cool wheels for a rod hot in 1965 to 70 era??

other than painted steel wheels and reverse steel wheels, what would the most period correct wheels/mags be for the mid 60's. have a 40 ford deluxe coupe mostly built in the 1965/66. Any pics from old magazines would be great.

 

I have a set of Fenton 5 spoke mags from that era. I would post pics but they are at a warehouse on one of my cars 30 miles from here. They have chrome outers with riveted gray 5 spoke centers kinda like the Rader design. Also have a chrome spinner that says Fenton on it.

 

American Racing Wheels Torq-Thrust...hands down winner in SoCal....maybe Cragars as a second place winner.

www.americanracing.com

 

cragars
Everybody's got Torque Thrust.

 

60's, American Torque Thrusts until the Ansen Sprint came out around 67' (slotted type mag). Also Astro Supremes......

 

They may be more lowrider than what your looking for but I think Astro supremes were show up aroundn that era.

 

They may be more lowrider than what your looking for but I think Astro supremes were showing up around that era.

 

American TT, still the best lookin wheel on anything!........OLDBEET

 

Definitely w/ the polished lip and grey center, my favorite.

 

Astro built a chrome slot wheel that everyone ran in the early/mid 60's. Americans, Cragars, chrome reversed wheels with or without spyders. Fenton and Raders were early 60's also.

 

Radir wheels ..... http://www.radirwheels.com/contents.htm

 

If you absolutley, positively, GOT to have Torque Thrust style wheels, look at these from Team III wheels

 

you know whats funny about this...I can remember when this would have made sense reversed.

 

magnesium americans and 12 spokes......but realistically thinking....cragars or astro chrome slots...maybe chrome reverse.....also thought about buick spokes on thin whites....not sure though...brandon

 

How about 5-spokes in the front and chrome-reverse or aluminum slots in back? This was a popular choice in the 60s too!

 

There were:

Factory caps, still
Buick wires
Steelies
Radirs
Cragers
Americans
Ansens
Chrome reversed
Astro Mags
12 spokes
Moons
Mags
Keystones (you said 70's)
Factory Mags from those years

and any combo of the above.

 

If it's really a HOT ROD '40, I'd use Americans with grey centers and machined (not polished) rims. More purposeful looking.

 

Anyone have photos of the Astros?

 

Check out a few magazines from the era.

 

After a review of the Hot Rod volumes from '65 and '70, it seems that five spokes were the dominant aluminum wheel style in '65, and that by '70, slot mags had made big inroads. Also, in '70, Cragars were everywhere, including top-ranked funny cars (Tom McEwen), pro stocks (Dick Landy), and all manner of street-driven hot rods. Keystones also seemed to be popular.

Personally, the Fenton Gyro slot mag is a favorite of mine. The rear 15 by seven or eight (or 10) is just about like other brands of slot mags, but the 15 by 3.5 frontrunner is really good looking. As an added bonus, it was run on some of the baddest drag cars of the era. It seems to have been introduced sometime in the late '60s. I think I am still pissed that I let a set get away during a redo of my coupe a few (ok, 20 or so) years ago.

 

My personal favorite would be chrome reverse, probably with spider caps ( timeless ) I'm also a huge fan of original American and Fenton 5 spokes, but not the repops. Gary

 

The way I remember it was Cragar S/S wheels were the most badass, but many others mentioned here were also popular.

 

Where I'm from in the late 60's we ran Radirs, Cragar S/S, Sloted Astros, Chrome rims, and a multi spoke wheel we called Spiders but I think they were Indy wheels. Nobody in our area ran Americans back then. We couldn't afford them.

 

In the '65-'70 period most '40s on the street had to look like a race car. E-Ts or Americans in the back running blackwall Racemasters, 5.60s in front on 5" chrome wheels seemed to work for many of them.

 

Groucho- "Cragars, everybody's got Torque Thrust."

Me too.......Cragars and Keystones and Ansen Sprints were everywhere in the 60's and American 5 spokes had so many people cloning them too. But back then you had to take your American's with their gray cast spokes and have them polished yourself if you wanted them shiny. Then you were really hot shit just like the drag racers and show cars of the time (Greer, Black, Prudome, etc.) That's what I did back in the early 80's when you couldn't even buy them anymore, but with the release of the TT 2's two peice wheel, they are everywhere...........but I digress......really, you can go with any of the wheels mentioned here and not go wrong. Go with what your gut is telling you.

 

I've been hearing lately that painted wires (wierds) are gaining some interest. Whats the current thought?

I've been sitting on some (about 20 wheels) early T-bird wires, Dayton & Zenith Wires & some unidentified 8.5 inch widened Buick Wires for about 15 years. I've also got alot of 16" fords that I really like the look of over the chromed wires. I had 2 of the 16"s widened in Fenton Mi to 8.5" & they are going on my 31 roadster with 4"ers on the front.

Are wire wheels making a comeback????? or should I just wait longer?

 

RADER was the brand of mag back then, not "Radir" like those new pieces are called. Somewhere around here I have a Rader Catalog from about 1965-66 or so.

 

I would also like to add a one piece cast aluminum called Indy's and Indy 500's. These were popular in central Indiana. The face on the 5 spokes and the rim was machined turned. The spokes were doubled with the 500's being hollow betwee the double spoke and the plain Indy's still had a cast webbing between the double spoke. The only way to balance them was with adhesive leads which were not real common at the time. I have not seen any of these for many years. I am sure that most of them got ate up by the road salt.

 

American 200-S, Just watch Two Lane Black Top. That`s what made the 55 bad.

 

Rader wheels hit their zenith in 1965-67 (think about the batmobile) but hit the street scene in late 62 early 63. This would be my choice. You can get them new but spelled radir. whats cool about the new ones is that they are one-piece and also come narrower than the originals which were the slim-est at 6". Second choice would be Buick Skylark wires. NO WIDEWHITEWALLS!

show us a pic of your machine dad, so we can all get the vibe. dig.