I want to run Stock model A wheels on my roadster. Kinda like the salt city special has on it from the Throttlers. My question: do they flex at high speeds like i have heard they do? and Would they be OK for a semi everyday driver? Top speed on this thing might be 70 if i am lucky, its gonna be running a 4 banger with not to much horse power. It will make a few road trips a year but i got a set of steel wheels to to go on it for those if running the A wheels would be unsafe for long hauls. What do you all think?
my grandfather goes 75 on the freeway all the time with a stock wheels. just make sure all your spokes are straight and still welded. snyders antique auto parts has just started reproducing model a wheels. i am planning on using model a wheels until i can find a set of 33-34.
Thats Deeks rpu in question. The wheels are actually 21 v-8 wheels from South America. I have not had first hand experience with a Model A wheel, but I can tell you that the V-8 wheel DOES NOT like to handle too many cookies!!! They are fine at 70 mph though.
good to hear so far, mine will see highway speeds occasionally but we wont be out trying to break speed records or drag racing with them.
loudpedal, I never knew there was a 21" V8 wheel until you mentioned it. I wonder if that is something Ford offered or somethink buzzed together down there to keep some wreck rolling. I've seen some REAL used wheels on cars that came out of South America. I've got one welded to a T driveshaft tube that has held my mail box for 28 years, safest place for it.
No, they are the real deal.. Virgin Ford. Something to do with the tire sizes available there or something as I recall.
On the Great Race, we had Model A speedsters with stock wire wheels, and those cars could do 80+ (although it's a bit scary traveling that fast). Over a 4000 mile road trip, the wheels performed just fine. Just make sure your wheels are in good shape, not rusted out or bent.
And be cautious; there are plenty of bent ones with rusted spokes and broken welds. The hordes of Model A restorers have been culling the herd for good ones for several decades, and many of the ones for sale now are ones that a wise restorer rejected and left behind the barn in 1959... Check for reasonable straightness and trueness, don't buy anything with heavy primer...
I will check them thouroghly, they are coming off an original A. I trust the guy who has them, if there bad i wont put them on.
[FONT="]All solid matter will expand if enough gravitational force is applied. Aluminum spoked motorcycle wheels expand when traveling at high speeds. The atoms in your Model A spoked wheels are more densely packed and with the spokes being welded to the rim; the amount of speed required to spread the atoms of the rim enough to not be a good thing is probably a lot more than 70 m.p.h. It is said that the Earth is not perfectly round. As Earth travels around the sun at approx. 27,000 m.p.h. the force spreads earth out and lengthens earth 3" at the center of the gravitational pull, thus shortening the opposite of the gravitational pull. So earth isn't perfectly round, seems like a small amount considering the 25,000 miles radius of the Earth. I know, to much info, but you learn something new everyday. 21 wires look awesome, so you should use them. [/FONT]
Under hard cornering they do flex, but the Model A wheel is a very well engineered piece, you should not have any problems. Steve
21's cost more than 19's because ones without serious bends are scarcer and there is a rolled edge that rusts out on wheels that have been exposed for years.
I knew a guy when I was a kid that was way into older MGs and Triumphs. He said that wire wheels are supposed to flex by design. They were used through the 60s on MGs. Maybe they contribute to handling somehow? He also told me he had seen someone rip out the rear hubs in an MG that somebody stuck a V8 in. The guy revved it up and dumped the clutch and "Sproink!" I don't know. That's just something I heard.
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