Rims

[Hickory 40]

My rims are originals and of course I would like to put some radials on the car. The valve stem hole is oval for the tubes. What are my options to reuse the original rims. Will the rims hold air. What I mean is do they make a special valve stem or is welding the original hole closed and drilling a new one an option.

[dpollo 617]

use a brass stem, available from tire stores catering to commercial trade.  I think I got mine from a trailer outfit.

they have a rubber washer which fits the hole.  The added advantage is that they will prevent wheel covers from creeping around the rim

 

The other option is to weld a washer into the hole and then redrill the hole.   This is not very difficult especially if you use the  smaller rubber stem.

[Mark D 358]

Oval stems are available, Amazon has them.

[soth122003 117]

Hey Hickory,

I had the same problem. Got the oval valve stems, wire brushed the bead seat area( the whole rim in fact), painted the rims put a nice set of radials on (added 4 ozs of air soft BBs to each tire for the balance. That was four years ago and the tires still hold air and the car still tracks straight with no shimmies or vibes.

 

Joe Lee

[captden29 43]

what is an air soft BB ?

[plymjim 39]

Plastic pellets for toy guns.  About 1/4" diameter. Never heard of  using

them in tires though. You learn something new every day!

[Hickory 40]

I work in a truck shop and it's nice to know the valve stems setting behind my parts guy will work, and we also have Equal which are plastic b-b material mentioned for balancing truck tires. And that's where experience will answer your questions

[58prostreet 33]

look at patchboy.com. check brass truck stems. I used the plastic beads for balancing with WWW radials and have same experience as Joe Lee.  

[Frank Elder 786]

10 hours ago, Hickory said:

I work in a truck shop and it's nice to know the valve stems setting behind my parts guy will work, and we also have Equal which are plastic b-b material mentioned for balancing truck tires. And that's where experience will answer your questions

We used this product when I worked at Jim Hawk Truck & Trailer.

http://www.imiproducts.com/products/equal/installing-equal/

Edited March 7, 2018 by Frank Elder

[soth122003 117]

Yep!  I wanted to use bead balancing instead of tire weights so it would not scratch up the rims. The real beads for balance are expensive, but while I was in wal mart I saw the air soft BBs and the whole bottle was about 20 ounces. Just divide by 5 and you got four tires and the spare. The nice thing is they will continually balance the tire for it's life on the rim. Check out any bead balancing web site to see how they work.

 

Joe Lee

[ptwothree 104]

I'm so old, I remember when rims were wheels.

[Hickory 40]

And they were wooden spokes too right

[MackTheFinger 202]

On 3/9/2018 at 7:01 PM, ptwothree said:

I'm so old, I remember when rims were wheels.

 

Rims are rims and wheels are wheels, some people just aren't aware there's a difference.. 

[Plymouthy Adams 3,832]

50 minutes ago, MackTheFinger said:

 

Rims are rims and wheels are wheels, some people just aren't aware there's a difference.. 

 

and talking about it can be tiring......   ok ok ...I'm going back to converting my fluorescent fixtures to LED

[Plymouthy Adams 3,832]

little hi-jack but to compliment my above, the light fixtures are now converted to single end LED tubes....when they say daylight...they mean daylight.....the brightness is almost unbelievable.....and...there are twelve bulbs yet to go in that section.  Now that I have seen what they look like..I will order about 125 more tubes.

Edited March 12, 2018 by Plymouthy Adams

[Hickory 40]

Well I'm gonna sandblast my wheels and use the original hubcaps. Maybe a set of 235-75-15

[soth122003 117]

In your service manual, it should have the specs for the front end data to include the tire size. It will list it in inches so you have to convert it to the metric of modern tire size. This should help find the correct size for your car.

Pre-1964	1965-72	80 series metric	Alpha Numeric 78 series	P-Metric 75 series Radial	P-Metric 70 series Radial
5.90-13	600-13	165-13	A78-13	P165/75R13	P175/70R13
6.40-13	650-13	175-13	B78-13	P175/75R13	P185/70R13
7.25-13	700-13	185-13	D78-13	P185/75R13	P205/70R13
5.90-14	645-14	155-14	B78-14	P175/75R14	P185/70R14
6.50-14	695-14	175-14	C78-14	P185/75R14	P195/70R14
7.00-14	735-14	185-14	E78-14	P195/75R14	P205/70R14
7.50-14	775-14	195-14	F78-14	P205/75R14	P215/70R14
8.00-14	825-14	205-14	G78-14	P215/75R14	P225/70R14
8.50-14	855-14	215-14	H78-14	P225/75R14	P235/70R14
5.90-15	600-15	165-15	A78-15	P165/75R15	P175/70R15
6.50-15	685-15	175-15	C78-15	P175/75R15	P185/70R15
6.40-15	735-15	185-15	E78-15	P195/75R15	P205/70R15
6.70-15	775-15	195-15	F78-15	P205/75R15	P215/70R15
7.10-15	825-15	205-15	G78-15	P215/75R15	P225/70R15
7.60-15	855-15	215-15	H78-15	P225/75R15	P235/70R15
8.00-15	885-15	230-15	J78-15	P225/75R15	P235/70R15
8.20-15	900-15	235-15	L78-15	P235/75R15	P255/70R15

[keithb7 674]

What about installing new proper sized tubes in your new radial tires, mounted on vintage rims? For peace of mind at hi-way speeds. A valve stem sealing problem could lead to a bigger issue when travelling at 60+ Mph. Will new tubes inside radial tires cause any other issues? 

[soth122003 117]

I don't know what others have said or done, but my understanding is in city driving tubes are ok. At hi-way speeds, if a piece of the steel from the radial pokes a hole in the tube it could cause a bad accident. Usually the edges of the radial tire at the bead area is where this happens. I had this happen once to me but luckily no accident, but the tire was ruined.

Joe Lee

[Don Coatney 3,801]

I believe there is a tube designed specifically for radial tires.

[mrwrstory 527]

There are tubes designed specifically for radials.  Michlens are the best and recommended by experienced tire guys,...'tho they are quite pricey.  I got mine from Lucas Tire in Long Beach, CA.  There are others available for less money but most are junk and prone to early failure, usually at the stem.

And, another tip,....be sure to remove the stickers that are normally placed on the inside of the tire casing.  They will abrade the tube and cause a curious leak.  Discovered that after it was pointed out by my "experienced" tire guy.

Edited March 18, 2018 by mrwrstory

[keithb7 674]

Speaking of Rims, I was thinking about what type of aftermarket rims migh have been popular in the year of my car, 1953?

My stock rims with full hub cabs are cool but wondering all what would have been an upgrade stock option on higher end models.

Where chrome spokes available at the time? I am interested in something period correct.

 

For example, is this stock? Or aftermarket of the times? Period correct?

 

 

Edited March 18, 2018 by keithb7

[Plymouthy Adams 3,832]

MOTOR WHEELS made the early mopar wire rims and they were available painted and chrome.  There was also a faux wire wheel cap made by Cello that was available.  The wire wheels are being reproduced as are replacement center caps if you luck to have a set of original wires.  Follow this link if interested.....

 

http://www.hobbycar.com/chrysler.html