This is rust on a Mercury 16x5. Is this repairable? Tig weld up the low spot? It is very deep. Strange place to rust. Thanks
you really don't know what you have until its sand blasted. The valve stem hole looks good and often times thats the first sign of a junk wheel.
I can't make a suggestion any better than that one as you will have to sand blast it to see what you actually have to deal with. I can't remember if those have the center welded to the rim or riveted but if it has rivets I'd ponder knocking the rivets out and popping the center out before I had it blasted.
That is why I would braze up the weak low spot and dress it down. Less heat distortion with adequate strength.
Hard to tell how deep that is from a picture, and without blasting first. I've had some stuff look way worse after blasting, and others much better than expected. But I've had a few rims with a handful of deep pits that I just blasted clean and welded/dressed with a grinder and not had any issues. I would definitely do that first before having it trued though. My guess is that with a little careful attention, this wheel will be fine.
That's the most common place to rust. The air in the tube got low, some water leaked past the valve stem, then sat in there rusting away.
Depending how much you need this particular wheel, IF riveted, knock them out, sandblast both parts separate, tig weld up the erosion, re-assemble using bolts to align the rivet holes, tig weld the back side along the center section ribs along the inside of the rim. Braze back in the now empty rivet holes. Brazing flows into clean cracks or joints like a fluid. If welded center, like the guys say, blast it, braze in the erosion from the front and I personally for safety reasons, tig weld the back side of the rim-hub flange contact. If running tubes, you can braze flow in the valve stem hole erosion, then finish off sides with a soft or flexible flap wheel on on a hand grinder and use a rat-tail file to open up or clean up the tube hole. I've done that quite a bit on rusty rims and I have had a lot of rusty rims on trucks and tractors. Then have it trued up, last thing. Just my opinion, like a butt crack, we all have one. I think ?
Yes they are! Its just that most are in about the same condition as the one posted. Sand blast it and see what you have. Our local scrap yard has a pile of old steel wheels about 100' around and probably 30' high! That pile has been like that for as long as I can remember! He says he hauls off a semi load a couple times a year, he says that wheels are a special alloy and are worth more money as scrap, but the good prices only last for a few weeks every year. If you buy a steel wheel from him, it is one you took off of a car, he normally doesn't sell used steel wheels unless they look like new.
The 16x5 are getting harder to come by. I have a really nice pair on my car, but one of them has a wobble. I was going to fix my spare so I could replace it with minimal downtime. I will likely wait for winter and true the nice one on the car and paint it again. Thank you for all the suggestions.
Wasn't it pre-ww2 mercury and post war pickups that had the 5" x 16. Back in 1972 I picked up a mostly all original 1953 PU that was v8 with 3spd and over drive. I destroyed the truck only for the rear end to put in my 45 PU as it kept stripping key ways in the rear axle. That truck had the 5" x 16 wheels on it. Kept the wheels come to think of it, some where in the wheel stack.
Anyone know what OT 16 in., rim hoop that one can use to repair or widen an early Ford steelie wheel ?
If you have a local junker with a pile of 16x5 Lincoln or Ford wheels, and he’s selling for scrap prices, you could buy enough every day to resell on the HAMB and retire. For real. Dig through the pile and don’t let him melt them.
make sure the wobble is actually the wheel, not interference between the wheel and hub..or a high spot... I understand your desire to refurbish a 16x5 steel wheel, my search went on for quite a time and I agree with @anthony myrick clean it up and run it....I suspect there is something like a 2+x safety factor in the material there...clean it up, treat it cosmetically and don't look back
First, you would have to be able to identify the wheels of choice by sight. Then you would have to climb up onto the pile of wheels and start digging through them to see if the wheels you want might be in the pile of probably 1,000 or more wheels. That would be if the guy would let you climb the pile to look. Then you probably want to consider how long that junk yard has been there, and what the chances are the wheels you want may actually still be there. If they are, I would expect them to be near the bottom of the pile. You can go for it, I'm not. Happy digging.
Jack the car up and put the wheel on it and see if it runs true BEFORE you do anything else. If it does, then sandblast it and weld it in short beads to prevent warping. Put it back on the car and see if it still runs true. It isn't likely to be perfect since its steel, its simply a matter of how much.
The Jalopy Journal
