Wood Spoke Wheel Restoration

[1927Tudor]

A while back, after I had finished the interior, and got the car back on the road, I realized that the wheels and tires really needed some attention... the tires were presentable, but when I started checking the date stamps and realizing that some of the tires were from the thirties, I figured it was about time to splurge...

I picked up 5 Firestones 450x21, tubes and flaps, and started taking my first Model T wheel apart.... thankfully the 27's are demountable rims, so it was just a matter of removing the four rim bolts, and the rim should pop right off....

after about two hours, I got the first one... after about thirty years they needed a little persuasion...

 

[1927Tudor]

here's a shot of the tire and tube of one... yup... the tube is dated 1931...

 

[1927Tudor]

the rims had some cracks, so I figured I should sandblast to get an idea how bad they were... I then welded up the cracks and primered.. looks like Henry was using Kelsey wheels in 27...

 

[1927Tudor]

the spokes, hubs and inner rims looked pretty tough too, so I took thenm apart (numbering the spokes before your remove the hubs) and sanblasted the outer rims. I used pain stripper (gallons of it ) to strip the hubs and spokes, taping off the bearing races before stripping.... the metal pieces were then primed and painted, but I couldn't bring myself to cover up the grain in the hickory spokes, after spending days stripping them, so I used minwax stain and spar varnish...

 

[1927Tudor]

pics..

 

[1927Tudor]

now for reassembly... (about two months in now)... originally the rims were plated, but I figured with all the trouble that was going to come in mounting the tires, I should just paint the rims silver cad, so that any chips and scratches could be touched up... now for this step you're gonna need to find one of these... it's called a rim spreader, which is kind of backwards, as it's used to collapse the split rim... forgot to mention, it helps to use this for removing the tires as well... i taped off the jaws to avoid chipping the paint too much..

 

[1927Tudor]

take a tire and tuck the inner tube in, then inflate the tube slightly to seat... then tuck the flap around the tube... I'll post more later

 

[1927Tudor]

once the tube and flap are installed, time to put the rim spreader to work... attach the spreader, and compress the rim until the hole for the valve stem is just visible... carefully place the rim inside the tire. Once inside, then slowly unwind the rim, being careful not to pinch the flap or tube...

 

[1927Tudor]

now you've got to expand the rim slightly to line up the "ears" to insert the pin...

 

[1927Tudor]

I then reassembled the hubs and inner rims (installed new inner rim bolts), touched up the scratched paint and re-installed the rims and tires.... should be good for another 50 years...

Chris

 

[Hitchhiker]

those look nice!

 

[John Otis]

Decades ago I had a car that had Wards Riverside tires that were about 50 years old then and I ran the hell out of them and never seemed to be able to detect any sort of wear. I have one tire on my current T that is probably from the '70's that is all checked and worn out and needs to be replaced. Go figure. Lots to be said for those old rubber compounds, but when the time comes there is never anything like brand new tires. Your wheels and tires look great! What a bunch of work but what a great result!

 

[glenn33]

Nice job man...

 

[1927Tudor]

thanks guys.....

 

[Red Baron]

How did you expand the rim after the tire was on?? RV

 

[1927Tudor]

RV,

I used the rim spreader in reverse to get it close, but with at least a couple they needed a whack with a rubber mallet on the "ears" so that the pin would line up...

Chris