working on a '51 Packard 200 and i want to put some smoothies on it. i have a set of wheel vintiques in the propper bolt pattern, but the center bore is too big. and nobody makes off the shelf centering rings for it, at least that i can find. anybody running them lugcentricly on a larger car such as mine? bad idea? she's got 9/16 x 18 conical lug bolts, so i dont think shearing them off is a possibility. also, my stock wheels looked ok until i started cleaning the paint off. previous owner bondo'd the wheels. they have some serious pitting. so thats my reason for not running the stockers, besides the fact that i like the look of the smoothies. thanks in advance.
Pretty much all "traditional" wheels are centered by the lugs, not the pilot. It's worked for 60 years, it's not a big deal.
the conical nuts are basically doing the same job as a centering ring...centering the wheel on the lugs, therefore centering on the axle.
I much prefer having some hub-centering, and it's not hard to make or have made some centering rings. That said, as others have noted folks have been running lug-centered wheels for most of a century. Just use a good pattern when tightening the lugs and make sure they're tight (not necessarily torqued, but well snugged) all the way around before you put the vehicle's weight on the wheel.
been running them for 13 years without issue. Mine on a 46 Plymouth with lug bolts. Defiantly not hub centric. Tighten the lugs in a progressive manner, by hand, using an every other one star pattern. Never let tire jockeys us an impact wrench.
They not only work well with the original lugs, I just re drilled the lug pattern on my Buick with Rotten Leonard's drill guide. They still ride great!
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