Hot Rods HAMB era wheels: School me

I grew up in the fifties but I don’t remember wheels being a thing in the HAMB era. As I recall it was all about hubcaps, mainly Oldsmobile flippers and Lancers in my part of the woods. I remember seeing some chrome wheels but they were way out of my price range, as were the Halibrand mags. I know Halibrand started making mag wheels right after the war but I don't recall seeing any on the street in the HAMB era. I did see a few chrome rims but they were expensive. My first custom wheel was a 15” Ford wheel that I reversed.The valve stem was on the inside and it was a PITA to adjust the air but they looked cool IMHO with the silver spray paint. I think I might still have those somewhere. All this leads me to wonder if there are any HAMB correct wheels with the exception of the real Halibrand 5 spoke mags. From what I have read even Crager didn't really become popular till 65 and later. Like I said in the title, please school me.

 

Google Romeo Palamides

 

Like you said, in the fifties, it was mainly hubcaps and wheel covers. If you did have special wheels, it was usually just a pair; only "rich kids" could afford a set of 4. In 1958, a set of clamp on spun aluminum "Moon Dusc" went fot $9.95, and I had set on my '51 Ford "fordor". Looking back, they didn't help much in the "looks" department, but they were custom, which was enough then. I remember a guy I worked with carrying out groceries that showed up one day with a new set of whitewalls on his '51 Merc. It turned out they were trim rings with "Porta-Walls" attached.

'

 

64 for Cragar.
There were a handful of early 60s custom wheels

 

https://vintagewheelcatalogs.com/

 

the 1958 JC Whitney catalog only lists plain steel wheels, although it was a hot new thing to replace your old fashioned 15" wheels with those sleek new 14" wheels, and lower your car half an inch in the process.

they have pages of hub caps, trim rings, racing discs, etc.

 

The 14" wheels still used the same outer diameter tires, so you really are only creating the illusion of being lowered vs 15s, the car still sits the same height off the ground.

For example, a 1956 Plymouth got 670-15 tires at 26.80" tall, and the 1957 Plymouth got 750-14, at 27" tall...

 

Only if you buy oversize tires....

 

Thanks for those catalogs Anthony. I lived in a small farming town in Utah in the first half of the sixties which probably explains why I never saw many custom wheels until I went to California in 66. Spending $240 for a set of wheels would have been out of the question for me at that time. Anybody remember what a set of chrome reversed rims cost back in 62?

 

Something that people still can't seem to figure out. Wheel diameter doesn't raise or lower your vehicle, tire diameter does.

 

Some of the 57 Cadillac Eldorados had polished aluminum wheels
they would have been very expensive unless you picked them up at night

 

ad in the back of 1963 hot rod mag for a set of 4 chrome revers wheels for $80, "no exchange", claim to be new wheels. Chrome lug nuts extra.

 

Built my Willys to be a gasser cartoon, HAD to have 'mags'. Got it on the road in '68 with 8.5" rear and 6" front Appliance. I put American stickers on the hub caps. Still running the rears, got them polished, got a set of repro Halibrand aluminum gasser 5" front runners several years ago. A guy in the California desert repopped a limited run of those.

 

I was 10yrs old in '64 and already a car nut. The majority of the 'hot' local cars were still running gloss black steel wheels, usually with white walls, thin if you were really cool. Chrome wheels were a rarity but around. The first custom wheels I remember seeing were on a friend's older brother's '57 Chevy sporting a set of Raders. Light metallic blue, white interior. He'd just come back from his tour in Korea. It was one sweet ride.

 

Good old midnight auto supply

 

If you could swing them, 1953 Buick Skylark wire wheels.

 

Another way to "enhance your performance image" was to paint your stock rear wheels black and white in quarters. I was told it had something to do your pit crew detecting wheelspin while watching the 'launch"
.

 

My Coupe with 'era-correct Chrome wheels (which would have been fancy for the times).
I mostly remember either Black or White Steel wheels or Hubcaps.

 

HAMB friendly but not 50’s. There is a difference from what original poster was really looking for when he said grew up. I remember baby moons on 50’s Oldsmobiles that used Ford aftermarket’s and bent the lips with channel locks to make them stay on the clips that were either riveted on the wheels or slip fit into slot in the wheels.
The 60’s started the never ending “wheel” craze. When I graduated from HS in 62 you could buy chrome reverse wheels from Pep Boys for $10.00 each!

 

Anthony nailed the research this time. 62 was pretty well when you first started custom rims outside of chrome steel wheels show up on street cars. I remember that the first set at the high school I went to was a set of Cragers that a wealthy classmate had on his very nice 57 Chevy that had some very subtle custom touches and he traded that car into the local Chevy Garage in late 54 or early 65 for a Black 65 Chevelle hardtop with a 327 and 4 speed that had Cragers on it from right after he picked it up at the dealer. His 57 rapidly disappeared off the face of the earth being sold to someone from out of town from what we heard.

 

The hard why I tried to post pictures with the date on em.
Fits the HAMB era title for the thread.
Confirms his not seeing em in the 50s.
wonder if aftermarket Kelsey Hays wheels fit the costom wheel world?

 

Well I use these pictures of cars my grandfather or his buddies had between 1957-1963 for the era of what a small town was doing with their cars. Chrome wheels and even just reversed wheels was very rare, only would see stuff like that in the larger cities like Portland (he was down in Oakland, Oregon)

The 55 Ford was my grandpa's first car and he mentions rounding up and rotating sets of hubcaps, in this pic it has like knockoff 57 Plymouths.



He then had this 60 Impala for a short time, rocked just some babymoons on it with thinner whitewalls.


The 61 Impala he ordered brand new in late 1960. Car then had the "crossbar" style hubcaps.



My grandparents dated in the 61 impala, got married and the impala had to go, this 57 Plymouth was the replacement. No hubcaps because no extra money.



this 59 was a buddy of his and ran black steel wheels and baby moons.


Now our 56 Chevy has a couple set of hubcaps. It never originally had chrome wheels, that was just not in the cards at the time, most of the spare money went into more custom work. In its main prime of 1959-1962 it had Red painted wheels with its 59 Impala hubcaps.



Then the cars twin, a 58 Impala convertible had the same red steel wheels and full hubcaps.

 

Cregar SS wheels look the best with narrow whitewalls


JS

 

Spell check on aisle three!

 

I was more betterer in math then English


And they look better with WWs than letters

 

Kustomrama says American Racing got started on 1956, and first placed ads in Hot Rod for 5-spoke wheels in 1960; the Torque Thrusts came about in 1962.
https://kustomrama.com/wiki/From_St...can_Racing_Torq-Thrust_Wheels#google_vignette

 

You'll find it impossible to find a truly accurate 'traditional' wheel these days, for a variety of reasons. All alloy 'racing' types were expensive rarities back then and seldom seen outside of magazines or big car shows and generally weren't recommended for street use. Some manufacturers still make wheels that are fairly close to being correct, although only a few make them that can be had with the 'correct' shank-style lug nuts rather than the 'modern' taper seat type nut. ET is one of them, there may be others.

Chrome steel OEM style wheels were equally rare up until about '63, most being built by the owners by knocking the centers out, having the two pieces chromed, then welding them back together. These are easily recognized because they used drum brake rims with the different 'taper'. That would change in a few years with the universal adaptation of disc brake type rims. There are only two current manufacturers who produce a reasonable accurate version, Wheelsmith offers a 'vintage' type (early Ford style) with the correct four vents around the center but using a disc brake rim, and Wheel Vintiques with a similar offering for the newer '50s-up style wheels. There's a bunch of 'ventless' versions but they just don't look quite right. All will have disc brake type rims and the 'tubeless tire' inner lip which wasn't seen much on OEM wheels other than Mopars until the late '60s.

Steel or composite custom wheels. As shown above, these started showing up in the early '60s. With either all-steel construction or an alloy center/steel rim. Rader and Fenton (followed shortly after by Cragar) showed up with composite wheels with a chrome steel rim and a cast alloy center in the early '60s. Astro and Ansen both showed up with all steel custom wheels in various designs shortly after. The Astros were fairly popular on show cars in the '64-65 period. Again, all of these early versions used drum brake rims. The Rader and Astro Supreme is being commonly reproduced, and this guy (https://www.pavementequipped.com/shop) will build you a set of Astro Customs.

Now if you're wondering why I keep harping on 'drum brake rims', this is why....


This is a real-deal reversed wheel from 'back in the day'. You can see the difference in the rim taper which only had to clear drum brakes. If you wanted a reversed steel-rim wheel (stock or custom) before about '65-66, this is how the rim would look. So if you're looking for absolute accuracy, this is what it looks like. I've got a buddy who has a set of very early Cragar GT wheels (same as the SS except with an as-cast center) that are 'reversed' and that's what the rims look like. By the late '60s the aftermarket had switched to disc rims with the tubeless lip and this look faded into history. Most guys these days wouldn't even know the difference.

If you want this look, good luck finding any good usable rims these days...

 

here’s a few

those non safety bead wheels are out there. I recently sold a set with af100.
Hard to locate

 

Anthony, is that your backyard?

 

Set of 14" deep reversed chrome wheels for my "widetrack" '62 Catalina was around $ 100.00
from the parts store manager ( kinda out the backdoor as I remember )