Projects Building My First Roadster in San Francisco

Very cool ride [emoji41]


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A million years ago I worked for a body shop that had a "steel wheel straightener", saved the shop lots of time chasing down replacement wheels. It consisted of a big steel plate mounted on a table, what looked like a trailer axle stub mounted straight up, a trailer hub (which could be swapped out to accommodate different bolt patterns), and a hydraulic jack. To use the tool you bolted the proper hub to the stub axle, bolted the wheel to the hub, put the jack under the rim of the wheel, then rotated the wheel. Where the rim rubbed the jack, that's where you pushed the rim up. Hopefully you can find one of those tools at a body shop or wheel repair shop.

 

you checked your rim on the absolute outer edge, which really has no relationship with where the tire sits when mounted. the outer edges are quite often bent up from tire iron operators with no skill or patience, but that does not affect the tire running true. the place to check is where the bottom of the bead sits, and where the side of the bead sits. place a jack stand up near the inner surface of the rim where i mentioned and check again. they gotta be round, and side play can be 1/6 to an 1/8 ok, 3/16 look for a better wheel. put the worst on the back. hope this makes sense, i am not computer savvy enough to draw out what i mean !

 

well, i drew up a sketch so i wouldnt loose sleep over the confusion i created. should make better sense now. btw, i have never seen a perfect old ford wire wheel, but they gotta be round. happy motoring

 

Se have a few wheel shops here. I am not sure if they will take anything this old, though.

*Edit: That got me thinking. The machine to do this is $7k. Makes me wonder if I could make any money doing old wheels....

 

Joey, here is another way to check wheel run out. I reversed a pair of fronts for my COE, and checked them this way. With something heavy placed close to the inside bead lip. Keep moving it closer, until it starts to rub, and watch the gap, as you spin the wheel.

 

also, marty's truck wheels above ^^^ are strong enough that two lug nuts would work just fine. however, i find that on old ford wire's you should really use all 5 lug nuts tight like normal for a more accurate test

 

On your brakes if the drums are steel they are 99% shot. Get in touch with Randy Gross in So. Cal he is the one who makes the CAST IRON drums for Model A's and builds up the shoes and backing plates as well. Go bonded on the cast iron drums as the woven shoes will eat them up faster. I have them on my sedan and they stop quite well and I outweigh you. By the way my plug for Randy is great service and he is a cool car guy to boot.

Mike

 

If he's gonna spring for cast iron A drums, he may as well upgrade to 32+ brakes or juice...

 

Man Aaron/ savage is a name I haven’t seen in at least a decade. Looks like he hooked you up! Loving the progress on this

~have you seen the video of him jumping culverts in a K car? Man that’s gotta be floating around the internet somewhere...

 

What about powder coat instead of paint, NRI powder coating in South City did my KH wires 15+ years ago and they still look good. Also if you need to get those back drums easily off I have the correct KR Wilson puller.

 

Congrats man! Such a great car and awesome thread!

 

Word, just let me know when you're ready. I'm usually free most Fridays and Sundays, this coming Saturday is likely a day trip day for the wife and I. You can shoot me a message on here or Facebook.

 

Good taste in beer ! Since you are in S.F., do you ever try Anchor Steam ? We tried it for the first time when we went to your city several years ago. It wasn't available in Texas at the time. Good luck on your build. Seems like you have lots of help, an invaluable commodity.

 

Which machine shop in Berkeley?

 

Kevin over at SMP on Bryant might be able to do it.

 

So you’re working hard at hardly working correct?


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Wheels came out really nice!