just wondering when folks started using light wheels on street cars. i like the look of chromed steel but if i wanna go light i don't want it to look wrong. i want a '58-'62 era look on a '55 2door chevy. my dad was hot rodding then but he put all his $$ into engines.... black steel wheels were his game. thanks in advance.
Look at the magazines and HOT ROD Annuals from the early 60s. Mags as we know them didnt start showing up until the second half of the 60s (generally speaking)
Early on mags were pretty much limited to slicks for race day. Steelies or chrome reverse wheels were the most popular all around though. -Dean
You could buy any number of different brand of Mag wheels in the late '50s and early '60s. But I'm sure that you would have only found them on what would have been considered a high zoot car back them. If you want to build a late 50s early 60s ride you can get away with it. I know lots of guys with 50s style rides that are running Halibrands or Krietz wheels. But they are building performance oriented rides and not customs, or jalopies.
saw a post on here that said that cragar SS wheels debuted in 1964. the 50th anniversary of hot rod magazine book shows a pic from october of 59 of a T roadster with 5 spoke mags on the back and the "slotless" smooth polished dished out wheels up front. in the same book, it shows a pic from october of 63 with a channelled 28-9 A roadster with what appear to be raw-centered torque thrust D wheels. same wheels on a T bucket from may, 65. i'd really like to know when astro supremes came out, to be honest. all these cars look like high buck rides, honestly, or full on race cars. there were several gassers in this same span of time in this book, and tons more in "gasser wars" as early as 59, i'm positive, maybe a tad earlier that had mags.
this is from American Racing's website: American Racing-A Company With Roots. In 1954, Romeo Palamides, an early drag racing innovator, designed and crafted leading edge, high strength-to-weight magnesium drag racing wheels for his dragster. It was the early years of hot rodding and street enthusiast interest in the lightweight, higher tech wheels was overwhelming. Romeo's vision, working from a small machine shop in San Francisco with his partner, engineer Jim Ellison, evolved into America's leading aftermarket wheel company. In 1956, they formed American Racing Equipment.
Halibrand and American were about it, and those were real magnesium. The others began to appear about 63-64, starting with steel chrome slots. The 58-62 era was pretty much steels and caps, with some chrome steels around. Moons, both baby and full were vogue as were Fiestas and lancers. Hub cap theft was a serious problem. Americans for the street didn't show up until late '60 to early '61. The first americans were magnesium, and didn't hold up very well to the abuses of the street. Then they brought out the aluminum torque thrust. Hot Rod yearbook No.1, published in 1961 has a story on Mags for the street. Mutt
Here is a couple of crummy pics of my Romeo Palamides magnesium 15x8 wheels for my Willys coupe. This is one of the wheels he made early on for drag racing. Note only four slots. Very seldom seen. Hope this helps
so were his the only 4 slotters? i noticed the difference when looking thru gasser wars, wondered what was up
Palamides' first mags had no slots - they looked like the basket wheels for spokes. I can post some pictures tomorrow. Mutt
The part of the country you were in probably had an effect on when mag wheels started showing up on the street. IIRC, you didn't see many (if any) mags in the midwest in the early to mid sixties; while they were pretty common here in the northwest by '65. And I would imagine they were showing up in So Cal earlier than that. And keep in mind they were pretty pricey for the average young guy to afford in the early sixties, no matter where he was located.
Thanks all.... very informative indeed... and i now realize that my dad wasn't just being the cheap bastard that i am!!!
I think you are wrong. Halibrand made the smooth wheels beginning in about '48, and Palamides' first wheels had five small holes similar to a kidney window Halibrand (which were made about '54 or so). I have seen the old issue of Hot Rod that had his drag car in it before he was actually a "manufacturer". Forget which issue it was, but he made the wheels for his own use. The article talks a little about him making the wheels. I believe Palamides later made other styles of wheels: four and five holes, large and small holes, rounded and squarish holes. But I don't think he ever made any with no holes. There was another company (forget the name, but they were small time) that made smooth magnesium wheels besides Halibrand, and they look almost exactly the same as Halibrands from the front. But it wasn't Palamides or American. - alchemy
I've been wrong before... but I wasn't talking about the dragster on the cover of Hot Rod - that's Nov '56. He had a roadster, IIRC, that had solid wheels, and the caption said that he made the wheels. I'll try to find the article, but in the meantime, I'll apologize for being wrong. Mutt
I'd like to see that car too. I can always learn new stuff. I have never seen any earlier stuff than the drag car, but I guess that doesn't mean it wasn't there and didn't get any ink. Looking forward to the pics.
I haven't looked for the car - it was in an early issue of Hot Rod in drag coverage. Here's a picture from What's New in the July '56 Hot Rod of the wheel - it's aluminum, so I WAS wrong, I guess. Mutt
The real mags for rods prtty much paralleled the arrival of mags replacing wires on Indy cars, but they were very high dollar items. I think they would have been appropriate for a '55 of this period at least on the rear, but ONLY on a high dollar killer car owned by one of the few rodders with enough money to afford all the goodies available to him. I remember '55 Chevies as the dominant street rods of that period in Virginia--early rods were practically gone from the streets, and the super stock thing, soon to be followed by the GTO, hadn't yet blown away all use of modified vehicles on the street. Such a high zoot '55 would likely have had properly finished radiused wheel wells (I remember seeing one with perfectly installed Nommad wells back then!), modest dechroming, tudor post body, ridiculous gearing, and an expensive 352 with the latest Vette heads and trans, and the biggest pair of AFB's available--seemed like they came out with bigger ones every week. A poor boy would have had a weak attempt at the same--265, 3 speed (with imaginary/planned Vette close ratio gearset), a dab of primer on each wheel well, hood, and trunk to indicate he WANTED bodywork... "Fake mags", so called for about two weeks, until everyone forgot about real ones, were aluminum or aluminum/steel, started appearing commonly about 1962, and soon became mandatory.
Thanks for the pic Mutt. I had never seen a solid Palamides or American. Wish I could remember the name of the other company that made smoothies like that.
Halibrand kidney beans were available in the '50s, but I can't recall ever seeing them on a street driven car back then. I saw my first set of Torq-Thrusts on a buddy's Corvette in the fall of '61. Americans and ET's caught on pretty quickly after that.
I remember a '29 Ford featured in R&C that was a really detailed weekend warrior that was shown with two sets of wheels--it had a set of Halibrands (all four, not just the slicks!) for the drags, and something a good deal cheaper for the street. I was awed.
I looked through my HOT ROD Magazine Yearbook #3 from 1963. There were roughly 18 street driven cars I counted (one might have been race only, I tried not to count dragcars). Out of those 18, only FOUR had anything other than steel wheels. The only one running Americans was McMullens roadster, a couple had Halibrand looking wheels and one Falcon had oddball aluminum wheels that looked like trailor wheels.
Lane Anderson, the magazine guy lives in my area. I mentioned this thread to him this afternoon. He told the story of a car showing up to a NE Regional NHRA meet in 62 with Raders (original spelling) on his car. The NHRA Safety Safari guys made him DIS-MOUNT a wheel and tire to weigh the bare wheel. They werent going to let it run if it was lighter than a steel wheel. He said at that time no one had yet seen a Rader. If you have ever picked one up you know there is NO way it would be lighter than a steelie!
the effort put into these replys is amazing! Thanks again... some pics of my dad's '55 vert as it was in '59... notice the steel wheels and missing front bumper!!! he had two 2dr posts also. he told me he lost interest in drag racing when guys started winning in factory cars. he also told me he raced gene snow in this car.... it's great when your dad is your hero!!!
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