Keith, if you look on the backside of a chromed steel wheel, you will see that there is a turned in flange on both the inner and the outer, allowing a weld that does not interfere with the show surfaces at all. Now the engineers of the Caprice wheels did not have plating in mind when they designed the Caprice wheels, but I can't think of how else they would have put them together. I like the idea of plating only the inner or outer parts of the wheels; anyone want the photoshop that idea? Now I may be missing something here, but if you have to remove the centers for plating anyways, couldn't the centers be reversed upon reassembly to bring the valve stem holes to the insed of the wheels? Also, any number stampings can be sanded out, or filled with brass if too deep. No problems there. BTW, I plan on running the last (maybe) batch of chrome for the Kaiser next week. I'll try to get lots of pics.
Wow.... just read all 38 pages, 2.5 hours later.... wow... inspiring... Nice work. I loved the tip on painting the springs.... Never thought of stretching them out. Another reason the HAMB rocks Thanks
Regarding painted hoops and chromed centers, or vice versa, just chrome the whole wheel and use the right primer for the area you want painted.
The lines and proportions on this thing are fantastic. The ROOF. That evil peak in the windshield. On and on and on. Then the ultimate paint job...A REAL Winfield fade. This f***er is EPIC.
Be sure to check clearance between valve stem and things on the car, i did this on an old car of mine, and had to reroute the handbrake wire. found out they tuched some times and it riped out the valve stem after a while It makes it clean looking, but hell to fill air.
Bitchin' RIDE! I definitly ADMIRE!, "Bein' Different".............BUT, If the pictures get eny B I G G E R ! I'm gonna' have to sit across tha' ROOM!, an Let my lady work tha labtop! Great Job. "And I said......."Go ahead, an CALL YOUR LAWYER!".......an SHE DID! Damit..... Smoke, in tha SMOKIES! "69" posts.........that hast to mean sumthin'......
Just discovered this photo of Winfields, would have been too cool if the Kaiser had been there when it was taken... This is by far the most interesting build I have followed yet, I love Kaisers and they way you built it is just perfect as far as I am concerned, keep up the good work!
Yeah it sure would. My car was in the far right bay most of the time it was at Winfield's. It started to feel like "my" workspace after going there so much to work on the car.
Got quite a bit of work done this weekend, first good chunk of time in a while in fact. I got the Painless engine harness because the stock harness was just a mess. As I went to install it, I decided to pull the wheels and front suspension to make it easier. The control arms and spindles need to get cleaned up and powdercoated anyways. This is really the last messy area of the car. It's so nice to have everything clean and painted, it's much easier to work around. I don't know how I never felt this bad bushing while driving the car, but I didn't. I think maybe it was so wedged into that position that it wasn't clunking. Scary. Prehistoric crud. Since I had the factory harness running through the firewall before I had a big rectangular hole. The Painless kit uses a 1 5/8" grommet. Welding in a patch is out of the question at this point, so I used the beadroller to make a factory-ish looking panel. I also installed the starter and flywheel cover and the steering column is coming along.
Looking good! This is sure making me regret not jumping on the Kaisers i was looking at a few years back, always really liked them... maybe one day I'll get one.
back on the subject of wheels, I had thought you were running GM wheels because of the frame swap...so if you do end up going with a chrome steelie, you wont have a problem finding some to fit. Wheel Vintiques makes an O.E (5 lug) chrome steelie that will fit and you can order them reversed too. If you want something of better quality, "wheelkid" on here can make you a set or he might have something in stock. Keep up the progress...its been a pleasure watching this come together.
Funny you should bring that up, Bad Bob and I were just talking on PM about chrome steel wheels. I saw these pics in a thread he posted and was wondering about the wheels on this 54.
Eric (Chevy54) said they are Wheel Vintiques from Summit. I looked and they also have them with bare centers that could be painted.
The only suggestion I would make is to run one pattern on the wheels. If you ever decide to run without caps it will look better. http://www.thewheelsmith.net/o-e-m_chrome_wheel.html
Yeah im running ford O.E's from wheel vintiques with bullet centers and bullet lug nuts on my 62 tbird. Got them from summit too, fast and cheap. The O.E's are the 5 lug wheel, pretty much anything else they offer are multi lug.
WOW! I just read through this thread for the first time and I feel like I need a Cigarette (even though I dont smoke). Absolutely nuts on this build! the attention to detail, the stance, nice.
Thanks to you and ElPolacko for the tip on the lug count. Definitely worth it for a clean, intentional look. I'm really digging this setup.
Looks like the wheels from The Wheelsmith have some bumps around the dish. Compared to the Wheel Vintiques from Summit which appear to be smooth all the way around. Just noticed the Wheel Vintiques from Summit are 5 on 5/5.5. Can't seem to find the OE fitment with only the 5 on 5 pattern.
These ones are similar to the GM rally wheels in the late 60's early 70's except the hols on the face are not there, so the bumps are on the inside of the Dish.
All of the single pattern steel wheels are going to have the bumps for the hubcap. I had WheelKid @ www.rallyamerica.com build mine from 49-52 and 53-54 Ford passenger car wheels. As apposed to cheap OEM wheels you had chromed What you might want to do is contact him and see if he can build a set for you without the bumps if they bug you. I like them there, from my perspective the wheels without the bumps scream cheap aftermarket wheels.
Shitty that the caprice ran 5x5 bolt pattern, you would have more choices with the standard chev 4.75 bolt circle...but wheel vintiques does make a 15x7 with 5x5 chev bolt pattern, OE chrome...only part number I could find for 5x5 http://www.summitracing.com/parts/WVI-64-5705044/ double check the backspacing etc. I'll second what Elpolacko said about wheelkid/rallyamerica, he can make you a set of wheels. I would have gone that way originally instead of wheel vintiques but needed them in a pinch. I am very happy with the Wheel Vintiques, but would have rather supported wheelkid plus everyone I talked to about his wheels couldnt be happier with them.
Those are cool but I am really wanting something that dishes in. That's why I didn't like the Kaiser caps on the car, the flush wheel takes away some of the aggressive stance. I haven't had much to take pictures of lately because I am installing a new Painless engine harness and redoing lots of wiring in the car. Seems like I have done everything at least twice on this car but hey, its my first full kustom build and I am learning a lot. I'm sure future builds will be faster from what I have learned on this car. Here's a picture of how I wired up the gauge cluster. I got some Packard crimpers and used a factory style connector so I don't have to unplug each connection to take the cluster out of the car. Once I complete the wiring I need to install the radiator, driveshaft, exhaust etc and then the car will be ready to fire. I was thinking about shooting a short video of the car firing up, might be cool to post.
Just when I say I have nothing to take pics of...this shows up. You don't want the box to look like this. Headlight rings brought back to life by Josh. Stainless side trim that has been cut, bent, reformed and welded. Josh was able to straighten the stainless and polish it out, unbelievable considering that he did not have the liberty of using any sort of filler. He was only able to work with the thin stainless material that was there.
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