One of the Radirs on my '60 Chevy's sprung a leak, they all leak to begin with. Anyway two have inner tubes in them, I'm not really keen on running inner tubes. Short of rebuilding the wheels is there any kind of paint or sealent or tape I can put on the rivets to stop the leaking? This is my only daily driver at the moment and I need to get her back on the road fast. Thanks.
My understanding is that the riveted wheels were built to run innertubes, and they had a wide rubber band that went around the inside of the wheel, over the rivets, so the inner tubes wouldn't wear out on the rivets. '55 Chevy wheels were riveted, '56 weren't but were the same size. A lot of guys swap to the '56s because of this. -Brad
Well Nads, since I am the "King of Rader wheels tm" I must ask to see your chevy. This is what I have done: 1. JB Weld around the rivets, then wrap with duct tape. 2. Silicone over the whole area then wrap with duct-tape. 3. I have a few raders with the rivets welded on the inside of the rim, I did not do this but that is how I got them. These methods have worked well enough for me to not run tubes. So I hope this helps you. The major problems that I have had were solved by wheel spacers and mag lugnuts turned down on lathe. Wheel leaks have been no big deal. 'Poon PS. If you had radirs instead of Raders you would not have leaks as they are one-piece construction
I bought some new ones! I also have a bunch of the old original style. I would like to fix them and run them on a beater car. I was thinking about using POR 15 to seal them up. That stuff is pretty stout.
Uses for leaky wheels... Bolt one to the front of your trailer to coil the hose on. (I have a rusty chrome wire wheel on the side of the porch, no*****!) Bolt one inside on the garage wall to coil your air hose on. Place on ground face down and put wire mesh and planting soil in them and grow squash in them. ( I've done that too!)
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