Wire Wheels On eBay

Unknown

Set of Five Hudson Kelsey & Hayes Wire Wheels on Ebay...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Hudson-Kelsey-Hayes-wire-rims-five-each-3-real-nice_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ6763QQihZ016QQitemZ260375350858QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

[Deleted User]

Heart Of Texas wrote:

Set of Five Hudson Kelsey & Hayes Wire Wheels on Ebay...



http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Hudson-Kelsey-Hayes-wire-rims-five-each-3-real-nice_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ6763QQihZ016QQitemZ260375350858QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

These will probably fit a Hudson, but they are not "lip-laced", as per the factory issue.



silverone

RL Chilton

If they were lip-laced, they'd be mine!!!!

402Bowtie

silverone wrote:

These will probably fit a Hudson, but they are not "lip-laced", as per the factory issue.



silverone

Please educate! What is lip-laced?

RL Chilton

Lip-laced or Rim-laced means that the outer spoke of wires are bolted onto the outer rim of the wheel. If you look closely at the above pics, the wires are only on the innermost rim of the wheel. Attached is a pic of the wheels I've been trying to locate for several years.

RL Chilton

Lip-laced wheels are not only Hudson-correct, but they're prettier and sexier, to boot.

Unknown

The lip lace wheel also came on Plymouth and Dodge while the Desoto and Chrysler had the other type.

[Deleted User]

RL Chilton wrote:

Lip-laced wheels are not only Hudson-correct, but they're prettier and sexier, to boot.

Amen to that Russell, and they must be harder to restore too !! Mine have been out for resto for almost a year now. Last I heard they said maybe April they'll be ready.



I'm eager to get them back, install the daimondbacks and hubcaps, ( if KGap ever gets some more of these in ), and hang them on the walls for ornaments for another year until the convert is done, hopefully in 2010.

RL Chilton

Rick-



Similar. The original had a bigger center hub on it and the look is a little different. I did find a company that has new repros that are actually made for the baby birds (Ford) in '55, '56, '57 that look nearly identical to the originals that Hudson used (same bolt pattern, too). The benefit of buying new ones is that I won't have the long wait time to re-build them as Silverone is enduring. The cons are, probably a little more expensive, and not really "original" as I would want if I had all my "druthers".



Some concessions have to be made on my part for the entire build, and this might well be one of them. I planned on giving myself another 6 months or so on trying to locate originals, then I need to get off dead center and make a move one way or the other.

dave s

402Bowtie wrote:

Please educate! What is lip-laced?

Here are lip laced on our 51. Our son, Nick has same thing on his 54 HHH. FYI<, They were made by Motor Wheel Company, not Kelsey Hayes.:)

RL Chilton

Top Down-



That's interesting info . . . didn't know that.





Good news: Just got word from rpmonroe that he has found a set of five for me. WOO HOO! Hopefully soon, it will pan out and we can start the ball rolling on getting them restored.

Chris Smith

This place in Orange CA will build you a set of lip laced wires brand new or restore original wheels. When I inquired last summer, restoring original wheels with polished stainless spokes was $600.00 a wheel

www.hobbycar.com

dave s

Chris Smith wrote:

This place in Orange CA will build you a set of lip laced wires brand new or restore original wheels. When I inquired last summer, restoring original wheels with polished stainless spokes was $600.00 a wheel

www.hobbycar.com

Sounfds about right. I paid 1300.00 to have 5 restored in 1990 by company in Fresno.

[Deleted User]

dave s wrote:

Sounfds about right. I paid 1300.00 to have 5 restored in 1990 by company in Fresno.

Dayton Wire Wheel, Dayton Ohio -- cost to restore 5 wire wheels $3250.



Freight to me $381.87.



Total cost $3631.87.



These five wheels will easily approach a six grand bill by the time I put them on the car.



Russell,

---

a small bit of advice ---- be carefull how much you pay for those wheels Rick found you, unless they don't need to be restored, or the final cost has no limit.



silverone

Unknown

My 33 has lip laced in the front and rim laced in the back. Looks like reversed rims im the back. !!Sneaky huh!!. As I remember Motor wheel made them for Mopar, Hudson, Packard, And Kaiser. Larger cars got the rim laced. They are not all that uncommon, I found 3 sets 2 years ago on the internet for around $75.00 per wheel in good shape.

RL Chilton

silverone wrote:

Dayton Wire Wheel, Dayton Ohio -- cost to restore 5 wire wheels $3250.



Freight to me $381.87.



Total cost $3631.87.



These five wheels will easily approach a six grand bill by the time I put them on the car.



Russell,

---

a small bit of advice ---- be carefull how much you pay for those wheels Rick found you, unless they don't need to be restored, or the final cost has no limit.



silverone

OUCH!! And a year to do the work, as well. Can't be happy about all that, Silverone. It is my understanding that the wheels Rick found do need re-plating per Rick. In reality, 55-year old wheels will need truing, spoke tightening and or replacement on certain spokes. Might as well do it right once and not have a future problem (like a wheel coming off at 70mph). I don't believe Dayton will be doing my restoration, but someone will.

[Deleted User]

RL Chilton wrote:

OUCH!! And a year to do the work, as well. Can't be happy about all that, Silverone. It is my understanding that the wheels Rick found do need re-plating per Rick. In reality, 55-year old wheels will need truing, spoke tightening and or replacement on certain spokes. Might as well do it right once and not have a future problem (like a wheel coming off at 70mph). I don't believe Dayton will be doing my restoration, but someone will.

Yeah -- you're right about the truing, re-plating, re-spoking, etc. Before they do any work, they send you an "evaluation" of each wheel, identifying run-out, spoke condition, scatches, dents, etc., send you a seperate sheet for each wheel, get you to sign that to say you know that the wheels may not run perfectly true when finished ( but should be very acceptable under most, if not all driving conditions ), identify what the restos will cost you, and inform you that you have to pay half the total fee up front before any work commences.



Also, if the wheel has dents, they do not guarantee that the dent will completely dissapear when repaired, but assure you that everything possible will be done to get them as close to new condition as they can.



And to be fair, I did choose to have all the spokes replaced with stainless steel ones, and that added a bit to the total as well.



I forgot to add to my previous total the 400 bucks I paid to ship the wheels to Dayton last summer. Adding the cost of five diamondback tires, plus five center hubcaps from KGap, a tax or two here and there, and its easy to see how this can get out of hand. Plus, as Russell mentioned -- it's gonna be a year since I sent them away if I don't get them back real soon !!



A phone call a few days ago gave me an April target to hope for.



Lets hope they're right.



silverone.

Lee ODell

In the 1960,s we had a mechanic in the shop that trued wire wheels all day long for $25 a wheel and they all came out perfectly true. To pay todays prices for restored wheels with a disclaimer "THE WHEELS MAY NOT RUN PERFECTLY TRUE WHEN FINISHED" is in my mind unacceptable. I love the look of wire wheels on cars. I even bought a new set at a swap meet for my car. After getting them home and admiring my find I got to thinking about the hours spent cleaning and polishing my old motorcycle chrome spoke wheels and now I had 4 wheels to keep polished. Next month I went back to the swap meet and sold the wheels for more than I paid. That made me feel good. Unfortunately, wire wheels eventually require retrueing over time because spokes do loosen. Thats why the mechanic had wheels to true all day. Loose spokes also create tire balance problems and if the wire wheel is not true you can not get a proper wheel balance. However, it's hard to beat the classy appearance wire wheels add to the looks of a Hudson especially a Hudson convertable. God bless, Lee

RL Chilton

Lee O'Dell wrote:

In the 1960,s we had a mechanic in the shop that trued wire wheels all day long for $25 a wheel and they all came out perfectly true. To pay todays prices for restored wheels with a disclaimer "THE WHEELS MAY NOT RUN PERFECTLY TRUE WHEN FINISHED" is in my mind unacceptable. I love the look of wire wheels on cars. I even bought a new set at a swap meet for my car. After getting them home and admiring my find I got to thinking about the hours spent cleaning and polishing my old motorcycle chrome spoke wheels and now I had 4 wheels to keep polished. Next month I went back to the swap meet and sold the wheels for more than I paid. That made me feel good. Unfortunately, wire wheels eventually require retrueing over time because spokes do loosen. Thats why the mechanic had wheels to true all day. Loose spokes also create tire balance problems and if the wire wheel is not true you can not get a proper wheel balance. However, it's hard to beat the classy appearance wire wheels add to the looks of a Hudson especially a Hudson convertable. God bless, Lee

I agree with you, Lee. Wires are expensive, require periodic maintenace and are a pain in the ass to clean. Three good things about putting them on the convertible:



1) They're not going on a daily driver. My car will be a sunny day, weekend warrior type of car.



2) It's going to have drum brakes behind them. Never again will I have a car that has disc brakes and wire wheels. The brake dust from discs turn the prettiest wires black in no time at all.



3) The polishing doesn't bother me that much, as long as I don't have clean wires EVERY time I drive it. At this point in my life, I still enjoy the polishing and detailing a fine automobile. There's a certain amount of pride and enjoyment involved for me, especially on a car I've restored myself. I may not always feel the same way, but for now the pros out-weigh the cons.

Lee ODell

Russell, you are right on about disc brakes and wire wheels- High Maintenance. The metalic brake dust can ruin chrome wire wheel appearance if not kept clean. Especially in wet climate. Metalic + Wet = Rust. I still admire them and would like to have them. However, my budget and physical stamina won't allow. I can still dream about them though. Perhaps on my 47 Hudson Pu. Naw, they belong on a convertible. Ha. I would love to see your project. Lee