mgtd wire wheels

[William Otterbine]

I am new to the kit car world. I just purchsed a 52 MGTD replica on a 1967 VW frmae. The vehicle is in great condition however the wheel hub caps are a little rusted. I was considering replacing them with crome wire wheels, but I am having a hard time finding a web site or distributor that makes wire wheels to fit this size and bolt pattern. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance

Bill

[Dale Schumacher]

Bill,

I bought some wire wheels off a Ebay seller site and now have them fitted to the car. I think they look nice, but it does make the car look a little more like a hotrod. This is because the off set is not quite right ( the wheels and tires are 7″ wide vs. the std 5″ ). I was told the bolt pattern would work on my 130mm x 4 car, but that was not true and they would not pay for the machine work required to make them work ( ended up being about 50.00 ).

I did a lot of work trying to find the proper wheels and except for very high dollar wheels they were all 15 x 7 size and had to be adjusted to work.

My advise is to look for some nice 15 x 5’s on ebay and have a local machine shop custom adapt the wheels to work. If you like the hotrod look you can buy new all day long ( about 230.00 for 4 wheels plus shipping plus the machine work ). Type in wire wheels on ebay.

Hope this helps, Dale

 

[Keith True]

From what I have seen wire wheel hubcaps just look hokey.Maybe there is someone that makes a good set but I have not seen them.All the real wire wheels I have seen stick out too far and makes it look like a street rod.If that is a look you like MG Magic still sells a solid chrome wheel with a basket cover.I just like the wheels skinny and all the way under the fenders.The originals(most anyway)had disc wheels with a ring of holes around them.The 4 lug Volkswagen wheels with small hubcaps and trim rings look pretty close to the original setup.I sent in a picture of one of my cars that is set up that way,but it has not been posted yet.Right now the wheels are black but I am leaning to a cream color.

[Paul Mossberg]

My VW based TD is set up with steel VW Rims, old style chrome caps, with reproduction TD centers. You can see the car in the photo gallery in PMOSSBERG.

Most original TDs you will see will have steel wheels with hubcaps. Wire wheels were an option which most buyers did not buy. The wires flex more than the steel wheels, which hurt the handling.

The proper color is a light gray. It’s available from Eastwood, Moss Motors and probably other auto paint supply houses.

Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica Roadster

If you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)

[Mark Hendrickson]

Paul is correct, most MGTD’s came with a steel wheel and a “dog dish” hub cab.

I sold a 1/2 completed Ford based MGTD that had direct bolt wire wheels that were made by Cragar in the early 80’s. They were called Cragar Tru-Spokes.

Those wheels were painted cream colored and had a dark green pinstripe. THEY REQUIRED TUBES and would never stay balanced. In short…they sucked.

If I were you, I’d paint the steel VW wheels and use a flat Porsche style dog dish hub cap and get some stick on MG center logos for them.

If you look at Bill Collins’ car “Angelica” in the Photo Gallery, I built it using the rare VW “Baja Bug” 10 spoke steel wheels that I had powder coated.

If you find a set of real wires for the 4 lug VW pattern, they are going to cost well over $1,500 for a good set. However, you would have a better chance of finding Jimmy Hoffa.

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