Wire wheels from Wheel Vintiques

[53buickconvert]

Has anyone bought wire wheels from Wheel Vintiques? I'm still looking for wire wheels for my '53 Roadmaster convertible and saw their ad on this forum. Just wondering about the quality and looks compared to waiting and finding an original set.:confused:

[trickrk]

I am in the process of replacing a set of after market Skylark style wire wheels that came with my 53 Super Riv. I am going with a set of steels wheels and Buick caps. I like the look of the wire wheels but I found I had broken spokes on two wheels and another wheel had eight spokes replaced previously. I am not at all convinced of the durability of any spoke wheel. After speaking to several people I am finding that they require maintenance like re-truing and resealing. I am sure you will get many different opinions on this subject, just my 2 cents

[old-tank]

Wire wheels are pretty and a pretty big pain in the arsch. Cleaning and polishing are a 4 hour job, since they need to be dismounted to do it right...you will need to make some guide studs when installing (the guide pin is not enough to hold it into position). Run from them...

[Fr. Buick]

Wire wheels are pretty and a pretty big pain in the arsch. Cleaning and polishing are a 4 hour job, since they need to be dismounted to do it right...you will need to make some guide studs when installing (the guide pin is not enough to hold it into position). Run from them...

They are not as well-made, IMHO, as the originals. But a whole lot cheaper than rechroming the originals. I have put about 5K miles on mine, and I have one spoke that has broken twice. To fix it, of course, means pulling the tire. Use flaps and tubes, otherwise they will leak.

Willie is right, be prepared to take them off the car to really keep them clean. But the look is amazing. The best looking wire wheels anybody had to offer in the day, I think.

[53buickconvert]

Is re-truing and and replacing spokes something that can be done yourself or would it have to be sent off to a shop?

Tim

[JohnD1956]

Spoke replacement is some thing you can do yourself. I don't know anything about trueing. I imagine it is like an art. The more you do it the better you get. Have you ever tried to straighten out a bicycle rim? It takes a lot of time and you have to be able to spin the rim to see the areas that need work.

I happen to have the complete control arm/spindle assemblys from my first 56. I can set that up and put a rim on the brake drum and spin the rims by hand. But I have never tried to true a car wire rim, so I don't know if something that simple is sufficient. And I imagine todays shops have something like a computerized tire balancer to spin the rim and tell the tech where to loosen and tighten the spokes. But if you follow Mudbones and Bighdogs rebuilds at all, you can see that anything can be done in your home shop if you put enough thought into it.

[trickrk]

Is re-truing and and replacing spokes something that can be done yourself or would it have to be sent off to a shop?

Tim

Anything is possible in capable hands but some things may be better left to the experts. The prices I have been getting on re-truing has ranged from a 100 to 150. Replacement spokes are $2.50 to $3.00 each and the nuts are additional if needed. Some include resealing and some don't. This of coarse does not include shipping. California is the place to be for wire wheels and wire wheel repair with The low rider scene is still running strong. Those guys love spokes!

[Barney Eaton]

When I was a youth truing the wheels on our bikes was a common thing. When bikes started installing hand brakes that clamped the wheel flange...if the wheel was out of alignment, you got poor braking. I don't recall that broken spokes were a problem on a bike but bike tires are much easier to remove from the rim than car tires.

[60FlatTop]

When "I" was a youth, 17 to be exact. I bought a 1956 Packard Caribbean convertible that the owner had quit driving because he was concerned about the wire wheel problems and parked in a hedgerow behind his house. Some kids had come by and broke all the windows. I couldn't find a windshield for it so I took off the 2X4's for my '56 Golden Hawk and junked the rest.

So there's a period wire wheel story anyway.

You know, it seems like I did more when I was in my teens than kids do today.... and more in my 20's, and more in my 30's, 40's, 50's,....... half way through my 60's and revising a 30 year business plan.

Well, like Dandy Dave says, spending money for tools, women, and old cars has to come from somewhere.

Bernie

[Airy Cat]

I installed a set of Tru Spoke wire wheels on my '55 Buick and they look great. They are a Buick Skylark reproduction.

[buick840]

I installed a set of Tru Spoke wire wheels on my '55 Buick and they look great. They are a Buick Skylark reproduction.

I spoke with Steve about his wheels some time back........they look great. I want them

The fact that they are cheaper than the opposition is attractive as well

Steve, How about posting some photos of your car and wire wheels.............the ones you sent me ages ago are lost on my old Pc that died.

I believe you used spacers and replaced the wheel bolts with studs and lug nuts.

Maybe for others interested you could post a list of the parts you needed to make the conversion work.

[buick man]

Back in the late 70's, my friend and I were coming home early one evening in my stock tri-carb 62 Healy 3000 which I had purchased about a month earlier. At that time it had the stock chrome 60 spoke british wire wheels with that classic center reverse threaded cap nut that held the wheel on all by itself. Well, being newby novice of novices for a few days before this I had heard a clicking sound whenever I backed up out of a parking space. I attempted to check out what was the problem thinking it was perhaps the wires of the wheels that were loose or something like that. I was told to take a phillips screw driver and gently bounce them off of the wires going around the wheel. Any thud sounding wire would be a loose one. Well, I did just that and found nothing out of the ordinary. I convinced myself that perhaps I should take it in and let a british tech look it over and would do that the next day after work. So getting back to where this campfire tale began, as we were driving back to my place at around only 20mph we swerved off the main road with smooth right hand turn . I was just about to punch it and open up those tri-car setup to get us into an upcoming hill, while out of corner of our right eye we bot notice a tire and wheel rolling by us a littler faster than we where going. Wow Dave, what the $%&@ was that my friend yelled. Then at that same moment we felt a sudden but slight downward tug on the rear passengers side. As I was going slow already I just applied the brakes and stopped. We got out to find our rear right wheel had come off completely and had overtaken us just out of the turn. We were lucky as we could of easily been going much faster in that low slung Big Healy and taking in hard cornering as these cars have a tendency to want to do and all with that real wire wheel ready to come off. That clicking sound was the center hub lock cap that had not been properly torqued in the first place and was slowly working it's way off the center spindle every time I backed up and with very little warning other that slight clicking sounds I had heard. Trying to tell me something that my ignorant ears could not hear. As any good mechanically inclined car guy should know, those little sounds you hear are usually red flags on something just waiting to happen. Good maintenance is 2 parts listening and 2 parts elbow grease.

Shortly after that, I found a set of 72-spoke Jaguar wheels. Had them trued and the spokes set and installed those on that Big Grinned Healy.

[WWS]

I bought a set of the TruSpokes from Motor Spot for my 46 and my fathers 48. Had them on for years and they never gave us problems. Very well made wires. With the right tools it was a 30 minute task to keep them clean. If you work smarter, they are easy to care for and will look awesome

Well worth the investment!

[Airy Cat]

I have a picture of my '55 and '54 posted in this site.

[Guest Barneys_Bud]

I was on an old car tour with a fellow who had a very nice 56 Buick.  Halfway through the trip he began to have drivability issues with his car.  Fearing major problems he pulled into a Less Schwab store.  An inspection reveled that his Vintiqes wheels were coming apart.  More specifically the spokes were breaking!  This was an issue on all four of his wheels.

 

The upshot of all this was that chroming spokes is a tricky business.  If not done correctly they can make the spokes very brittle and prone to breaking.  I would worry more about that aspect that the maintenance issues.

[Barney Eaton]

Who remembers back in the 2004 time frame when there was a big discussion about radial tires on original Buick (or other) wheels? 

The claim was that the radials transferred more forces to the wheel than the old style tires and the rims cracked and rivets loosened.  

The BCA chose not to endorse radial on older car for that reason.

 

If all the above is factual... then radials on wire wheels could have similar consequences. 

None of the post above state what type of tire they were using when they had problems.