Hot Rods HAMB era wheels: School me

I believe I was in 8th grade (which would have been 1967) when we heard a loud "CRASH" one evening in summertime and all ran outside. 2 guys had rolled a '64 El Camino right in my folks driveway (there was a tavern called the "Prairie Schooner" just up the street, they'd stood on it leaving, crested the little hill between there and our house, missed the curve and turtled it in my folks driveway). The car had a then brand new set of American 5 spokes with natural centers, which made an impression on me. Also leaving an impression was the 6 pack of beer they hid by our fence (which I purloined for later) before the cops got there. It only took me 60 years to get an early 60's Chevy and put American 5 spokes on it, but I finally did it!

 

Nope. Just an old shop in Birmingham

 

See above ..After graduation in 1962 a buddy with a 57 Pontiac bought a set of Chrome Reversed wheels from Pep Boys for $10.00 each in North Long Beach Ca. Where he lived ..

 

I can remember buying a set of 4 Cragar SS wheels at the swapmeet, brand new in the box, in the mid 70's for as I recall it was about $25 ea. Maybe they were counterfeit? I don't know, they looked real, but hte chrome didn't last long.

 

I can beat that!
My high school pal was tight with our local Funny Car hero, he arranged for these direct from Cragar as they sponsored his F/C..........a whopping $75.00 for four 14x7's, my mom fronted the money (loan) for them, that was a busy Summer mowing lawns.

1971

 

Baby Moons & Beauty Ring for the low buck guys till the '60's when the Mags started showing up everywhere. I remember back in the late '60's & early '70 driving around Ventura even grandpa & grama had Mags on their cars & wagons...........................................

 

1964 Ford. HRP

 

That was me. I was running hubcaps on my 60 Pontiac and Baby Moons on my 33. I was one step lower than a low buck guy. I was a no buck guy in 62. Things were available and popular in California long before they were seen in rural America.

 

Yep! That reversed wheel is truly correct. I remember chiseling off the rivet heads and punching out the rest of the rivet. Using a piece of 2x4 and big hammer punching out the center, reversing, and welding the center back in at the rivet holes. That was 1963 when I worked at a gas station.

 

Thanks, @themoose

Hello,

When my brother was 15 years old in 1956, he had one goal in mind. His afterschool job paid him enough to save for his first car. He did not have a license as yet, but his close friend got his license early and was driving a cool 34 5 window Ford Coupe. It had the best sounding Oldsmobile motor and just looked fast sitting on the driveway.
It came with some full size hubcaps and they immediately came off to have a color matching yellow set of rims. That would not do, so the black paint spray cans came into the picture. Over the times he owned the pale yellow Oldsmobile sedan, it got lowered, a lowered rake and got a set of downtube exhaust pipes welded on to the headers. That was mandatory as open header tubes were cool when doing high performance runs on the local Cherry Avenue late night drags.

Then next were the popular, side lakes pipes under the doors. The first thing to take off were the lakes pipes as they started s****ing the ground. Luckily, the s****es were not serious, but aggravating when trying to go into the local teenage drive-in hangout driveway. At least, it was easy to open the actual caps to let the open exhaust noise come out. A steep angle sideways move was always used to allow the lowered rake Oldsmobile sedan to enter the lot. (The pipes ended up on a stock height Chevy sedan.)

Jnaki

Finally, we bought a model a coupe and got it running. Our goal was to make a fast hot rod and drag race car so we could race at nearby Lion’s Dragstrip. An SBC motor and paxton supercharger was the proposed power to be added.

But, my brother found this pale yellow 51 Oldsmobile and the price was right.

One of the first Moon screw in discs on any hot rod or cruiser in our Bixby Kn0lls cruising grounds. Chrome reversed wheels were the choice of most, but were too expensive. The early “magnesium wheels” were way overboard and not approved for street usage at the time.

Within weeks, that cool old Model A Coupe and the pale yellow Oldsmobile sedan that got painted a Lime Green were sold to his teenage friends and in our driveway was a new 58 black Impala in the fall of 1957. Yikes!

Note:

We did all kinds of “looks” on the Impala. The chromed reversed wheels were still out of range and paint was easier to obtain for a multiple set of looks.

So, those were the days until I was officially the owner of the Impala and then the last 4 views were what were the late teenage years.

The grainy photo was taken in May of 1962. It was a “heap of the week” in our last school newspaper. The last view of “black on black” steel rims were stock Buick wheels, as I sold it to a friend prior to going to college. Chrome rims were the wheel of choice, but still something most teens did not have. It was less expensive to fiddle around with a low cost can of spray paint for a new look.

But, look at what saving money will do for a new look of the hot rod Impala... Shiny Buick Skylark Wire Wheels on converted Impala hubs (Photo #3 again, thanks @themoose ) and new shaved tires, gave it an aura of a custom car that was also fast... YRMV

 

two words Torque Thrust

 

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