Hot Rods Who is your "Go to" manufacturer of steel wheels?

If you run 6" wide you can look into imports (even trailer wheels) for the hoop. I have a large caliper I use at the wrecking yard, like a go no go. 5" wide and under are rare in newer vehicles especially in 16" (except old Bugs).

 

15's or 16's. I'm not a wheel snob.

 

So, honest opinion here.......would the smoothies stick out and look WRONG over vented centers? This is going to be a traditionally inspired build, not period perfect. Asking for a friend.

 

I like both styles Chris. My 56 has ones with no vents but also aren’t smoothies and Silas’s pickup has Wheel Vintiques with the vents... I’m honestly not sure what brand mine are since Chris Whittington bought them new.

 

I don't generally get caught up in details, but with that said, I don't want something glaring that sort of mixes eras. I can always tell a guy that doesn't pay attention to details, when they have WWW tires and heartbeat stripes on a peach colored 34.

I just don't know that I wanna spend the effort on stuff like that. I'm ok with it, if other guys wanna go down that path, but I have enough rabbit holes of my own.

 

Yep, mixing eras is bad. Makes it look like a person couldn’t decide what they were working toward.

 

I've seen that locally on a couple of long process "street rods" Wheels that although are not outlandish in size are decades outdated for the rest of the car and the tires that were on them when they were bought died of old age before the car ever rolled under it's own power.
This is a fun thread, not only about steel or chrome wheels but what is correct for a specific build era. Having never cared for the smoothie chrome reverse look, knowing where the right looking ones come from counts.

 

I get all of my steel wheels from Wheel Smith, just ordered 4 last Friday. Excellent quality, made the way you want them. There is no other choice in my opinion.

 

I can identify with that problem. I took the 36 apart after I bought my house in 2004. Coming up on the 20 year anniversary.

Wonder who is making the ones for Coker? They are vented. Like the ones @moparboy440 posted.

 

My first time seeing a photo of this car. It's perfect!

What's the colour, if you don't mind sharing?

 

Ohhhh...you're right. Forgot about that.

 

Thank you! And, the color is Fiesta Red and is the paint Ford put on it in 56. It hasn't ever been repainted...

Sorry to hijack your thread Chris...

Back to steel wheel vendors.

 

One more positive vote for Wheel Smith.
I ordered 4 wheels March 1st and received them March 16.

 

Wheelsmith

 

I built my own. Centers came from a set of chrome wheels from a friend that he gave me. No they are not perfect.
The Hoops came from a new set of white spoke wheels that most wheel shops stack on the back fence because they can’t give them away.
Cut the centers out of both flipped and took to a guy that had a lathe big enough to do what ours would not. The chrome in the very center is not perfect. But they have the look I want.
I get wanting that look or nothing.
Nope I haven’t made up my mind on wether the white will stay or not.

 

I bought a set of Wheel Vintiques series 14 steel wheels from Summit Racing.
16”x4.5” and 16”x6”
I had them powder coated in Wimbledon White.
I had 5.00x16 and 7.00 x16 Excelsior Stahl sport tires mounted on them also ordered from Summit Racing.

When I had them mounted they spun them up to speed on the Hunter road force balancer and the front ones required no weights at all.
The rear’s required a couple of ounces on each wheel.

The RPU runs straight and smooth and handles like it’s on rails right up to 100 mph with no drama.

 

Ditched the slots on the Fairlane had a hard time getting vented wheels from Coker so went with Wheel Smith. Well built wheels I must say.

 

Granted theyre not chrome but Ive been collecting all the free/cheap steel wheels I can get for years. These are a few I just had the tires removed recently for storage.

 

WV sucks.... They got cheap but still demand a price tag.

Coker tires on the other hand, expect to have more ounces than a dealer on the street to get them to balance.

 

If you’re interested WheelSmith has the the pattern used by Moon for their discs for the sizes Moon sells. I had them weld in the Dzus plates on the 16” they made for my LSR roadster.

 

Doesnt WheelSmith have the vented centers now, I thought they were displayed at the GNRS?

 

That would solve a lot of my problems.

 

Not on steel but they do for the forged aluminum

 

It appears that they do. Actually, after looking harder, the oem style wheels are only solids on the website.

 

A lot of cars were never one and done. They got upgraded with time. Sometimes the drive train got firdt consideration. Lots of times wheels and tires happened from buying used from a buddy and sometimes the hot rodder could only afford two. Cars did not always get built the way that they are now.

 

Thought I would chime in here on my recent experience with US wheels. ordered a set of wheels and hub caps from them but they don't ship to Canada. No big deal as we import all the time from the US and one of our main suppliers is based in Corona where US Wheel is also located and the owner of this main supplier is a good friend of mine so I made arrangements to have my order shipped to them to get added to a company order I already had in house.
I emailed US wheel about what my plan was ahead of placing the order and Bob replied back to me within an hour and said place the order, it will automatically charge me for shipping. He then said he would reverse the shipping charges and personally drop off my order at our suppliers warehouse. Needless to say in today's zero service world I was very pleasantly surprised. Think it's important to share the good stories as we often focus on the bad including myself sometimes.
Shout out to US Wheels for great customer service.

 

This is a great thread...

I never had an issue with Wheel Vintiques. Chrome quality was very good, and no issues with balancing. I have heard more and more that quality is an issue since Coker bought them, but none of that is first hand. I have had several different products from Coker without any issues.

I wish Jimmy (wheelkid) @ Rally America was still doing custom wheels. He used to buy centers from WV, maybe the hoops also? And assemble them in-house. He built the 15x8 & 15x10 OE steelies for my '60 F-100.

Pete Paulsen's www.petepaulsen.com is an outfit around here that has a decent reputation. Also, stocktonwheel.com might be worth looking in to. They were sold to a new owner, who supposedly has been working to change the previous rep for lousy customer service.