mounting split rim wheels

I have recently removed my split rim wheels for repainting. After I removed the first rim I tried to reassemyble the rim onto the tire to make sure I would know how to reassyemble them after I had them painted. I found that I couldn't do it without scratching up a lot of the paint.I live in Michigan and need to find an experienced person to do this job for me. I would appreciate any help.<P>Thanks <BR>Cal

The problem is that they were never meant to be painted, which of course is what scratches. Originally they were plated, cadmium I believe, and while this did scratch a little it was not like paint. If they were painted, I guess some were, they scratched the first time they had tires changed after leaving the factory. Who knows how the factory did it.<P>Besides, when these vehicles were built, nobody really expected the wheels to remain perfect. Mostly the cars were built to be driven, not shown for awards. <P>When mounting tires on split rims, I use soap, rags, patience and a rim spreader. Then you go back and touch up the scratches.<BR>~ hvs<p>[ 02-16-2002: Message edited by: hvs ]

If you don't have a rim spreader you can use soap rags and a piece of 2x4 and a bottle jack. The 2x4 and the jack need to contact the rim at approx thirds. If you have the piece of the rim that needs to slide into place on your right the jack should be slightly to the left of center on the 2x4 so that you tend to push it along rather than out (which can easily kink your rim).

Having never worked this type of rim before, is it similar to a semi truck split rim? Sorry if it's a dumb question.

The guy who mentioned that early split rims were cad plated is correct. as I found on my '23 D-B. During it's restoration, I talked with a number of people who recomended that I "paint" the rims.<P>Being a hot-rodder from the 70's,I sandblasted &"Re-painted" the Cad Rims with Chevy 'Argent Silver'. I was able to buy it in rattle-cans from Eastwood and got a quart of touch-up from my local auto body paint supplier.<P>The old truck has made it to AACA Senior and no one has said anything about my 'Chevy-Silver' rims. Hope this helps<P>Keep-on-Dodgin'<P>Sonora ScreenSide<BR>dcmmld@mlode.com

Chuck, Split rims were popular in the 1920's, and were used on wood spoke wheels. They were attached to the wheel with 4 or 6 lug nuts. They have a split (picture a large piston ring), a rim spreader tool is used to pull the rim away from the tire and curl the rim slightly into itself. If I was going to use painted rims in place of plated ones, I'd prime and mount them on the tires. Once mounted, deflate the tire and mask it, them paint it and scratches won't be a problem.

Thanks, I can visualize the type now and I can see how painting it first would be a problem. I love learning something new. Does the tube cross the split section? Probably another really dumb question.

AACA judging allows the use of silver paint which replicates cadmium plating to be used on early rims which were originally cadmium plated. It should be dull aluminum in color [readily available in spray cans] and <B>NOT</B> bright silver.<P>Like ScreenSide, I have used this on several early cars and some of them have won AACA Senior awards. These scratches are easily touched up. I do it all the time. ~ hvs

Chuck ~ There is a heavy rubber piece called a flap which is inserted into the casing AFTER the tube is placed in the casing. This acts as a barrier and shield between the tube and the rim. That way the split never comes near the tube. ~ hvs

Thanks for the info HVS, 1937, I have zero expierience with these old cars. <P>My wife just started her first job since the twins were born so I've been looking over some old cars to spend our extra income on (ssshhhh, don't tell her it's a surprise HeHe!).<P>I'm still waffling over what kind, Rod ,Custom , Antique. I've always wanted to do a custom since all I've ever done were rods and muscle cars. <P>I like the idea of a 50 Merc with shaved doors, frenched headlights and slammed to the ground. But then I'd also like another 69 Mustang Mach 1 like I had in high school but I can't fit three kids in the back either. <P>Restoration really appeals to me because I appreciate the difficulty of doing it right, but I honestly don't know if I have the time or funds.<P>My oldest is now 4 and he sure wants to help out in the garage so I have to do something? right! Maybe the tides will bring something to my doorstep and make the decision easier, it's just that nothing reaches out and grabs me. <P>I run a small auto repair business from home and will probably give it up now since the wife is working, I'm kind of tired of fixing all this late 80's-90's junk anyway and want to do something just for me. Although the money sure was good and the small group of dedicated customers I have will be hard to turn away. Funny how just being honest and fair in this business can guarantee success?<P>Oh well maybe the stuff I read here will make up my mind. Thanks again.

can anyone send me a picture of the rim spreader tool they use on their Non-Ford split rims. I am currently restoring the rims on our 1929 Chandler. The rims don't look any different than what was common on other non-Fords of the era. I have purchased one with the three arms that i commonly see on ebay, but it will not work on my 19" rims. For $25 I have taken the rims to my trusty tire store to have the unrestored rim switched with a restored rim on to a new tire. I have now done two this way. The second time I hung around to watch. It was worth the price of admission as four big guys struggled with the rim. With only minor damage to the surface of the rim and a lot of effort the four of them succeded. After that I didn't feel so stupid that I had failed to collapse the rim by myself. But there has to be an easier way!!! I am assuming that it was intended that this could be done by the side of the road if one needed to repair a leaky tube. With my current method I will be out $125! The patend dates on my rims are all 1914, so I know they must have been common to many other cars. I am fairly new to this old car hobby and have not run into this problem before. My owners manual treats the problem as one that is commonly handled. Can any help??

I believe the earliest rims were galvanized as cadmium was not out yet. Trouble is nobody seens to be willing to go to all the trouble or setup to do the fine job as original.This was a hot dip process not electroplated. The zinc does steadily ozidize and soon we are left with bare steel (never really bare--Rusty). Cadmium is the best modern replacement but paint is reasonably priced and will fill the pits of rims that would look real bad plated.

29 Chandler,<BR>I understand how hard it is to work on these old rims, but, if you take them to the tire shop to often you will end up with a ruined rim. You may have them ruined already and just don't know it yet! The reason I say this is the rims that are common with the wood wheel cars of the 20's are designed to be taken apart and the new tire installed with the rim spreader that has been mentioned here. You can do it yourself, I have many times. But, if you don't do it right, adn with the right tool, you will warp and distort the rim. They may get the tire on and off it, looks mounted, but when you go to mount it on the wheel and drive the car you will find the rim warped and twisted out of shape. All your wheels will not roll smoothly - they will be out of round. I used to have a '29 Commander with wood wheels and split rims, I did all my own tires, after I was tought how to do it right. It is work, even for two guys doing it correctly, it is hard work. You can do, and should do it yourself, unless you want all your rims ruined eventually. I will email you a picture of my rim spreader in the next couple of days. <BR>Good luck learning the secrets of the trade.<BR>A few that I have learned:<BR>Lay the new tires out in the sun to warm up (makes them easier to work with - softens them up)<BR>Use a spray bottle of soapy water (like dish detergent)<BR>You need several tire irons with wide flat ends and at least one other strong person to work with you. You will need the extra hands.<BR>Good luck<BR>

Thanks Mark. The main reason I joined this list was to learn how to do things myself. I look foward to seeing a picture of the tool you have used. I've still got three rims to go.

To 29 Chandler. If it takes four people and it is a good show that is not the place to have you tire changed. I wrote earlier about this. I can change (that is install a new tire and/or tube on my 1930 Pontiac in less than ten minutes. This time includes jacking the car up, removing the split rim, splitting it, removing the tire flap and tube and reinstalling. It dosen't make more than 60 seconds difference whether or not you have a rim jack (spreader). I have seen just as many people ruin a rim with the proper spreader as with any other method. <BR>My preference is to have everything at hand. I believe that leaving the rim split for any length of time is one reason for having them misshapen. I take a long large screwdriver and pop the rim sideways at the split making it like a screw thread. Then you simply pull it out of the tire. To put it back together you have to compensate for the twist in locating the valve stem put the rim inside the tire, snap the sprung part of the rim inside the other part, put a short piece of 2x4 across the rim across from the split but about a third of the way towards the lock, put your hydraulic jack between the 2x4 and the rim latch and a couple of strokes and it jumps right into place. You don't need tire irons or any other tools. The trick is not to push the rim out of round but to push the overlapped part of the rim around until it snaps into place. I have put about 9 sets of new tires on my car and have always (after the first couple of times) been able to do all four wheels in less than an hour. If you want to email me at rhp10@shaw.ca I can maybe help you further. Earlier someone was writing about the different rim jacks. They are baisicly all the same you just have to get one that is the right size (length) for your rims.

Reid<BR>I think we may have two different styles of split rims. I can not twist mine like a screw thread. It must the "locking mechanisism" has to rotate back on itself. I will try and send you a picture of what I have. Thanks for your help.

The first thing you need before mounting tires on restored rims is a clean shipping blanket. The heavy quilted ones from a moving company are the best. Place the blanket on a clean garage floor and your rims should stay sctatch free.

A long time ago I decided to avoid tire changing shops with my prewar wheels. I had a 20-inch snap ring wire wheel (1930 Studebaker) that should have had a 6.00x20 tire on it. Previous owner had installed a McCreary 7.00x20 truck tire. The beads alone were double the size allowed. The tire guy (Read Grunt) wailed on it with a railroad spike puller (Louisville & Nashville 1-1/2 hex about 6 feet long) and then warped the snap ring prying it loose. Tire busters are hired for their strength not logic ability.<BR>Stude8

YES, THE TUBE CROSSES THE SPLIT SECTION, THATS WHY U NEED TIRE FLAPS, BESURE TO INSTALL THEM OR YOU;LL BE SEEING FLAT TIRES.

Here is something I found out last spring when remounting my rims on the wheels. I also tried painting the rims first. DON"T paint the Rims until after you have every thing mounted (tire/tube/flap). You can then spray the split rim afterwards by doing this: Apply Teflon Tire Shine to the tire sidewalls (you will need 3 or 4 heavy coats until that tire side wall shines like gloss paint-apply, let dry, reapply). Then you can either lay the rim/tire on its side and spray the SWR and its edge. Try to minimize overspray with a quarter round piece of cardboard, but it doesn't make much difference other than clean up. Test it out before you go whole hog to convince yourself it works. Sometimes I hold the SWR/Tire upright and spray the bottom of the rim as I slowly move it forward until the whole rim is painted, then do the edges. Let the rattle can paint dry a few minutes until it is DRY, and then take a brush, soap, water, or a cleaner or mineral spirits and wipe the over spray from the tire side walls. The paint will NOT adhere to the Teflon Spray but will wipe right off. Make sure you get a brush that gets down around the edges of the rim (try a toothbrush) to do a really clean job. If you use a cleaner or mineral spirits to remove the over spray, go back and wash it with soap and water and then shine the tire again if you want them shiny. Hope you find this solution effective; it works for me and made it easier.

Now if I could only master mounting and de-mounting split rims and tires/tubes/flaps rather than pay someone $85-100 to do it for me.

Also, I found that Rustoleum has a high heat silver that looks close to the original cadmium color if you need that color. You don't need high heat paint, but it was the color they had that looked like the original cadmium.

I've also seen a lot of discussion on many forums about the original color of SWRs; e.g. zinc, cadmium, galvanized, silver/aluminum/black. I have a complete set of wheels and rims I want to have repainted to original colors, which led me on the search for paint that matched.

The last time I got into describing my 28 Coach on a forum I got my head torn off so I will keep it simple this time. I have a 28 National AB Coach with extremely low original mileage (documented). It is an early 28 model, and the guy who restored it in 1993 said the wheels were cadmium/silver and so they repainted it with a matching silver (custom mixed to match). I won't mention the mileage because when I do I get too many people calling me a liar, or saying I don't know the history of the car, or the odometer was set back during restoration (IT WAS NOT AACA FORUM MEMBERS), but I can absolutely assure you I have enough documentation on this vehicle after 8 years of research, and talking to all prior owners or their family members going back 85 years to know the mileage is original and the colors on it are matching originals. No one touched the vehicle or repainted anything until 1993, and the guy who did it is still alive and I verify things with him all the time. I know what was not restored to original, like the wheel nuts that were custom machined and are also painted silver (I have original black wheel nuts for it), and the wood steering wheel instead of being painted brown. So if you want to know what early 28 NAB wheels were they are Cadmium/Silver. Later ones were painted black based on currently available info, but I have no personal knowledge of that other than what I read on forums. Anyone who wants to disagree can feel free to do so, just don't tear into me like the last group of forum responses. I didn't sign up for that. I'm only trying to help out on this issue, but from what I've seen no one knows or agrees to much on the colors of SWRs, and they probably won't now. I'm painting my SWR and wheels (Oregano) for my 28 Coupe the same as my 28 Coach.

Final thought if you have light green wheels like I do. After much research I found that Rustoleum has a green called Oregano that is as close as you can get in a rattle can to the original color, and most people won't know the difference it is so close, if not an exact match. Unfortunately it comes in Satin only, so you have to spray a clear gloss over it (I use clear acrylic and it works great). Once you polish everything out it looks like the original paint, and it only costs about $4/Can vs. getting something custom mixed at a lot more money or having a paint shop do the wheels at $100/wheel or more.

Hope the members find this information useful. If you don't then just disregard it.

Harbor Freight has 3 different sizes of moving blankets. The small ones make great fender covers when working on the engine (held on with small plastic clamps). They only cost a few bucks when they are on sale (about $5-7 by size) so I have several.

Also if you need small parts containers, they have a plastic box that has 24 smaller plastic boxes with flip tops inside it that works out great. For around $4 with their discounts, I find it useful for anything that will fit in it, and I have never seen anyone else offer that product. It gets great reviews and customers say the flip tops on the smaller containers last forever. I seem to buy one every time I go to HF.Take a look at them on their web site.

Painting rims after mounting is what I did several years ago. Learned the hard way that when you need to repair a flat, put the spreader on the inside edge of rim and then touched-up nicks won't show. I know this is obvious, but I'm a slow learner. Moving blanket is great idea and beats over-sized beach towels. Thanks, frank

I agree with Tinindian, if changing the tyre takes more than one person or a lot of muscle then you are doing something wrong. I can do a tyre on my cars in about 10 minutes also. If you are going to use a hydraulic jack be VERY careful as you can warp rims very easily, really only a trick for experienced players.