Seeking steel wheels vs. Wire wheel cover

[Bob Gielow & Paula Sullivan]

We have a nice Duchess with Chev Chevette engine and chassis. It came

with original 15″ Classic Roadster Wire Wheel covers. I’d like to replace with

“original” looking steel wheels and hub caps. Does anyone have information

where I might locate the wheels. Thanks.

Bob Gielow, Lake City, Mn.

’53 Classic Duchess

[James Cochran]

Bob,

I always tend to hit ebay and Craigslist. Since the postings run for a while I check them once a week until I find what I am looking for. I am sure Moss has the MG hubcaps, but they probably will not mount correctly. Bill Collins recently sold his baby and I believe he had the ‘original’ steel wheels. You may want to send him a private message about how he came upon them. They may have already been on the car.

James

[Paul Mossberg]

Bill’s “Angelica” did not have “original” style steel wheels. (either VW or MG). They were Mini-lights, or something that looked like mini-lites.

Stock TD hubcaps will not fit a stock VW or Chevette wheel.

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)

[James Cochran]

Paul,
You’re right. I confused Bill’s car with another. Now I can’t remember the other car since I had it in my mind that it was Bill’s . I assume the original MGTD steel wheels were four lug, perhaps the measurements could work, but probably not. I don’t recall ever seeing an original TD without the hubcaps.
James

[Mark Hendrickson]

It was the BCW that now belongs to Larry Murphy. I bought those wheels from US Wheel. They are 14″ direct bolt to the Chevette. A Chevette, the first totally metric car produced in US factories, used a 13″ wheel. The bolt pattern was 4 x 100mm.

Not sure if US Wheel still makes a RWD application steel wheel for that bolt pattern. Many FWD drive cars are this bolt pattern, but the backspacing and offset are way off for RWD use.

There are places that will take the OEM Chevette steel centers and put them into a 14″ or a 15″ outer rim, but that’s big $$.

Rick Drake (Everett, WA) is a Chevette collector and can probably hook you up with some 13″ OEM wheels. Search the forum for his #.

BTW, the wheels on Bill’s “Angelica” were OEM steel VW “Baja Bug” wheels that I had powder coated to match the body color. They had 10 spokes and were later produced in aluminum for the last few years of the US sold Beetle Cabriolets.

Both Larry’s BCW and Bill’s CMC were former Pink MG’s.

[Author]

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