History when did chrome reverse wheels start?

Here`s a couple I always loved with C/R`s.............................

 

I take it that it`s a good thing.

 

I think chrome reverse was just a natural progression. Long before they were chromed, hotrodders were drilling the rivets out of their wheels and reversing the centers to get a wider stance. Chroming them just came naturally later.

 

Don't know, but will say that the very 1st thing I put on my '67SS/RS Camaro was a set of CRAGAR 14" x 6" deep dish chrome reverse along w/ chrome spindle grease caps and I am assuming they are "spiders" over the rear axel centers.

I love this old-style look to this day.

And I still have the spiders in my box.

I used to douse them w/ 40 wt oil in the fall and run them all winter and then in the spring de-crud them w/ a quart of diesel, wash down and wax and polish and go until the next late fall and repeat.

Only problem I ever had w/ them is that w/ say, an E-60/14 on the front, my ordered optional fast manual steering and my car was a real bitch to parallel park..

pdq67

 

That is probably the best picture I have but I started a thread a while back on Palamedes. I'm sure if you do a search you can find it. I wouldn't mind getting it going again to see if anybody has any new info.
Gary

 

I was eyeballin' this car real hard back in the winter in Kansas City. Couldn't find anybody to ask. Is the fire wall cut to clear the nailhead? I've been wanting to put one in mine but this is the only tri 5 I've seen with a nail head.

 

That '55 is KILLER. You are a lucky man to have become it's caretaker.I dig all the photos you guys posted . Just as I thought, the high dollar show cars had them in the early 50s. Joe Average could buy 'em in '58/'59. In '61, the Impala SS came out w/ thin whites and wide whites became "uncool". So there's this 3 or 4 year window when this look was popular. Cool. I do have a set of stock '54 rims in case I wanna run caps someday. I like the repro lancers, or the '53s w/ no bowties, or Cad sombreros, or '55 Olds saucers, or '60 Buicks, or black rims w/ baby moons, or.........

 

When i was in Hi School ,,Marshalltown ,Iowa ,,'58-'61 ,,Chrome Wheels were outa the question ,,money wise ,,i ran Olds Fiesta Flippers & wide whites on my '51 Vickie ,,i put a set of '58 Impala caps w' the tri bar spinners on my Dads '57 chevy ,,which was kool for the time ,,but i always read every hot rod mag i could get and saw all the kool stuff going on out there in the real world ,,and ,,well ,,dreamed ,,i didn't get my first set of Chrome Wheels untill '64 when i was in the Air Force ,stationed in Anchorage Alaska ,,put em on my '54 Ford F-100 w' a Rochester Injected 283 Chevy & a 4 speed ,,even then ,,on Air Force Pay ,,Chromies were expensive ,,

 

Not meaning to hijack the thread but I suspect that the reversing part came shortly after the first channel job on a car with the stock rear end. Seems the tires need to be moved out a little so some ingenious hot rodder took the wheels apart and reversed the outer for more clearance, chroming them while apart just came naturally.

 

I've seen pictures of chrome 16" ford wheels from the late 40s.

 

Don't know if any of you have been to a Chrome Shop and watched em do it ,,but chroming a wheel ain't easy ,,chroming anything ain't that easy ,,has to look chromed before they brass plate & chrome it ,,lots n lots of polishing first ,,so ,for anyone to chrome wheels back in the '40's , '50's woulda beed very time consuming & costly ,,

 

If any of you get the chance ,and are in So Missouri,,Northern Arkansas or Eastern Oklahoma ,,,Swing by Mena Arkansas ,,take the Guided Tour of Street and Performance ,,they do ALL their own chrome plating ,,you can watch em do the whole process ,,plus ,,,go see Brodex Head Co ,,they're there too ,you can watch the CNC Milling ,,Aluminum Casting and Polishing at both places too ,,the Tours of both places is Free ,,it'll take all day tho to do both ,,
I went there a couple years ago ,,,it's well werth the trip ,plus ,,stop by the '60's era Drive In Resturant in town ,,complete with Car Hops in Short Shorts ,,

 

I don't remember the maker of the 6 inchers I put on the front of my car in the mid sixties, but they were not that expensive by then - only $15.00 apiece through the Pacific 66 station downtown. By 1970 when this pic was taken, bigger wheels were common and the 10 inch Keystones were $35.00 each from the local speed shop! I was working by then, so the buy was a no-brainer.


Moriarity, I dreamed for years of owning that car but was afraid to ask if it was for sale (it was stored for many years only a couple of miles away)!! We knew it locally as the "Circuit breaker", but I knew of it's true origins through the magazine article (Car Craft?) which I still have safely stashed away. Congrats on possessing a true piece of history - I know I don't have to tell you you are a lucky guy. I love that car!

-Dave

 

Earliest chrome reverse wheels I can recall were on a "Humpy" (either 1949 to 1956 FX [48-215] or FJ) Holden in the mid 1960's.
It was common to use an aftermarket hubcap with imitation "knock-offs" or imitation "knock offs", that used the existing bolt pattern, on the chrome wheel.

It was became a practice to split the rims and weld in a belt to widen the wheel from 4"-4.5" to 5"-6" which were really wide, at the time.

Can't find a correct picture with the chrome reverse, but, these pics will give an idea:

A restored FJ Holden with original wheels and hubcaps (unfortunately with aftermarket trim rings):



A customised FJ (not chrome reversed in this case) with the typical aftermarket hubcaps incorporating "knock-offs":

 

I was telling my Dad about this thread, and he mentioned he bought his CRW's from the owner of X Sonic, 'Ron Aguirres' in the early 60's. Rons custom Corvette was the first car with lifts. At the time, Dad was one of the first people, running around San Bernardino, with chrome reversed wheels.

 

this one's a little too late for wide whites, pinners would look much better...

 

Are you serious?

 

Ha Ha, Monsterflake, I just saw your signature........funny!

Chrome reverse wheels rule, that is all.

 

You didn't get The Memo?

Black-painted steelies are wot's kool & groovy...

.
[barf]

 

Got mine in 61 at "Manny,Moe,and Jack's (PepBoys)in SoCal. paid $15.00 a piece, then went to Blair's for my spiders. They may not have been period correct, but shit, I was in the period. Didn't seem to tear a hole in time/space continuem...

 

Pretty sure they weren't around earlier than the late 50s. They had pretty much replaced wheel covers by the early 60s. Few people are aware that these wheels are the reason custom wheels to this day are refered to as "Rims". The rims were reversed for appearance, & to widen the stance. Saying "chrome reversed rims" quickly got shortened to just "rims". Then, when other after-market "mag-type" wheels started appearing, the name "rims" just stuck.

 

ttt

 

Late fifties early 60's is when they were popular, what I remember is most people ran black walls with them because the white walls took away some of the glamour of showing off your brands new chrome wheels. I am sure somebody chromed when the process was first inventedand long before they were being sold as a marketable product.

Also original chrome reversed wheels had the valve stem on the inside of the wheel as were rims were merely seperated into there individual pieces and the outer rim turned 180 degrees rewelded and chromed. I've got some old ones that are that way.

 

I am sure there were lots of early uses, but dates above are pretty good for mainstream catalog-available parts!

Early users would have been circle trackers and some street roadster builders, groups who chromed everything they could afford to chrome, including the occasional frame.

I would say that spiders and bullets lap over into the late part of this period when whitewalls were shifting to thin types, then chrome wheels, hotrods, and customs were all blown off the map as big inch stockers, super-stockers, and late muscle cars made the traditional modifiers an underground lunatic fringe. As this last happened, cheapish aluminum "Mag wheels" absolutely took over the aftermarket wheel sales for a longlong time.
For real research...just read through both the features and the ads in a stack of period magazines (Car craft probably the best for this period and wheel trends), and don't forget your Eastern Auto and JC Whitney catalogs!