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Ever seen a valve stem here?


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Yes, I know this one was probably never intended to be on the road but the valve stems are on the inside of the wheel, so you must remove the wheel covers (which are glued on, btw) and snake your air hose behind, or remove the wheel, or whatever.

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Back in the late 1970's, I had a Model A Ford Coupe with 16" 1935 Ford wire spoke wheels.   I wanted radial ply tires and couldn't  find any a 16" tires.  We cut the spoke band out of the 16" Ford wheels,  then we drilled the rivets out of the center section of a set of 15" Chrysler Station Wagon wheels, we removed the center section an welded the center section of the Ford spoke wheel into the reversed Chrysler outer rim on the raised portion of the wheels.    That put the valve stem hole on the inside if the new wheel. Probably the coolest set of stock looking  15" Ford wheels I ever saw.   I had to reach around back to air the tires.  Probably should have welded up the old holes and drilled new ones.

The car had all Jaguar suspension, a Mustang 289, with a C6 automatic and 240Z steering and a Mustang II interior.  A fun car!

 

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Edited by Paul Dobbin
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I will never again grumble about these damnable things, that require unsnapping the wheelcover from the wheel to check tire pressure...5804e12fda0fe_IMG_20161017_100511832_HDR1.jpg.bb5e8be78fd2d4e8bb972202885e7a86.jpg

 

The lengths Oldsmobile went to, to camouflage fasteners. Though part of this was an anti-theft design to keep an Oldsmobile owner from getting his fancy spinner wheelcovers stolen...

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3 minutes ago, joe_padavano said:

Very cool. I suspect that the fill valve location was driven by esthetics, not practicality. This wasn't intended to be a production vehicle.

The stories I've heard are that concept cars are around for a few months, then destroyed or kept in the GM archives somewhere. This one supposedly went into the Heritage Collection and was sold when GM went bankrupt in 2009. Floated around and sold a couple times until I bought it last December.

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14 minutes ago, Golden73 said:

The stories I've heard are that concept cars are around for a few months, then destroyed or kept in the GM archives somewhere. This one supposedly went into the Heritage Collection and was sold when GM went bankrupt in 2009. Floated around and sold a couple times until I bought it last December.

I'm curious. Does it have a VIN?

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We tried putting a second hole and installed blead offs on some race wheels.

It was a bitch getting them set. Add air until they bleed then secure and check again. They never 'checked again' the same.

I think I still have those wheels they were half carbon fiber.

They had a pretty good warrantee until the plant burned down. Any repair short of fire was a hundred bucks. 

I broke a few and exercised the warrantee.

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1 hour ago, joe_padavano said:

I'm curious. Does it have a VIN?

It does. It runs, although not well at the moment. Could be bad gas, bad alternator, fuel pump, etc. I have a lot of troubleshooting and $$ investment ahead. Also, a lot of aggravating repairs like the trunk struts, the seatbelts, much of the dash controls like the radio and climate control don't work, etc. Could be little things like fuses, disconnected wires, etc. I just haven't had time or space to work on it. Plus that annoying stencil on the windshield. Fortunately, my other car is finished so I have the time.

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