Hot Rods What is your "go to" wheel for a street brawler?

they were pretty well made...in China...

 

Theyre rust magnets , after a year or two i n the rust belt , its nearly impossible to keep them rust free , plus Ill bet disc brake dust would be a killer !

 

When I think of street brawler from the 60's .... Black steel wheels.

Does not matter that you have narrowed & tubbed the rear end and have 15" wide tires stuck under the rear fenders.

At the stoplight you can brag about your warmed over 283 with camel hump heads ask if they want to race.
In reality you have a built big block hiding under the hood.

Thats what I think about when I hear street brawler.

 

I think most everything is now.

 

Black steelies on the rear and 5 spoke Americans on the front.

 

As an up and coming mid 60's hot rod guy the only wheels on my radar at the time as far as local street driven cars were five spokes and Cragars, photos of my high school parking lot would have made for great sales brochure material.
When I bought my first car in 1969, a black 61 Impala, it came with black painted International Dragmaster five spoke wheels so I guess you could say that was the center of my universe.
When I started modifying my next car, a 57 BelAir, the only thing I could think of was SHINY WHEELS and having been indoctrinated by having my head buried in car magazines 24/7, it had to be Cragar S/S wheels for this car.
I just didn't have the coin for them but I got lucky when another kid at my high school said he knew the local Funny Car guy and he was sponsored by Cragar, said he would ask if he could get a deal on them, a week later he told me $75.00 would get me a set of four, man, I must have mowed lawns for a month to be able to buy them.
Was told they would be on the guys front porch in a week, just put the money in an envelope and drop it in the mail slot in the door.
I drove by that house every day after school and when those four boxes showed up you would have thought it was Christmas.

 

Cragar S/S wheels are timeless.

 

1-Torque thrusts with flat spokes , grey . torque thrust d's are for '65 and newer corvettes with disc brakes to me.
2- Crager S/S
3- chrome reverse .

 

Out of the 3 from the OP My pic is the chrome reverse. REAL reverse.

 

Wow, man am I out of touch!
If I had money to burn I could have a set of 17×8"six spoke Cragars on my Silverado.
Only $485.00 EACH.
Not!

 

Kinda paint yourself into a corner with this pre-65 thing don’t it?

 

I'm probably weird but I love the old pics of hot rods with a mix/unmatched of front and rears. Whatever the choice, I love when front runners (4" width) are used in front.

 

I did actually tickle the line a bit, my Nova has 16x7 and 8 inch polished Halibrand five spokes on it, but they actually look like plain ol 15 inch Americans...........HAMB legal.

 

Anson Slots

 

I've done steel wheels with poverty hubcaps, 5 spoke Americans, Halibrands, Cragars..just depends on
what looks best on the car....

 

Plain old steel wheels for me. As a side note switching from 15x6 front 15x7 rear steel wheels to 15x5 front 15x8.5 rear Centerline Auto drags knocked off 43 lbs. That is sizeable chunk of weight!

 

Starburst 15x4 on front and Halibrands 15x10 out back.

 

As long as you asked.......
These are on my 66 Suburban, so I wouldn't call it a street brawler, it would actually make a better street sweeper.




Hope you are getting along ok Chris.

 

I’m really leaning towards chrome steelies. I don’t want those multi-lug deals though. Just one bolt pattern please. The next issue is a period looking black wall tire circa 1965ish.

 

Someone posted this pic in the Tri-5 Chevy thread (Edit to credit @rusty1 ) and I just love it. I acquired a super incredibly nice matching set of 15" chrome reversed wheels like these (real, OG reversed ones) this summer for my '57 Chevy and I had planned some flavor of whitewall but now I've changed my mind. This spring I need to hunt down some properly sized blackwall tires to mount up.

Like you, I want a tire that isn't obviously modern looking. But I'm also on a beater budget. We'll see what I can come up with.

 

I like the look of Cragars, but man they are way to heavy for any brawling and they rust way to easy.
I like sharp spoke 5 spokes, no torque thrust D's for me, give me that crisp edge.
I've owned or own several vintage mag type wheels but my go to wheel is an aluminum slot, I'm also a fan of mismatch wheels too.
Really depends on the car style to what looks good, nose up, nose down, high and level, rear high rake, radiused wheelwells or not etc., they're all variables to the wheel combo you choose.

Cheap front skinnies are still out there, you just have to beat the bushes a little, you're not going to find them at large popular swap meets.
I recently found some cheap skinny ET's on marketplace, I drove a few towns over at 10 pm on a Tuesday night to get them, got to get them when the gettin is good. Lol

 

This is the combo I've been on the fence about for a couple years, I have the rears but just can't decide on the Starburst or the Kidney beans for the front from Rebel Wheel.

 

Slotted Aluminum. Wide on the rear and narrow on the front

 

@swade41 I already bought the starburst. I like the look of them up front. 15x4. The skinny slots doesn't look right to me.
Normally I like all wheels to match.

 

Torq Thrust or Cragar SS

 

We have two full sets of wheel and tires for both Dad and my car. We mix and match street and strip with both cars.
Dad in back with the 5 spoke Americans front, ET slots back. Me with ET slots front and steel out back.
My O/T Buick has Cragars all the way around.

 

Hard to go wrong with chrome steelies.

 

This is what I am holding out for to be honest. I know I can find a set of skinny slots at a reasonable price. I just haven’t tripped across them yet. Heck, I owned a set of magnesium 5 spokes not that many years ago that I bought for $40 with tires and then sold for $100 thinking I made a killing…. Good deals are still to be had.

 

steelies please. painted white or maybe orange depending on the car color. another good looking color is that argent silver that GM had. and poverty dog dish caps.