Hey everyone, I recently liberated a nice set of Ford wire wheels (with tires) from a friend who's into muscle cars and deals in parts ... Anyway. There is one regular ol' Ford 16" wire wheel, but there are three wheels, also 16" in diameter, that look like Model A wheels. I know that Model As are supposed to have 19". But they have the very small center cap that does not cover the lugs. I used the search feature to try and figure out what these are. I can probably tell you the difference between Ford and Kelsey-Hayes now, but I didn't see anything like these. They have the 5.5" Ford bolt circle. When I took the pictures, I noticed that the welds between the spoke and the rim are kinda ... big. There is also no "hump" around the valve stem. Is it possible that these are Model A centers welded into later Ford 16" rims?
I had one of those 16" A wheels a while back. It's Model A, optional or something. 28-29 were 21" according to this book, 30-31 19", the freebie ch***is I got a couple years ago came with one 16" wheel with a nice tire on it.
They are cut down, home-brewed Model A wheels. After WWII, this was one way to put 16" tires on your Model A. Tires were very scarce during the war and 19's were unavailable. Lots of 1935 16" wheels are around today because they were used on Model A's. There was a guy over on the Fordbarn Model A swap site looking for a set. They are still an item of interest.
I don't know about New York, but in the Mid West the blacksmith shops (welders) used to keep busy with this sort of work. They are cut down and were commonly used on farm trailers as well as vehicles. That's what the old timers say anyway.
This is exactly right. I've got tons of these things, Almost all are not straight. I wouldn't run on any car, they were mostly used on trailers and farm trucks. My grandpa, who was a welder had a jig to make these. Jimmy
I've got a pair of them in the back yard. Got them off a welding cart in a junkyard in Denton TX 30 years ago. The guy wouldn't sell me the other 3, he had 2 of them on a little trailer, the 3rd was the spare. I was going to use them on a 30-31 Sport Coupe I was working on at the time, but since I only got two kept them for a trailer project someday.
That's what I was afraid of ... But oh well. I still got one normal useable 16" and a full set of tires for a dynamite price.
Besides, I actually think that those wheels looks quite weird, the '35 wire wheels are prettier, but that's just my opinion of course.
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