Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian
Yes Dale, They are attractive wheels. They have one fault; as you're well aware, wire wheels, to be mounted correctly, need to have that outer back portion firmly located against the appropriate portion of the brakedrum. These Firestone wheels don't mount properly; that outer portion is located about 1/8" off the drum. Consequently, the lugholes end up taking all the stresses, and ultimately crack. Now that you're aware of that, you can devise some method to prevent this happening.
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Hey Brian, just wanted to thank you for reminding me about this issue - had known about it for years, but it had slipped my mind (I had typically ran Ford wire wheels on other cars). You "got me to thinking" . . . So - I did a couple things today:
1) I checked the bent-spoke, adjustable wire wheels that are actually on the car and thought to myself . . . "Hmmmm - they were on the car when I pulled it out of that garage - wonder if they fit correctly???". The original builder of the car "Earl" built it in the late 30's to early 40's, were probably a pretty "cool wheel" at the time . . . but truthfully, they never could have fit correctly.
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Well, sure as heck, they are the SAME as the Firestones (probably made by Kelsey as well) - with the same 1/8 - 3/16" gap between the mounting surface and my later drums. I also checked against the original 32 drums (that were on the car) - they have a gap as well, though maybe not quite as much. (Need to 'clay' the drums and get a precise measurement)
2) Given that BOTH sets of wheels have the issue, I pondered how to "fix" them to correctly mount as they should (on an Early Ford). The only easy way to do this is to create a steel "ring" that will have 3 tabs that fit down inside the wheel and I'll put a small TIG tack weld to hold them in. These rings will be the diameter of the wheel mounting surface, about 1/4" wide and 1/8" thick or so . . . and will "fill the gap" between the wheel mounting surface and the drum surface.
I will design them in CAD and have them laser cut - pretty easy job actually. Anyway, wanted to thank you for bringing this up, because I know I would NOT have pondered it . . . has been too long since I thought about the issue.
Take care!