Does anyone know who still makes Ford Chrome reversed rims? Seems the ads only show smoothies or stock offsets.
With an advent of the safety bead the back side of the outer rim needed to be changed which was not the look for 15” Ford wheels for a reversed wheel you want. You need to find early to mid 50’s wheels, remove the rivets and weld or rivet the centers turned around. The major problem is they will only be 5” wide unless you can find Stationwagons. I have 2 original 56’s and 2 from the 60’s. All are 15 x 5.
It wasn't the safety beads that changed everything, it was the advent of disc brakes. Up until the early '60s when those first appeared, reversed wheels were just that; stock wheels with the centers removed and reinstalled after turning them 180 degrees. Drum brake wheels had more of a tapered funnel shape on the drum side while disc brake wheels were more cylindrical. The outside looked more or less the same. Virtually all of the reversed wheels you saw in the '50s and most even into the early '60s were homemade, although a very few manufacturers did do it that way but those are rare. I've got a friend who has a very early set of Cragar GTs (the non-chromed-center version of the SS) that used reversed drum brake rims. Those are on a drum brake car and won't clear discs and are the only ones I've ever seen personally. But the custom wheel manufacturers had a problem. After reversing, those wheels with drum rims still wouldn't clear disc brakes, limiting their applications. The outside of the rim design would hit the calipers. Add in the fact that disc brakes became a very popular option (and standard equipment not too long after), most switched to using only disc rims but found that when reversed, still wouldn't always clear the calipers, besides not looking like 'real' reversed wheels. The aftermarket finally solved the problem by using rims with varying 'disc clearance' depths on the back, but that does limit the backspacing options in a given width but still didn't have same look as the '50s versions. You simply won't find a commercially available wheel that looks right these days. I suppose if you are willing to spend the money, you could find a set of real drum brake wheels and cut the back of the rim off and after cutting the front off a disc wheel, weld the two halves together to get the correct look, but you'll end up with a much wider wheel. I'm not aware of anyone who still makes a 'true' drum brake rim.
There was a place in SoCal that had cheap chrome reverse wheels. Johnny's Speed and Chrome. They bought wheels from the junkyards. Sent them to Mexico where they were reversed and chromed. The place earned the name Johnny's Chip & Peel due to the low quality chrome. They did and old school set of reversed wheels for the replica Tweedy Pie. @ 13:40
Is this what you're asking about? Copied from the U.S. Wheel website. I think Summit has them listed as well. Not sure about availability or quality of the chrome....
I'm unclear what exactly you're looking for, but does Wheelsmith make something that will fit the bill?
Johnnys was on Beach Blvd next to the RR tracks out of LA in Anaheim if it the same one I knew of…Turned into a VW parts and hop up shop. In 1962 you could buy 14 or 15” chrome reversed from Pep Boys for $10 a piece.
Beach & the 5 freeway. Moved a little south when they widened the freeway - real estate office today. One time they were selling 4 wheels for $29.99 - probably in response to Pep Boys. With the extra 10 bucks you could get 5 bootleg 4 track tapes from a stand at Beach & Whittier.. Remember motorcycle hill Beach & Rosecrans? Fun watching guys trying to get to the top on Harleys in the late 50s early 60s. Once lightweight japanese bikes started showing up it wasn't as fun to watch. All of them made it.
Some of the original style chrome reverse wheels do have the stems on the outside. This pair of Chevys came on the back of my 3 window, and these Ford 15”x 7” ; I bought at JC Penny in the 60’s do as well :
Wheelsmith's Vintage wheels are what you are looking for new. http://thewheelsmithwirewheels.com/CustomWheels/VintageWheelsAccessories.html
Seems to me that back in the '50's we could put Ford centers in Buick outers. No chrome of course, that cost money.
Yeah I remember the hill climbs. Backed up the Standard Oil of California oil fields where I spent part of my electrical apprenticeship.
That’s the 45* angle we all grew up looking at in the 50-60’s. We KNEW they were true reversed outers.
If you take an original Ford wheel apart, send the two pieces to the chrome shop, bring it home and reverse it the valve stem will be on the inside. In fact, the valve stem will be on the inside regardless of how you reverse OEM wheels. The only way you get the valve stems back on the outside is to drill a hole and weld up the original. Thats how I reversed my wheels back in the late fifties.
These are just like all the rest, they don't have 'taper' Jimmy Six shows. To get the 'real deal', you have to find a set of drum brake wheels from the '50s, although 15" pretty much disappeared after '56 as most manufacturers switched the 14s in '57. By the time 15" came back in the mid-'60s, disc brakes got common and drum brake wheels were quickly gone.
I made my own! Copied what Ed Roth did for the original Mysterion. Original Rader wheels were all shallow side out from the factory. Ed requested they reverse a couple for the show car. I found apair of originals on ebaY and reversed them. Drilled out the rivets which are VEY HARD!! Went thru 4 or 5 carbide 5/16" bits to get all the rivets out. Reversed the rim then drilled new holes in the aluminum web and tapped them for grade 8 ****onheads. Installed them with permanent Lok***e. Not a safety issue, these wheels will only rotate a few times in their life but I think that ***embly would be fine for a sonic drive-in cruiser. This is how they all came from the factory Rivet removal They used high quality aluminum. The web shined to like-new with a couple minutes on a polishing wheel after 60 years of weathering. I made a 2x4 booster block to position the web for drilling the new mounting holes New ***embly. Final bolts are G8 ****onheads. Final result. Web and rim were chrome plated before re***embly
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