I am wondering what everyone is running out there. I have a 40 Buick limited that I want to get on The road. It has the original split rims. I want to stay with the original steel type wheel and i know they are 5x5 lug pattern. Has anyone found a 15 or 16 inch steel wheel and was able to use the stock Buick hubcaps? My great grandfather purchased a second set of caps from the dealership in 42 and never installed still in the box in perfect shape. I know I can go junkyard hopping and take one of the caps and see if anything is remotely close. Was just looking for suggestion. Thanks Ken
Buicks up through ther early 60's have 15" wheels that should meet your needs. Depending on year and model, they range from about 5" to, I think, as much as 6 1/2" in width. The hub cap clips are the same from'41 onward so if you have NOS '42 stuff it should work witht he later wheels mentioned above. It is also possible to remove the Buick centers and install them in other rims of your choice for width and offset. Ray
Hnstray- the 40 wheels are different then 41 and up? I believe the new caps I have are identical gto the 40 caps on the car
There are some minor differences in the wheel center stamping around that era. Actually it is more the hub cap that differs in '40 than the wheel. I have had a few '41's, still have one, and have a '40 Super. However, as luck would have it, Just two weeks ago I sold a '41 sedanet and I put the wheels/tires/hubcaps from the '40 on it to 'spruce it up' a bit so I don't have them here to do a detailed description. My point, mostly, was you can use any wheels from '40/'41 up through at least the early 60's and get the correct bolt pattern and hub cap mounting you need to use the caps you have and have a choice of 15" or 16" sizes. the 16" wheels will be the narrowest of them however, and for a large car such as yours, I would use the widest I could find. Ray
Limited aka 80 and 90 series cars use different 16" wheels than any other buick. the center hole is larger and specific to Limited. The Hubcaps are 1940 specific as the 41 and up used a larger diameter cap. Also...what are you talking about "split rim"? All 40 Buicks have a steel rim with a steel center rivited to the outer. what is wrong with the ones you have...post a picture please.
I will have to look into it more but when the car was given to me and I had to move it it had blown out 2 tires. All four tired were still holding air until we moved the car. And I had to get it rolling. I had appropriate sized tired, spare rear tires from my dads motor home but no local tire shops would mount the tires because they said they were split rims. Now this was 10 year ago and I was only 17 and never dealt with any vehicle this old so I guess I just believed them. But the tires weren't tubeless. I was given a number to a guy that would mount them but it cost me 50 per tire to mount Now that I am gettin into the car I guess I should go pull the wheels off And take another look.
Now is the limited series 80 being special model why I am having a hard time finding the stuff for the brakes or am I just looking in the wrong place?
The Senior Series Buicks, 80 & 90, were much lower in production numbers than the 40,50,60 and 70 Series. However a number of them still exist. I would suggest you try vintage Buick specialists ..........there are several you can find in Hemmings Motor News or through an internet search. Ray
Ok thank you guys for responding. I just got back from looking at the car. It is tucked away in my grandma's sideyard. The rims look like normal modern rims and not split rims like i previously posted. I am glad to. See that and they are 16 inch rims current tires on them are 7.50 x 16 lt. Now I am pretty sure they have tubes in them but my memory might be foggy. With these rims am I able to run standard tubeless tires? Tires are goin to. Cost a lot because I forgot I have the two full size spares. It is funny some modern cars come with fix a flat in the trunk and an old car like this come with 2 full size spares. Examined the car a little better today then I have in a while. Only rot I found was at the bottom of the spare tire wells and below the rear bumper mount into the trunk. Also pulled back some of the carpet and found surface rust but no rot.yet. I am tryin to post pictures but can't from my new phone. But I will try again.
Ok so I finally got pictures to upload to my gallery. So u guys can check out photos there still tryin to post here
I just got pics up in my profile. Takes me a while to post on here because I am doin it on my phone and not a comp. Check the gallery
i ran 1950 buick wheels and got all my brake parts from www.kanter.com phone 1-800-526-5423 jon buick1a.jpg (7.0 KB)
Beautiful Buick. Is that a limited? I think i am goin to go in a different direction with the front suspension. I am goin to copy the front suspension but use a set of later disc spindle and go with ball joints and remake the upper A-arm shock mount and while I am at it add in some more modern steering geometry like negative caster and anti dive into the upper A-arm mount. I also will be adding a pair of slam specialty airbags. To round everything off a power rack And pinion and hopefully a hydroboost to power the brakes. If a 7 inch booster fits under the floor then the hydro boost should also. I am goin to add a s10 power steering box and a York motor driven air compressor. I will also overtime rebuild the stock front suspension and brakes and hide it away in my attic just encased I want to return it to stock. I am hoping I can do it all as a bolt on setup. Fab work should be easy enough. The only thing that may get welded to the frame is the rack and opinion mount.
To everyman his own joys, but it seems to me you are modifying a pretty fabulous steering system. At least that was what I thought about a 37 Limited I once owned. It seemed like it had power steering! I credit a little of that to a big steering wheel, but most to fantastic engineering. PS I know this post is old, but how did you come out on the hubcaps and your mods? Perry
Perry, thanks for bringing this back to life. I made this post right after I got the car home and these were my initial thoughts. But I have changed the plans once I got my head into the car more amd saw exactly how the steering system is built. For now I am going to pull the front clip and maybe pull the motor to clean everything up. Also started building an intake and set of headers. Once I get the clip off I may still update the suspension with duplicating the upper and lower A-arms and adding ball joint and disc brakes bit will be keeping the 5x5 lug pattern and original rims. Remakin the front suspension will be more to see if I can do it. Shouldn't be to hard.this is a long term project but I jade gotten away from r&p and the air bags. I will just give it a drop via springs and spindles
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