Ford Wire Wheel Welding Fixture?......

40Pickup

Senior Member
Is there anyone who knows how Ford or KH manufactured the wire wheel?
It would be very interesting if there were any movies or pictures from the production. Curious about how the welding fixture looked and how it worked!

Thanks, Jorgen
 
There is one movie that has a segment showing the wire wheels being welded. I can't remember which one, but I remember commenting on it on here after someone posted a link to the film on youtube.

Good luck searching for it.

Edit:

try this, 20 minutes in.

https://youtu.be/md6V_7QiIVY

Mart.
 
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It is truly amazing what engineers back then were able to design and make
with only a drafting table and a slide rule. Mighty smart folks.
 
I remember seeing an old video where to show how strong the wheels were, Ford hung (I think) three cars off one wheel. At an auto show or somewhere.

Mart.
 
There is a vidio on youtube. Titled something like The 1932 Ford V8. If you can find it, it shows the spokes being welded to the rim. It is like a spot welding tecnique. There is a forked piece that goes over the spoke and pushes the spoke to the rim and welds it. It was one at a time and manually fed.
 
Mart,

It was at the 1934 World's Fair in Chicago inside the Rotunda that was subsequently moved to Dearborn, but then lost in a fire in the early 1960s.
 
I remember seeing an old video where to show how strong the wheels were, Ford hung (I think) three cars off one wheel. At an auto show or somewhere.

Mart.


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  • 1935 Ford WIRE WHEELS - Wheel suspending 3 cars.jpg
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Thank you all for your replies!
Started watching the movies on youtube.
Can not really stop thinking about how they made up the manufacturing, I mean four wheels per car and 32 spokes on each wheel so they must have had a rational manufacturing method.
If the spokes were prefab with the sponge shaped ends before welding, then each spoke has to be rotated to the right position! That does not make sense!
Why do you start thinking about things like this?........

Jorgen
 
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