Wheels and tires .....What would you do?

Perhaps the point some of you are missing is that what we strived for then, and many do today, was a nice car. Racers wanted to emulate Tommy Ivo or Tony Nancy. Look up their stuff, always beautiful. If Frank Pedregon Sr didn't have kids and bills he wouldn't have raced on begged and borrowed parts. And his car would have been done better if he had the dough. The beautiful car Pat Foster built of the Taco Taster is a million times better than the real one. So, back to the subject at hand: Could someone explain why one would want to build a car to recreate an car in transition. And take matched, fairly nice wheels off to accomplish this. That's the part that puzzles me and makes me post to this thread.

 

Might be early, but I'm in for that drink, Josh.

 

Phil you are absolutely correct. I'd say you were way off base but it would be a non truth.

There were a lot of cars with mixed n matched wheels even on the show cirquit, often done for effect, big fattys on the rear with halcrafts on the front come to mind. But what most builders were after was a perfectly matched vehicle.

There was a '57 Chevy in the neighborhood when I was a kid that had chromies on all 4 corners. It was a genuine street strip car, skinny wheels on the front and wider reversed wheels on the rear. I only ever saw it in primer he spent all his cash making it go fast, but I figure he eventually painted it. He carried a pair of smooth halibrands with slicks in the trunk when he went to the strip.

 

Let's be clear. REAL drag race cars (i.e. rails, g***ers, altereds) generally ran mismatched wheels for a reason: wires or 12-spokes in front, because they were as light as possible; big Hals in the back to mount wide slicks.

Street driven hot rods typically wore matching wheels, anything from common steelies up to Halibrands. Rears were often wider than fronts, but similar in design and color.

A VERY FEW wannabe squirrels put mismatched wheels on their dailies, in an effort to look like the real racers. They were pathetic then, and they still are.

So, is it traditional to want to emulate the wannabe squirrels? Well, maybe. Different strokes for different folks.

 

In 1967 I was saving money to buy a set of Americans to replace my Buick Skylark wires on my Model A panel. Working at a gas station after school everyday made saving that much money ($200 total) a slow deal.
When I got $100, my girlfriend said, why don't you just start by getting two mags and put them on the front. My reply?
"No, Linda, I'm going to wait until I can get all four so it doesn't look like ****. I'm going to do it right the first time"





When I sold it, the new owner put these on it...not only was this untraditional, but it looked like ****!!!!!!!!!!
I can't bear to even look at this photo.....YUCK!

 

Yuck X 2 Doug, the 5 spokes looked so good.

 

Kinda hard to bolt a spindlemount on the back.

And it's kinda weird argueing with someone, that was there, about what was traditional because it was in a book. It's a little tougher getting the real "vibe" about something through a photograph.
I guess if you saw a picture of Liberace in a book, you could argue that piano players were gay back in the day. But Jerry Lee would probably thump you for it-----or just shoot you.
Larry T

 

Is it any wonder old guys who WERE there in So Cal in the 50's and 60's don't post much or offer information to those who could most benefit.

I will allow the guys from the 30's and 40's a little more la***tude as they are most likely dead.

 

With the Americans , this was one of the coolest hotrods cruising the SGV in the '60's !

 

Wait 50 years. Some young kid will open a car book & see an easter egg street rod & ***ume all cars of that period looked like that.
Hey- I saw it in a book!

 

Maybe a set of Radir's with triple pinstriped piecrust slicks from Hurst Tire

 

go traditional and run 7.50x16 in rear and 5.25x16 in the front

 

I graduated in 1962.....mismatched wheels were around, but never cool. As stated, only until they could afford a matched set..
I was there....

 

You nailed it here with your So Cal comment. Contrary to popular belief So Cal was not hot rod central just the place where most of the magazines were published.

Building Rods and Customs is and always has been a regional thing. More often than not just across town and what club you saw or belonged to. Chili Phil is So Cal but I did most of my growing up either in Nor Cal or Oregon. What I remember being the norm is going to be different than what he remembers.

A dedicated show or drag vehicle is different than what you normally saw on a Street/Strip vehicle. Most street strip vehilces in the '60s were different than a full on street cruiser. We could argue all day but it wouldn't change the fact that depending on where we grew up and your social status things were going to be different. Its just a fact of life.

I do agree with Phil and the others on the fact that everyone wanted their car to be as sweet as possible. Most of us were working towards a complete finsihed product that everyone else would look at and drool.

In the bay area Americans as well as Halibrands were popular but you actually saw a lot of cars hot rods and customs alike with chrome reverse wheels. The why may have something to do with the fact that in the east bay there was a fella named Paulsen that made chrome reverse wheels and you could go into his showroom and order a set or pick up a set off the rack. They were reasonable as rod parts go and redily available.

Would it have been easy for Phil to snag a set of Paulsen wheels, well unless he was visiting family he would have to mail order them as a rule.

Do you catch my drift?

 

Thanks for that, Benno. The biggest reason I get into these discussions is that I learn so much about regional differences in style. I an a So Cal guy, but I like and respect the cars from the Bay Area and the PNW. This isn't the thread to talk about regional styles, we're on weird wheel ideas here. Maybe we can kick regional style elsewhere.

And Cal is a big state. I had heard of Paulson, but we had Collin's Muffler (now called Boyd's of Bellflower. Shot locally, especially if you needed to do a lay-away.

 

Right on Beano....totally gets it.
And I too agree with the others, in that I wouldn't put mismatched wheels on a nice car that already had a full set of nice matched wheels, like Halibrands. But if I had decent wheels laying around and it was holding me up from driving my hotrod, I sure as hell wouldn't be waiting to drive the ****er just because the wheels didn't match....well, to a point that is. I ain't running Chevy Rally's...or wires, on my hotrod...haha
I may be the only one who actually LIKES the look of front chrome reverses and mags on the rear...and I'm fine with that.....haha...