wire spoke wheels

I have a set of 32 spoke wire wheels that I am having problems identifying. The guy I bought them from had little info. They are 15" with 5x5.5 bolt pattern and are 6-8 inches wide. They look siimilar to the kelsey-hayes wheels from the early 30's. I will try to post pics later today.

 

Original 32 wheels are 18", so they aren't original. Maybe a newer aftermarket wheel.

 

K-H made wheels for many cars, Chrysler Imperials had 15" 5-on-5 1/2 wires.Studebaker used K-H wires too, but they were smaller pattern.
Are yours chromed?

 

Ooops! Chrysler wires were Motor Wheel, not K-H. 32 spoke wheels are mostly Ford, are you sure they are 15"? Never saw a 15" 32 spoke wheel, other than a home-built one I keep around for show-and-tell, haha.
The Ford wheel spokes only cross once, halfway up, the K-H wires cross twice, near the ends. The Kelseys are stronger than the Fords.

 

I never counted the number of spokes but I had a set of 15"- 5.5 wires back in the 70s. They were originally chrome plated. I was told that they were Chrysler Imperial. I can't verify that...it was almost 40 years ago.

 

they only cross once and from the way they look they were widened from original
they are painted and the paint is flaking off but underneath they dont look like they have ever been chromed
the rubber currently mounted on them is vintage 60s cheater slicks and narrow nylon tires made by goodyear and i talked to the guy i bought them from and they havent been on a car since the mid 60s
here are some pics of them

 

That looks like a modified 35 Ford wire wheel. The wider 15" hoop was welded to the cut down 35 Ford 16" center.

 

Article on wire wheels. The picture captions are very descriptive. I was just looking at this today.

http://www.streetrodderweb.com/tech/0811sr_wire_wheels_101/index.html

 

Thanks for the info guys.
From looking at the pics from that article link I think they are ford wheels , judt by looking at how the welds are at the hub and the rim.
Now I just need to figure out what to do with them.

 

What do they measure outside diameter?

 

Correct ………….I have made some just like that!!

 

Yeah they are 15" diameter and whoever cut them down knew what they were doing. They did a great job