Technical Universal steel wheels, is it me or do they suck?

Dave I have 3 that are 16x4.Have a option to buy a 4.5 which is what I would like and trade my 4'' for a 4.5.I know that's being pickie.I also have 2, 6:00x 16 tires that are not cracked. Need to buy a lottery ticket tonight.

 

Apologies in advance for this bit of self-promotion, but
I still have these for sale, and I'd cut the price to make shipping them more palatable...
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/50s-steel-wheels-16-x-4-5.1036451/#post-11819087

 

I don't like the rolled 'hoops' on the aftermarket wide wheel rims (6.5"+) They are 'stepped', not tapered, and look like the '60s GM 'Station Wagon' wheels. (wide, but 'inset')
They are O.K. on '60s G.M. wagons, but I don't have a '60s G.M. wagon.
I also HATE the 'Solids', those horrid things with no '4 windows' in the center stampings. They look like oversize cheap toy wheels, in low cost production. Why Street Rodders like those is beyond me...Guess they want their cars to look like they are assembled with "All New Stuff"! Go, Chip!

I guess I'm a 'wheel hoarder', but have always picked the good ones up whenever I saw them.
Young wife Joey has gotten 'into it' also, she can spot a Merc wheel from 20 yards! Also 15 and 16 in. Fords, what an eye! One day riding on a country road, County workers had cleaned out a creek bed, a scattered stack of wheels with tires was off to the side...She says, "Uh oh, some goodies..." I stop, we get out, the first one was '50 Merc, two 16" Fords, (4.5s, the ones I like!) also a nice 15" '48 Merc, internal nubs, 5".

We also found 2 International pickup wheels, mid-'40s, 16" These are gold. (as are their later counterparts, the 15s.)
These wheels look identical to the Fords with the internal nubs, BUT they have a 5 on 4.5" pattern! AND, they appear to have a slight offset, making them appear wider. Talk about your 'free lunch'? This is it! (rim width is usually 5", but have seen 4.5" wide also)
First one I found like this was in my bud's VW wrecking yard...it used to be an old wreckers since '46. There was an old pile of wheels, and this one looked like a Ford, but 5 0n 4.5" pattern???? I thought it to be Studebaker, then maybe Rambler? Did some research, (pre-computer, so asked a few old 'Tire Guys'...Nothing, nada. One day, I finally saw an old International pickup, looked it over, no hub caps...Wow!!! There was my wheel!)

10 years ago, we were coming back from Vernallis, my old friend Gerry had a truck farm for years, sold me some International wheels (45 miles North of here) Coming home the 'back way'...Joey spotted another pile of wheels, bare wheels...behind a country gas station/café, in a fenced area, some tractors and junk stored outside.
She said, "Couple of 16s in there, wanta stop?" I pulled the F100 in, and a mechanic came out to look at my truck.
We gabbed for a minute, then I asked if any wheels were for sale...he said the pile was there for local farmers, sometimes they'd bring in wheels and trade, mostly tractor stuff..."Yeah, you could buy some, how about $3 apiece?"
Joey and I went after that pile like hungry dogs...LOL found more than 5, I think 6. All good ones, 15" and 16".
There were also 2 Internat'ls, 15".
After paying for them, I gave the guy a tip, just 'pleased as punch', as the cowboys say...
Found a guy on the HAMB building a 'R-- Rod', but talked to him, nice fellow, he was building from a '39 Internat'l frame, so I asked about wheels. Natch. He said he had one 16" he wasn't using, come on up and get it!
It was 40 miles away, so Joey and I got in her '66 O.T VW Cal bug and motored up. The steel Internat'l 16 was a bare wheel, so it went in the trunk up front. But the two nearly new 16" Light Truck tires went in the back seat. (tightly)
The young gent gave me them, as they weren't the right size for his 'modified truck'... they fit my '27 'T' tub perfectly, rightly so...on my 16" V8 wire wheels.

I like the 15" Ford centers, internal nubs, combined with reversed Buick or Olds outer rims. Nice taper of rim looks 'correct', "dumped rims".
Of course, this sometimes requires the narrowing of rear ends, depending on what they're going under. (or 'on', when a fenderless vehicle)
The '35-'40 rears are narrower than the '41-'48, so there's some consideration there. "Dump" accordingly.

 

Good info Mike. 4woody they look good but I needed nubs inside. I had some truck wheels similar to yours. Now I need to swap my 4, for a 4.5 and find another 4.5

 

Thanks, Danny and Dan

Phil

 

my bud has them on his 32 roadster and i pointed them out ,he fixed them with hubcaps.

 

Yeah, the oval slots suck for sure. When I bought my panel in 93 it had 10" wide American Racings on rear with those oval slots, luckily I sold them to a guy building a vintage pro stock pinto clone.

 

There's nothing wrong with the dual pattern wheels. The rears on my cpe have been there for 20 yrs and 96,000 mi and are still doing fine

 

I purchased dual pattern 15 x 6 and 15 x 7 wheels from Wheel Vintique about 5 years ago and have had no problem with them. I put Coker WW radials on them and it's the first set of wheels/tires that I didn't have to balance--smooth as silk. I'm 69 years old and have been into rods since high school so I've been through a lot of sets.

 

VERY 'spiffy' '37 Hump there, Spiff... Tapered outers or not! Sooo right...

 

memory says '49 ford only had innie hub caps and car bolt pattern... I have [1] if it helps.

 

If multi lug wheels are just not tolerable, buy a set of wheel vintique 64 series outies and put a set of 50 merc flat SS caps and smooth beauty rings on them or pop for the chromes. You cannot get more traditional than that. They also sell a smoothie 50 ford style cap for them or you can run them open with a spider/or nothing.

 

The artillery wheels I got from the Wheelsmith have the dual bolt patterns and really did not care for it but I covered them with hub caps so they can not be seen.

 

Some of you are picky as hell. It only makes economic sense for the companies to make the dual pattern wheels, it cuts needed inventory in half. So would you rather have a longer wait or maybe pay twice as much for your needed wheels? Oh and it's American companies that are doing it not offshore companies

 

I don't have a whole lot of heartburn about using them on a strictly street and strip car, whose build plan included hub caps, but if they were going on some kind of a hill climber or corner carver which puts a lot of lateral stress on a wheel then, hell no I wouldn't use them.

 

And one more point to make.
The title of the thread is wrong, they are not "universal" bolt pattern wheels, they are dual bolt patterns meaning that they won't fit everything as a "universal" wheel would but rather will fit 2 different bolt patterns for instance Ford-Dodge or Chev.

 

Ok so my title was not accurate, your right of course.

I mainly wanted to see if others out there where apprehensive about using "dual pattern" like I was. Secondly I was curious if others where less than thrilled about the choices we have for reasonably priced steelies. Regardless of the reason being cosmetic or performance or country of origin based.

I've learned a lot (as did some. others, I believe) and am grateful to those who have posted.

 

Dual pattern steelies 2 years on the road . No issues. PM me . I have 2 15x6 dual pattern wheels that were used for mock up only. I will sell for cheap.

 

Nice car.

 

I would have been pissed if I was planning on no caps,single bolt pattern rims are available as I got some for my F100 and might be getting a pair for my sunliner.

 

I have used stock wheels with radial tires on Studebakers for years and not had any problems. The truck in my avitar still runs that set up. I wanted something a bit wider for my '65 Cruiser and got some used MOPAR cop car wheels that looked great but were a bit too wide in front and not nearly as "round" as they should have been. A local place said they could true them up, but the cost was outrageous. I got a set of rally wheels from Speedway for 49 bucks each and free shipping. The are dual bolt pattern and have held up well. As has been said here before, caps solve the look problem.