A of the day wheels
 

What kind of wheels are on Jerry Egglestons roadster that was the A of the day? The centers look like stock 31 but the rims look like 16 inch. Never seen that before. Thanks, Marc

Re: A of the day wheels
 

Also, does anyone know how the flags are attached to his bumpers?

He has a beautiful car and interesting wheels.

Re: A of the day wheels
 

Those look like stock 19" wheels to me. Might be the angle the picture was taken at making the wheels look smaller.

Re: A of the day wheels
 

I remember in the past I have seen cut down model A centers on 16 inch 1935 rims!

Re: A of the day wheels
 

The spare looks like a 19" but the rest look like 16", you can see the valve stem is on the side of the left front wheel.

Re: A of the day wheels
 

Model A centers cut down to fit 16 inch rims----not an unusual mod ----used to see them a lot at swap meets in 50s 60s.

Re: A of the day wheels
 

I have a complete set of 16” wheels that have the 19” centers. I obtained them with the express purpose of utilizing 16” radials on my truck. When the 19” radials became available, I went that way and have not looked back.

Re: A of the day wheels
 

So I guess they cut the spokes and weld them to the rim? Has to be touchy getting all of them accurately spaced and centered unless you made a jig for them.

Re: A of the day wheels
 

Just an illustration of 16 inch wheels with 19 inch centers. It is my understanding that this was fairly common during the war when 19 inch tires weren't available. I am sure the average one didn't look as good as the one in the picture.

Charlie Stephens

Re: A of the day wheels
 

Jerry's wheels close up.
The spare tire in the fender is still the original 19"
..

Re: A of the day wheels
 

When I started my truck project - I didn’t realize that the wheels that came with it were 16” rims mounted to 21” hubs. Wasn’t the look I was going for, and the tires were pretty dry rotted.... so, some day maybe I build a trailer ....
The wheels are very true - and the welds not too bad..

Re: A of the day wheels
 

I have a one or two and there is one at the shop. Must have been fairly common thing to do during the war and after.

Re: A of the day wheels
 

The first thing noticed was that the air valve comes through the side of the rim instead of between the spokes. Would you have to use a special inner tube?
Marty

Re: A of the day wheels
 

Since the 16" wheels bolt directly to the Model A hubs, why would anyone go to the trouble of modifying them to use the 19" centers? Was it just because the larger 16" centers didn't look right on a Model A?

David Serrano

Re: A of the day wheels
 

David,
I think the principal reason is to keep the Model A hubcap, so at a glance, the car looks stock.

Re: A of the day wheels
 

What kind of fixtures are necessary to keep the rim concentric with the hub when reworking the wheels? Is this wheel mod practical for do-it-yourself?

Re: A of the day wheels
 

David, after the war-era period, it was a new day trying to "refill the pipeline", and there were way more used 16" tires available along with new 16" tires being manufactured than finding 19" or 21" tires.


The wrecking yards were full of Model-As with 19" wheels, so aftermarket manufacturers took those used 19" & 21" wheels and cut them down to install on rolled 16" rims. While the 19" cut-downs are fairly rare these days, it is the 21" wheels that are the difficult ones to find as I suspect there was not as much demand. The 19" would fit all years, so there was not the need to do both. I probably have collected enough to make 7 or 8 sets over the past 20 years, and I probably culled 4-5 sets just because of the run-out in them. These are very difficult for me to straighten, and ironically when you find a good wheel, it will be dead on concentric (i.e.: less than 0.030"-0.040") so I'm sure it was just a matter of how well the manufacturer's worker did at setting them up on a jig, and they likely shipped good ones and quasi-not-so-good ones and someone with a 15 y.o. used Model-A was thankful to get anything on a budget.

Re: A of the day wheels
 

Bob, I have a Bear Wheel Straightener that runs very concentric, and a fixture could be built to clamp the rim into using a centering fixture mounted to the turntable on the wheel press. As far as practical for a do-it-yourself guy, probably not for everyone but if someone had a knee mill with a large rotary table, they probably could get close enough to call the job successful


I thought about using a set of 26/27 T wire wheels and doing the process to a 17" motorcycle rim for my daughter's speedster to be able to use a low(er) profile radial tire. I was going to layout the holes in the M/C rim for the spokes on my rotary table and using a 90° angle head, drill the holes in the proper spacing around the perimeter to slide the spokes into during setup. Then I could indicate it on the wheel press and weld it out when it was true. As you can imagine, this would be a large undertaking so the car was finished with '27 Chevrolet disc wheels instead.

Re: A of the day wheels
 

Brent Terry's comment about the volume of Model A wheel conversions from stock to 16 inch reminded me of something my Dad told me years ago. He had worked for a large Firestone distribution center after returning from the war and recalled that they maintained a stock of these wheels for their customers. It wasn't a Firestone product but something they sourced from what he called a "jobber".

Re: A of the day wheels
 

Haven't heard/seen "Jobber" used in a long time. Was/is typically used to describe a local small shop (sometimes 1-2 people) who could fabricate/repair small quantities, including 1 offs in a quick time frame.