Been making plans for my 29 roadster rebuild and been thinking about wheel choice. Anyone running 18” 32 wires in the back and 16” 35 front wire wheels? And maybe have a photo of it? Here it is now on 19s Skickat från min iPhone med H.A.M.B.
Looks really cool! Aggressive and fast even when standing still! Skickat från min iPhone med H.A.M.B.
Can look really good depending on the build style, but : fwiw Not often done as in the past it has been difficult to find tyres for 18” rims. And the 18” rim is also narrower than the 16” which some find odd to have a narrower rear rim. I think from memory that the ‘32 was 18” x 3&1/2” and the ‘35 was 16” x 4”.
Andy, Your car is about perfect for a late '30s-early'40s build. You don't see many cars built for the early era look. If you are going to change the car, and hang around here, you need to consider what era of hot rod you want to change to. Then choose what wheels would have been used at that time. Personally, I would love to be a 16 year old in 1939 driving that little roadster like Hell on the back roads! PS: for me, if 16s in front then 16s in back! Just my $.02
I had that setup on the 32 Lakester I sold Dale Grau. Stock 35 wires on the front with 500/16 Excelsior's and 18 inch 32 wires on the rear I had Danny at Bruces Rod Shop widen 2 inches on the back side and I had them set up with 700/18 Excelsior's. Looks really good on the car.
Collecting parts for my 41 mercury engine and that will probably be the newest part in the build so kinda wartime era. Not much else will change except wheels, grillshell and paint for the wide picture. Cant recall that I’ve seen pics of 18 and 16s together so maybe it wasnt really done back in the days? What do you consider prewar in the us by the way? -39 or -42? Skickat från min iPhone med H.A.M.B.
I think (I wasn't there) as soon as 16" wheels of any kind became available cheap enough to the hot rodder, he'd replace all 4 of his old 17" and 18"ers. I'm guessing late 30's. Maybe you'd see some 18" wheels later in the 50's at Bonneville when racers were using Indy Firestones, but I doubt they would still be on the street.
I run 6.50/7.00 x 17 rear and 6.00 x 16 front. After much research into prewar cars and seeing so many mismatched tires on vehicles I figured they ran whatever they could find.
I do not have a picture but I have seen 18” rear and 17” fronts and it looks right. Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.
I assume that it was a matter of price. As long as it existed in that time I guess you could call it period correct, right Skickat från min iPhone med H.A.M.B.
I'm with Clem, the '32 18" wheels are narrower than the '35 16" wheels, so that combo looks odd to me. I researched and saved a ton of period pictures for my roadster build and it seems to me that nearly every car that swapped their original wheels went to a matching set and extremely few in the 40's weren't 16", the exception being a handful of racers using those high clearance wheels ("Divco" wheels, even though they never were used on Divco trucks) to take advantage of an abundance of surplus 18" high speed tires. It is technically "period possible", but I'd have to see some pictures to prove that anyone actually ever did it that way, at that time. What it really boils down to, is are you shooting for a specific look, or are you shooting for historical accuracy?
I’m with you on the narrower part. Didn’t think about that so great input! I agree on all your thoughts here since I haven’t seen any pictures of it either. I’m defenitely aiming for pretty much an accurate early 40s look although I will use some aftermarket repro parts. 16s been the plan the whole time. Just got this idea the other day that a larger rear rim might look cool. Skickat från min iPhone med H.A.M.B.
I'm sure I have seen a photo of a 32 roadster at the lakes back in the day running an 18"-16" combo. Comments were "larger rear wheels making higher top end speeds" and this being why they were used.
You can always widen the rears, if you want. I run 16” x 6” ‘35 wires on the rear, widened inwards, and 16” x 4” on the front. Higher profile tyres on the rear give me the look I’m after.
The Jalopy Journal
