New Wheels?

J

jaguar6165

Senior Member
Is there anywhere to get a set of new wheels at a decent price? Im looking at getting some but might have to do it in stages since they are that expensive.
 
Did you try Jerry at "The Model A Store"? He won't have them
in stock, but he might have some ideas. I guess since he's
right there in your town of Casselberry, you've been there done
that, lol. His number is 407-695-8911.

Jack
 
Go to swap meets and watch the ads from the local Model A clubs to pick up a good set of originals. Good ones are better than the repros in my opinion. What are you starting with?

Charlie Stephens
 
After having just finished my wheels, I'm amazed at how good they can look after cleaning and blasting. I was not too optimistic with what I started with. Bent spokes, lots of rust under coates of old paint. I looked for good wheels and just could not come up with any, so I went to work on mine. First sand blasting, then straightening with the heat shrink technique, then the filling of major blemishes and finally painting.
Don't give up on what you have easily, you can bring back some awful rough wheels.
 
I've NEVER had an original Ford wire wheel weld brake, and wouldn't want to trust the repops even they were free.
 
Ive been to Jerrys many times just havent been by to ask about wheels and the idea came to me at work so i figured i would post first. I am looking not because my wheels are in poor shape but the have some wobble to them and i would like strighter ones. Is there a way to fix the wobble?
 
Yes, that was a big problem with mine. That is why I thought I needed different wheels, but since I could not find any available in my area, I straightened mine. It works amazingly well. First you need a place to properly mount your wheels. By properly, they need to be bolted to a true hub and drum. I welded a front spindle to a piece of channel so I could put it in a vice. Then mounted a drum on the spindle that spun true. Mount a wheel and give it a spin, checking the run-out. Tolerance is 1/8" to 3/16ths. Find the long spoke that is midway in the area that is wobbling in toward the vice. You need two good propane torches, a hand towel a bucket of cool water and a pair of nitril gloves. The gloves prevent the steam from burning your hands. Heat the rim outside from where the selected spoke is mounted. Heat the full length of the long spoke as well. Get the rim red hot, as well as the spoke. Rapidly quench the outer rim until it stops sizzling, then immediately quench the spoke. The rapid quench will shrink the spoke and pull the rim toward a more true alignment. Recheck your wobble. You may have to do more than one cycle, or more than one spoke. Be patient, it works! The reason for heating the rim and quencing it first, is it gives the spoke a place to expand into, and establish a new length at the rim before you quench the spoke and pull on the rim with a shortened spoke. Clear as mud? If this is not clear, I'll try and find the source of the article on line and reference it for you.
 
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