SO after a close call on the freeway last week, incomplete construction on the road sent my roadster into a temporary concrete barricade. Fortunately for me the only damage was the driver's side rear wheel, which rolled like a potato chip after the impact. I limped her home and went through my inventory of about eight other wheels trying to find the truest one. Out of the twelve total only four wheels were true; make that three after the accident. But that got me thinking- if a mild impact can tweak a wheel, couldn't a mild impact correct it? So off to the garage I went. Jacking the front end of a car up, I put a bare wheel on the drum. Placing a piece of flat stock steel on a block of wood as a gauge, I spun the wheel and watched the relationship between the gauge and the edge of the wheel go in and out. With a soapstone marker I marked + for areas proud and - for areas weak. Removing the wheel, I laid it on the concrete face down and gave the corresponding area of the center section--the pad right next to the lug hole (where the hoop was proud) a whap with a sledge hammer. Then flipping the wheel on its back, I gave the corresponding area of the center section, again near the lug hole (where the hoop was weak) a whap with the sledge. Note: these were slight hits, no more than eight inches of swing. Remounting the wheel, I was surprised to see how much the characteristics had changed. Wheels that had 3/16 movement, now had about 1/16. It was actually easy to overdo it--areas that were once proud became weak and vise versa. I did three wheels today; none have been mounted yet, but I'll keep you posted. If anyone needs more details, PM me.
Stay on it. Go slowly, and get a feel for how much you have to overdrive the metal, to get it to end up where you want it, after spring back. It is a finesse thing. You can totally pull it off. I learned how from my grandfather, after a few too many off-road rally experiments left me with no round wheels.
There are usually shops that spe******e in this type of work. Of course it is always neat to have a go yourself.
Nothing exotic about a Ford 16". Worlds cheaper and safer to find a replacement. Just as an exercise, might be amusing, but... Commonly these days vendors put a good one with some rusty dogs, but when pressed they often price the wheels as singles so choose the cherry. Good Luck: Fred A
It kinda did start as an exercise... i had a bunch of wheels marked bad. they were just sitting there so why not see if they'd straighten out.there's a learning curve. I'd like to clarify i used a 4lb single jack. and a lighter ballpeen and not much force at all and now have five wheels that appear to move within 1/32 of true. i bet if i removed the tire off a "good" wheel it probably is in that ball park. Remember these wheels went on full fendered 40's no one could see what they were up to hinden down there...then we put em on our open wheeled rods and they're very exposed for all to see.. Also i'd like to add i called a bunch of local shops and they were no help. short of shipping them out to wheelsmith which then adds more cost to the original purchase price. you get the idea.
Yep, I have an ot aluminum wheel that I am considering shipping off to have redone and the cost may out weigh the cost of finding a new replacement. That one is a 15x8 modular that is actually modular and out of production for several years.
Besides which... it's raining out. the girlfriends shopping, the dog is sleeping by the fire...what else am i to do
Fred A, It's a different world in CA for sure. All Last year I searched the swaps here for 16 Fords and finally found two at the end of the season in October. Both were rusted bad and needed welding to close up the rusted thru areas. Than bondo to fill the pits. Thanks for the straightening tips! That's the old bodyman way, figure out how the metal got deformed and reverse it!
Thanks GP I appreciate it. Case in point, going out and buying replacements is how i ended up with so many bad ones
HHMMMNNNN.... Lets see, I need a 16" early Ford wheel.... I have only 13 on my pile right there, so that's a start. So-Cal is 3 miles away and they have a rack of about 30 of them, Bighorn Bobs' yard is 6 miles away and he has about 30 as well. I could drive out to Reed's yard, he has about 20 of them, but that's 45 miles out there on the other side of town. Don Marks has 10 or 12 two miles away, Hot rod Ron has 10 if he hasn't got that set out of Tucson yet, and two of his are powder coated. There have been 3 guys on the Arizona Rodz and Parts sight selling sets for the last couple of weeks, Ronnie Olmstead has 10-12 too, and Dutch has about 30 of them too, but he's 30 miles the other way... Oh, Sammy at Arizona Model "A" has a whole bunch of them too, along with about 60-70 Model "A" wheels, but he's 40 miles away in Gilbert. I don't think I'd bother the guys at Hocter's or DVAP, as they would want about 100.00 each for theirs. Yup, I'll say those are some rare wheels there! Sorry, just had to rub it in for you east coast and Midwest guys, but "Rarity" is highly dependent on where you are in the world! Excellent tech piece though! I might add that I have had a good deal of success doing this with a F-1 or F-100 brake drum and hub mounted up to an early Ford spindle and the use of a stout pry bar instead of a hammer. The smaller drum allows you to hook the pry bar behind the drum and gently lever outward until it all matches.
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