Re barrel wheels

[Matthew Saxon]

I don’t think I’ll have any luck with this but wort a shot. I have a set of original 14” x 5.5” steel wheels and the full size hub caps / wheel covers for a 69 Barracuda. I’m wondering about the idea of widening these out to maybe 7.5 / 8” rear and 7” front but using the hubcaps, so keeping a very stock period look but getting a bit more rubber.
I don’t want to go the banding route and wondered if there is a company that do new barrels onto original centres, probably would need the lip profile copied to ensure the hub caps engaged properly. I saw a company on that stupid Salvage Hunters show who did it for a Morris Minor, but I haven’t been able to track them down.

[Dave999]

think you will be hard pushed to find steel wheel rim blanks in the UK
the market for big daft alloys sticking out the arches of a nissan micra is much bigger so alloys catered for especially those with a bolt in centre

Australia US China no problem. import will not be cheap

lots of places do the alloy ones for bolt together wheels for VWs etc

you could contact Wellar wheels and see if they will do you a custom job, they still make wide steel wheels

to be honest banding seems like the easiest UK option... they do a good job these days. not some bloke cutting up bits of filing cabinet and patching up the gap he made with his angle grinder ..... they do em on a lathe.

You end up with a wheel that has been welded up in both scenarios, if its properly welded and painted i see little difference.

banding like running wheel adapters got a bad name because it was easy to take short cuts. and those that did suffered the consequences, giving both processes a bad name 80s/90s. Services offered by people with no engineering nouse and products that were woefully inadequate for the job they were supposed to do, kept the VW and max power crowd in hospital.....

however if its for the barracuda, the space you have to work with in an A body is quite limited. get your advice and assistance from an owner of the same model if you can....
AND
you can not guarantee that the axle is centered, just depends how stoned the bloke who welded your spring perches on was.... therefore the space may be limited much more on 1 side than the other. check both sides and make sure you think about offset of the wheel. most standard wheels were were close to zero offset same dish front and back of wheel when compared to the hub face.

see ya

Dave

[TIB3300]

Ive been looking for the same thing for two years now, here a set I made last year.

I bought the black spoked wheels do do this, but since making them ive found the easiest 14x7 wheels around are weller wheels.

I have just bought another six to cut up,its a ball ache to do but was the only 14 x 7s available in the UK. Or you can buy them for £170+ from north hants tyres

https://northhantstyres.com/products/wh ... =9dcd3442f

[Matthew Saxon]

Thanks guys, yes I know what you mean with banding and a reputation that is probably not deserved, unfortunately the DVLA and Aussie equivalent don’t seem to have caught up, so re barrelled yep fine nothing to see here, banded nope no go. I actually have enough rims to do what I want without banding especially as like you said Dave, there isn’t that much space especially up front.

My thinking was David (previous owner) had 9.75” rims at the back with 4.75” backspace with 275 x 60s, there’s about a little fingers clearance between the sidewall and springs and he has rolled the arch lip and nibbled the chrome trim on the outside, so pretty tight.

So for the steel custom idea, if I stick with the existing 4” backspace of the steel rims but add 2.5” to the existing 5.5” that’s an 8” rim with 0.75” extra clearance inside. If I ran a 245 tyre thats 1.25” narrower tyre minus the 0.75” loss from the backspace so hopefully an extra 0.5” to the wheel arch, I’d want to have x70 or x75 sidewall to make up height as the rims are 14 not 15 this would be nice as it would give a slightly more original taller looking side wall height.

Up front I actually think I’d maybe run the original 5.5 rim with a 195 x 75 as that would hopefully avoid fouling the front of the wheel arch. It would be nice to go wider and add an inch to the rim and run 205 or 215 but that would need testing. All this is on paper of course until it’s checked in the flesh. The nice thing is 2 wheels widened is a lot cheaper than ordered from the States, but getting 14” tyres will be harder.

[Matthew Saxon]

Unfortunately Weller said they don’t really have any options in the 14” size, which is what I’d need if I wanted to use the wheel covers. And the Northants tyres option is Ford pattern, not that Pesky Small Bolt Pattern.

[Blue]

The selection of 14” tyres is very limited these days and will only get worse as there’s so little demand. Most choose 15” and then the world’s your lobster.

[TIB3300]

The selection of 14” tyres is very limited these days and will only get worse as there’s so little demand. Most choose 15” and then the world’s your lobster.

I agree, 14 are either £200+ each or not available. The only reason I am sticking with 14s Is i have these to use.

[Blue]

Yikes, how old are those?

[TIB3300]

Yikes, how old are those?

over 10 years old
They were new old stock, had them checked out .There like new, no cracks rubber is nice and soft.
But put my small ones on for MOT

[Matthew Saxon]

The selection of 14” tyres is very limited these days and will only get worse as there’s so little demand. Most choose 15” and then the world’s your lobster.

Yes, I’m probably chasing an idea that leads nowhere, I guess my original thinking was that it might be cool to have the original Grandma wheel covers which I have but on decent sized rims, just thinking of an alternative to Cragars or dog dish centre caps. But the problem is then I’m stuck in 14” tyre world. And then to make the look work they should probably be red lines.
I like the idea of how it would look, but the practical implications probably don’t stack up. Now if I could just get those 14” flying saucer wheel covers to somehow fit onto 15” rims.

So I guess the next question is anyone have a used set of SBP Cragars kicking around

[Matthew Saxon]

The selection of 14” tyres is very limited these days and will only get worse as there’s so little demand. Most choose 15” and then the world’s your lobster.

I agree, 14 are either £200+ each or not available. The only reason I am sticking with 14s Is i have these to use.

I guess that’s a Chicken and Egg situation, which came first the tyres or the rims.

[Dave999]

if you intend to go to Oz
then you will find suppliers of the wheel rims and 14 inch tyres

even Bob Jane does a 14 incher

Dave

[Matthew Saxon]

if you intend to go to Oz
then you will find suppliers of the wheel rims and 14 inch tyres

even Bob Jane does a 14 incher

Dave

Bob James T Mart! sung to a very annoying tune Very true and also just looking very briefly there's a reasonable market in SBP wheels original and aftermarket. All those Valiants etc.

[Matthew Saxon]

This is just for fun, but I always liked the look of Minilites on the E Body Cudas. Revolution Rims here in the UK will machine custom bolt patterns into their traditional 5 spoke wheels and also into their 8 spoke Minilite replica.
This is just a Barracuda model I grabbed off the internet and a model of a 15" x 8" Minilite (I have scaled it to a 15" x 6" at the front). I really like the look, its different from the usual and has a bit of a circuit racing look about it.

Like I say just for fun.

[Blue]

The usual problem with 4”PCD is the centre bore is often too big on most aftermarket wheels to drill a pattern that small. Provided they can do that in a size and offset suitable then job done!