Technical My new T Bucket

Hey all,
I just bought a t bucket and since I live in PA it needed an enhanced vehicle inspection. One of the issues the car has is that the front tires are only 3 1/2 inches wide. I would like to stay with a spindle mount wheel, but need the tires to be a minimum of 5 inches wide to pass the inspection. I would also like to keep the break set up it has right now which is a disk fixed to the wheel and the caliper fixed to the front end. Any one have any suggestions?

 

I have my roadster registered in Maine, no inspection, cheap reg, cheap tax and can be done through the mail

 

How do you register it in a state you don't live in? Plus I would like a wider wheel for ride and safety improvement. I think maybe an older harley wheel might work, or I found some vintage jag wheels that we're spindle mount, but not sure if they will work on early ford spindles.

 

Good question, to me that seems shady and there really should be laws to prevent that fraudulent behavior.

 

You could simply put a 5.00 motorcycle tire on the wheel you already have. I can't believe some of the inspection crap you guys go through on the east coast! I'd have a very hard time keeping my cool dealing with it.

 

Probably the same way guys here in Phoenix with later cars get around the environmental smog inspections. That is only required in Phoenix, so they will go get a P.O box in a small town out side of the city and use that as their mailing address DMV dealings. I don't see anything "shady" about it. it's just a means to an end when you are being over regulated.

 

@ Need Louvers. That's why my car is registered in Maine, Ct wanted me to put fenders on it.

@ Cracker. It's actually very simple, just call the Maine DMV and request out of state reg forms.

@ Blue. As for fraudulent behavior.....the government isn't setting a very high standard for the rest of us to follow, so I'm just following their lead.

 

Good point and I'd have to agree regardless of which side of the border I'm on.

 

Thanks guys

 

borrow some wheels , get inspection and swap back....

 

I think captmullette has the easiest ( Most Legal) way to do it

 

I think I'll take the wheels to my harley shop and get wider outer rims and re-lace them with a bigger tire. Thanks for your input, and I'll keep you posted. Here is a full pic of the bucket too

 

That thing is bad ass!

 

IMO, a bigger tire/wheel would look better on your T anyway.

 

Looking at the last picture you posted I am thinking you should look for a different front and rear wheel combo, moving away from the wire wheels altogether.

I don't think the wire wheels are fitting the theme of the car IMO.

 

Sell me your wheels.

 

I have to agree, the front wheels look mismatched to the rear wheels IMO. If you go with similar wheels on the front to those on the back you will be able to get your wider rims and it will look a little better too.

Just sayin'.

Don

 

I hate to sound like I'm piling on Cracker Dave, but the guys above are right. Do some early Ford drums and another pair of '35 wires and some 5.00X16 Firestones (really, the proper size of 4.50/4.75 wouldn't be legal there?) would do a lot for your little car! It's not there is anything glaringly wrong, but the back is screaming forties, and the front is screaming late sixties just with wheel and tire choices. That would solve many problems in one simple shot.

 

sorry but those valve covers have just gotta go too ...

 

Thanks for the input...I'm going to look into getting a more similar pair of front rims to the back. I was just trying to avoid changing my breaking system up front, but looks like I'm going to have to do it. Anyone have any links to wheels they think would look appropriate ?

 

l bet if you do a search under T buckets you will find lots of pictures on here. Wheels make or break a car, and I like the rear ones on yours so if you can match up some whitewalls on the front it will be a totally different car.

BTW, nice to see a 27 bucket for a change. And you are lucky, when I lived in Pa a car like yours would have gotten a ticket the second you touched one tire to pavement. Glad to see Pa has softened their antiquated motor vehicle laws.

Don

 

Well, what I think is appropriate might not be what you want, so that might not be the way to go. The simple situation for you would be to scrounge another pair of '35 Ford wires like you have on the back and have them powder coated to match, then call Coker and order some 5.00X16s (though again, on "T"s and "A"s I prefer 4.50/4.75s). I would scrounge up a set of '47-'56 F1 or F100 front brakes and spend 40.00 with Speedway for a bearing kit.

I sense that you are kinda new to this stuff ('might be wrong, though), so that might sound like an insurmountable "scrounge list", but these are fairly common items sitting in other rodder's shops throughout the country. Time to connect with the other guys in your area and net work a bit. The front brakes are common backyard stuff to any guys that have put an independent in the front of an early truck in the last couple of years, and are usually damn near free when found. I know that single '35 wires seem to be in every antique shop for cheap in my neck of the woods, so that might be in your area too.

That said, all of this list can be ordered new (or reasonable replacements) from companies like Speedway, Coker, Rally America, Wheel Vintiques, and literally hundreds of other aftermarket companies. But, I did a quick calculation, and I stopped after 1200.00 or so. There is also a really good classified section here on the H.A.M.B. that might streamline some of this list for you, too.

Back to what you have and the immediate problem, are your front wires indeed 16" as I think they are? What width are they? The reason I ask is that any motorcycle shop that deals with vintage Harleys can get a 5.00X16 from either Duro or Firestone that would fit a rim as narrow as 3", and even trickier has double white walls to match the back. Although not ideal, it would solve you legality issues in the short term and not look too bad in the process.

 

If you are at all wondering what I think would be appropriate, something like the wheels and tire combo's that I run on my car would be a start...

 

Chip I can't believe those are 16s on the front. They have to be at least 18s. Maybe bigger. Shit they look like 21s to me.The easiest fix I think would be to have some wider 16" rims laced on those hubs and try to match the rear tires with some like Coker WWW car tires. This would be a great improvement on the present look. This really overall is a pretty good looking T. I agree about the valve covers I don't like the look but that is a matter of taste.

 

His front wheels are most likely 19" as that's the typical front size for 'cruiser' bikes. You won't find a tire large enough in that rim size. The load rating on these will only be about 450lbs too, which is inadequate IMO.

Cheapest out without changing everything will be to have 16" rims laced up, about $3-400 per wheel. I'd also recommend not using motorcycle tires as they don't last long (15K miles is considered excellent, 10K or less is typical) and cost as much or more than car tires.

 

Do we know what kind of front axle this car has? If it's from Speedway or something, it should be fairly easy to figure out what hubs will fit on the spindles. I think that's the first step, before buying wheels and tires.

But I agree, really neat car that will look ever so much nicer with different front wheels and brakes (and maybe a change of valve covers!). You're a good guy for taking a bit of criticism in stride, and the swap over of the front wheels and brakes won't be that tough or expensive, really.

 

Ya, as soon as I hit "Post quick Reply" I zoomed back up and realized that they were 19" or bigger. Damn short term memory loss...

 

You know Dave those look like Ford spindles. If they are Chip's "need louvers" advice might be the best cheapest advice. It really wouldn't be much work to find, clean, paint and rebuild a set of F1 front brakes and and install them on your roadster. You could then sell the wheels and disk brakes you have to someone building an old digger and probably make some money. You could then install some 16' 35 Ford front spoke wheels or any other period correct wheels you like. That would change the whole look of your roadster for the better.
Sorry Dave for our being so anal but this is what we do.

 

I know you said the front wheels and tires were one thing you needed for enhanced inspection, I see a couple of things that aren't going to fly in PA. That fuel tank has to be under a cover,and have an external fill,and the "windshield" is way too short.no visible ws. wiper? I know these are required because Harrisburg rejected my T-bucket last fall.I corrected the issues and got my registration and license.

 

In California, the CHP's web-site actually has "dime your neighbor" link for people that register their cars out of state. If you are caught, you will owe the state back registration fees from the time the fraud occurs.