There seems to be increasing interest in older race cars, pre 1930. I am working a on couple projects in that area. I rarely see this type of car at events, despite the simple construction. The struggle I have is the wheels? These cars look best with tall (24" ish) rims. Coker makes the tires, but I can't find anyone that makes a wheel. You can get the original wood spokes rebuilt, but I don't want to run 75mph on a wooden wheel. Even Jay Leno has non-original, wire wheels on his Mercer, so he can drive it. Anyone else out there want a high speed, wood spoke looking wheel? Am I missing something already on the market?
Early on, the racers used wire wheels for a reason. To be safe, and era correct you need some Dayton, or Buffalo type wheels. They are not cheap to buy or rebuild. It took me about 10 years to get together a set of 48 spoke Daytons with correct hubs buying them one at a time whenever I saw one.
"Stock" Model A....................actually billet wheels "Stock" banger......................Actually cosworth https://www.thedrive.com/news/37877...rally-car-mods-and-a-9000-rpm-cosworth-engine
My grandfather didn't want the original wood wheels on his "T" hot rod in this 1924 photo. Taken in Backus, MN on the way from Chicago to North Dakota to work the wheat harvest. Those could be Buffalo's . Could have cost more $ than the rest of the car combined. Hardy travelers, those hot rodders who proceeded us. Immensely proud, since twenty years earlier they would have been ridding horses.
A few years ago, somebody put wood on the steel-spokes of the Jackman white-spoke wheel, to emulate the appearance of wood-spoked wheels. Usually in 15" dia. Sorta worked, but didn't catch on. I suppose you could do something similar but using larger-dia rims & making them thin enough to use correct-era-width tires. Me, personally, I'd have an engineer check or design the steel-spoke layout, in an attempt to avoid "issues". Post#4 is probably the best answer... Depending on how far back you want to go w/the pre-30's, in the mid->late 20's, steel-disc wheels were used. I found out that a lot were cast iron w/an integral brakedrum. Seriously heavy!!! I'd consider narrowing some Al spares, but they probably wouldn't be more than ~19" dia. 'Nuther thought is to modify motorcycle wheels, & use a flattened-cone either welded onto the rim, or as a cover. Been done here in a couple of threads. Big problem to me is, mc wheels aren't made for side-loads. So a bit of thought is needed for that one... Marcus...
Pasco is another old brand from the model T era. They are nice because the rim center bolts to a stock T hub after you remove the wood spokes. Therefor, you do not need to hunt up the special hubs required for most aftermarket wire wheels. Hard to find, like any of them. Budd was the brand that made the solid disc centers, again, hard to find.
I have a steel proto-type in work now. Easier to ****yze, cheap and durable. But, too heavy for the long term. If there was enough interest, forged aluminum would be ideal. Maybe flow formed? I have an aluminum/carbon fiber ***embly on the drawing board, but that will take tons of development to insure durability. Calimers is great at what they do, but wood is not the answer.
Actually I think that's sorta dumb putting fake wood wheels on a Model A, a car that never had wood wheels. Those ended for Ford with the Model T. In 1927, wire wheels were standard on a T and wood wheels were optional. Just the opposite with 1926. Dodge had wood wheels still optional in 1934 in 16" versions. Wood wheels are actually quite strong but not so much for hard cornering. I have original 1927 Dodge Brothers 21" wood wheels on my 1922 DB Screenside. I have had it up to 62.7 mph by GPS on pavement but it also gets driven on the worst dirt and rock roads one can imagine. Also through mud and creeks and whatever is in the way! Dave
I am still working on options here. Coker was emphatic that they will not make a tubeless tire for a 23" or 24" dia. rim. The tube type tire also requires a "flap" (sort of a rim band). More cost and weight. Does not seem to be much interest in reproducing a metal wheel that looks like a wood spoke. It won't be the first time I wind up with 1 of 1 because I am too stubborn to compromise.
I bought some 21" drop center rims from Coker a few years back. 21 is not big enough? I was going to make real spoke 21" drop center wheels using model T wire wheel centers cut from rusty wheels. I have a machine to make the dimples in the rim, and a 19" MG wire to copy the spoke layout, and even had one batch of spokes made to build wheel #1, but...it never happened. With those 21" rims you could make a solid disk type center and be tubeless.
Have you considered machining a set of billet aluminum wheels? Not cheap at all, but after painting them in a wood grain pattern, you'll have exactly what you're looking for.
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