custom (14 inch) and 195/70R/14 tires. They fit well and work well. I didn't want to run the original wheels, and even though 14 inch tires are getting harder to find, I thought the smaller wheel size would help in keeping the car low without sacrificing too much sidewall height.

 

My first encounter with radials and steel wheels was on a 72 Pontiac wagon in mid 70's
New set of tires and next day a flat.. was told the radials were too stressful on 1/4" steel
and told that newer wheels were 5/16" so bought a set of aluminum, problem solved.

Years later my dad put radials on his '66 Imperial and encountered the same problem..
His fix was to silicone down in the centers of the rim and I go, " Aren't you worried about
them cracking and breaking?"..." Naw ain't gonna happen"...
30 years and many miles later, That Imperial became mine and it still had the same wheels
and never leaked a pound !

 

Only problem i've had running stock wheels with radials on my '53 is keeping full hubcaps from working loose.

 

I think the concern with early wheels running tubeless tires is the rim doesn't have a 'bead lock'.
If the tire goes flat, the bead breaks, and without the lock ridge inside the bead, the tire could dismount from rim.
I hope you can understand my explanation, and that I remembered it correctly.

 

A tube won't keep a tire on a non-safety bead type rim. And it doesn't matter if it's a radial or bias tire, either.

 

Now that statement is a true fact! Us kids used to have to run back and pick Dad's '56 Vicky full wheel covers out of the ditch after some hard corners!

Dave

 

I saw some that had that happen in the mid 70's. Usually on an early 60's car that was going down the freeway when the tire went flat.

As far as older wheels flexing with radials, I'm pretty sure that is why I lost one of my Hollywood accessory 14 inch Fury cone style with an extra ridge hubcaps. I had 14 inch Chevy wheels on it that were pre disk brake wheels.

NOW: as far as Dave29's Shoebox goes, Any early 70's or later Ford 15 inch 5 on 5-1/2 wheel that has the right size center hole and the right back spacing. .
A Shoebox brake drum has a 2.430 Brake drum register hole. If you want to stay hub centric it might be a bit of a challenge. Most mid 70's and up Ford wheels have a center hold just over 3 inches .
Here you can go in the tire stores and buy new plain steel 15 inch snow tire wheels for a pretty reasonable cost so that might be something to look into. They usually aren't real wide either. Just remember you need a plain steel wheel with a 15 inch 5 on 5-1/2 bolt pattern with a center hole a few thou bigger than 2/430 that is designed for radial tires. Plus designed to hold a hubcap.

 

So someone was telling you that the steel in a wheel rim was 1/4" thick?
Well, people say the most peculiar things.

When I got my first '64 Fairlane that had sat for ten years, I opened the trunk and found that the rim of the spare (bias ply) tire had a six inch long split in it. The tire was fine, so it appeared that the rim failed while sitting.
But I don't know how much pressure had been put in that spare tire.

 

Ya know, I said Dad's 56 Vicky would chuck the wheel covers on corners and it did, but those were skinny ole bias ply tires! So...nothing new!

Dave

 

When the radial tires became popular around 1972, we were told the wheels could fail under the stress the radial tire could put on the wheels. I worked at a gas station at that time. I can tell you I mounted a whole lot of radial tires on old wheels, never even saw one fail.

Crap wheels that couldn't hold air, or couldn't be fitted with a tubeless valve stems were always a different story.

I also suspect if you suddenly want to do some hard core road racing or corner winding with sticky modern radial tires, a wheel update would be a good plan. Lots of performance era cars had 15" wheels with the 5 bolt 4 1/2" bolt pattern (Ford, Mopar & AMC), but finding them in a junk yard these days would be pretty rare. Most of the modern vehicles with 15" wheels were 6" or 7" wide. I believe some of the more modern Jeeps still used the 5 bolt 4 1/2" bolt pattern wheels. There is a listing of cars and light trucks that use a 5 bolt 4 1/2" pattern over the years, I've seen it posted here before, so it has to be out there on the web someplace.

 

Look at your original rims carefully. My 53 had a 1/8" hole drilled in each one where the air space is. The only reason I can assume for that would be to bleed the air out while inflating the tube.
Backspace is critical because of how narrow the rear wheel well is.

 

To answer your question, I took the original wheels of an Avanti II, and put them on my 50. They are just 15” Ford 70s steel wheels and the original caps pop right on.

 

Great information guys. I never thought about using 15. “ Tom’s. The car currently has 15” rims running 6.80x 15 wide whites.
Still running stock front and rear brakes. Getting ready to install dropped spindles from Shoebox Central. Already has Aerostar springs with Posies and 2” blocks in rear.
One update leads to 5 more! Getting off topic.
Sorry.

 

Not putting radial tires on old rims sounds like horse shit to me. Not gonna sugar coat it.

 

If installing dropped spindles along with the dropped springs, you are going to need to install a camber kit to go along with it.

 

I had to order a set a couple years ago because I got tired of seeing my Buick project without hubcaps. Speedway sells them and they are 175 a piece. I ordered because I didn’t want to go on the hunt. But I have allways had original wheels and never had an issue. Just run inner tubes on the wheels you have and you will be just fine.