Wire Wheels on my 1929 Studebaker

[Mark Huston]

I have a 1929 Studebaker President with wire wheels.  The wire wheels are the type with the wire welded to the rim and attached with a flared end in the center hub.   Two of my six wheels have very loose wires at the hub and I can't use them so they are in the sidemounts and not relied on to drive the car on.  One of the four better wheels, that I do use when driving the car, has had several of the wires break the weld at the rim.   I have had the broken welds repaired, however, another wire has come detached from the rim. 

It is time to consider a professional rebuild of all six wire wheels.  

 

Does anyone have experience with having their wire wheels rebuilt?   I have heard of Dayton Wire Wheels in Ohio.  Don't know anything about them and unfortunately,  they are over 2,000 miles from my location in California.   I was hoping to find someone closer, if possible.  The wheels on my Studebaker are impossible to find and cannot be replaced if lost by a shipping company.   The wheels on my 1929 Studebaker President Brougham were only used by Studebaker on the 1929 President Brougham and the other Studebaker Presidents used a different type of wire wheel - exposed lug nuts and threaded nipples at the rim instead of welded.   Which makes it impossible to find replacement wheels, hub caps, and lock rings.   This is why I hesitate to just box them up irreplaceable wheels and hope to get them back again when I have had things lost by shipping companies before.  

 

The picture of one of my wire wheels was taken when I had them stripped and powder coated over 15 years ago.  In the years since I have driven the car thousands of miles and the wheels are now failing.   Time to revisit the wheels before I have a major wheel failure while driving.  

 

Does anyone have suggestions?

[edinmass]

Mark’ send me a PM with you phone number,  I and another forum member are doing wheels right now with Dayton. I can clue you in. Ed

 

 

Edited May 24, 2020 by edinmass (see edit history)

[Mark Huston]

22 minutes ago, edinmass said:

Mark’ send me a PM with you phone number,  I and another forum member are doing wheels right now with Dayton. I can clue you in. Ed

 

 

Message sent.  
 

[Buffalowed Bill]

Mark,

 

I haven't used these folks in years, but they used to be very good. I was pleased to find out that they are still in business. I don't know if trading eight hundred miles for two thousand is worth it, and maybe there is a reason that they can't help, but might give them a call anyway.

https://citysquares.com/b/fosters-wheel-service-inc-18215665

 

 

[Professor]

I used Dayton to restore a set of chrome wire wheels on my 1964 Corvair Spyder Convertible.  I have mixed feelings about their work.  For example, they plated the center hub on the back side and the plating flaked off within a month on two of the five wheels.  Underneath the flaking chrome was rust.  It seemed that they did not prep the back side of the wheels very well.  The chrome and spokes on the front side of the rims were beautiful, and they restored four knock-offs to amazing condition.  They were quite expensive at around $6500 for five wheels and the knock-offs.

 

Honestly, I would probably not use Dayton again because of the issues I had.

 

Joe

[John_Mereness]

I use Dayton all the time and it is set of 100 point wheels one after the next - never a complaint.  That said, though they do have their limitations as to what you give them in quality of the underlying product matched to safety of the wheel upon completion (aka you cannot restore junk, though I have seen some miraculous recoveries) - the nicer the wheel the better the final product.  Now, here is the catcher - you have a welded spoke wire wheel and to my knowledge they are not restoring welded spoke wheels as they no longer offer dimpling due to safety via metallurgy (you may want to call Gary Buckles in the restoration department and ask, but answer may be a no) - to my knowledge they only restore adjustable spoke wire wheels.

 

In the mean time, this fellow has a nice restored wheel with lockring and hubcap(and unfortunately a tire, which will add substantially to shipping): Studebaker President Eight Wheel, 1931 19" wire wheel, $800.00, John Kemp, 25 Riverside Drive, Bozeman, MT 59715, 541-602-6071

 

 

[Gunsmoke]

Are the wheels manufactured by Budd?  Have a product number on  back? If you provide details, size, bolt pattern, center hole, hubcap hole, # of spokes, etc, someone may have some and not know what they are for.  

[Mark Huston]

21 hours ago, Gunsmoke said:

Are the wheels manufactured by Budd?  Have a product number on  back? If you provide details, size, bolt pattern, center hole, hubcap hole, # of spokes, etc, someone may have some and not know what they are for.  

I will have to check to see if I have any specifications that indicates who made the wheels.   Off hand I don’t know.   I will also check into the other specifics you asked about.   I guess there is more that I don’t know than I do know.