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thinking about hitting up Santa for a new set of wire rims for Winston for Christmas.
Where ‘s the best place to shop? I have stock 4 bolt VW drums on the car now with knock off wires but they are in need of replacement. I tried Moss but they said they don’t have the adapters for their knock offs to VW 4 bolt. Any suggestions?
There have been a bunch of threads on the wire wheel debate. Search “wire wheels”, making sure you have “all words” selected in the “Search On:” line.
Bottom line, no one makes a wire wheel for the stock VW bolt pattern.
And if they did, you are probably talking in $2,000 to $2,500 for a set of four.
Years ago Dayton used to make a 15″ 52 spoke wire wheel for the VW bolt pattern. The price was about $1,800 for a set of four.
In
September 2009, I made a connection with Truespoke and had a quote of
about $1,500 for a set of four. These would have been custom drilled as
they have nothing in their standard product line.Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf 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)
you might try MGMAGIC I just bought a new set for the dutchs .
http://mgmagic.intuitwebsites.com/
TDREPLICA Map
http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=7f9174ad614e43b680deba085b0abf48
Wow.
Under $700 – for five no less! – is an amazing price.
The MG kit parts price list shows only Ford or Chevy.
Does MG Magic have wires for VW bolt patterns?Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf 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)
Don’t see ’em. But one could get Chevy patterned drums and/or rotors for another $250 & call it good.
Or, if enough people were interested and would commit to buying 4×130, 15×5.5″ bolt on wire wheels, I wouldn’t be surprised if MG Magic would be happy set up a special purchase order from the factory.
I would be interested (4 or 5) depending on the price, – which of course would depend on how many total wheels we (members) wanted.
I have seen these wheels in person on Hawk521’s car . They are beautiful!!! Look in Luvmytd and Sarge’s photo gallery to see them on their cars as well as closeup pictures of the wheels.All I’ve seen are 14”. They fit well under the wider fenders of the front engined CMC/FiberFab cars but may be too wide to fit under the fenders of the BCW and Classic Roadster front engine cars and probably all the VW based TDs.Like Paul said,An amazing price!! But the center [knock off] part of the wheel is somewhat different in appearance when compared to the original type wire wheel. Still a great wheel at a great price. I’d like to see them with a two bar spinner.
And they should be 15″ wheels.
I’m just sayin’
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf 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)
I’ve got wire knock offs on Winston now with a VW 4 bolt pattern but they came with the car from Allison when it was new back in 1981 and I don’t know who the company got them from. I’ll see if I can post a pic of the adapter that bolts to the VW drum. Sure would like to find a set for a reasonable price.
If you have a machine shop nearby maybe they could replicate those spline adaptors & make a couple batches for sale.
I don’t even know what that kind of thing ought to cost though.
It is possible that wires from back in the 1980’s are from Dayton.
They used to produce a 15″, 52 spoke real wire wheel for the VW bolt pattern. Why 52 spoke? Count the spokes on an aftermarket MG TD wheel. Yup…52.
They dropped that wheel from their product line years ago.
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf 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)
Back in the 60-70’s I had a TF 1500. I believe that my original wires (I had 2 sets) for my TF 1500 were 48 spoke painted silver. One day I was riding home from work and there was a set alongside the road: Chrome 60 spokers from an Austin Healey. The guy wanted $100 for 5 of them. Guess what I did.
Passed them up didn’t you?
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf 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)
What year did mgtd go from wire to hubcaps .Mine has mg hubcaps black rims.Iam considering going to silver or chrome rims with hubcap maybe a beauty ring .Don’t know how beauty rings would fit rims
As I remember, TC’s were 19″ 48 spoke wires. Early TD’s were solid 15″ with a 15″ -48 spoke wire as an option. TF were mostly if not all wires. In the early 60’s I remember that there was a scare that the “new-fangled” radial tires gripped the road so well that it put too much sideways pressure on the wires in a hard turn so, many changed from wires to solid or the 15″-60 spoke wires used on Austin Healey 3000. I eventually sold my TF-1500 with 2 complete sets: 48’s & 60’s. I could be a little wrong on some of this, but hey, I can’t remember what I had for dinner last night.
Correction: While the TCs all came from the factory with big wires, TDs came with steel wheels. The earliest cars had solid discs; starting in late 1950 or early ’51 they were drilled with 15 round holes to improve brake cooling. All the cars had dog dish hubcaps from the factory.
There were aftermarket wheel covers, including a multi-piece set (from Inskip?) that had finned vents on the outer rim and is redolant of the later VW Bug wheel covers. (see below)
There was no factory wire wheel option for the MG TD. The TF had them, they were very popular and fit the TD just fine. Putting them on was a fairly involved conversion though, as one had to change the axle stubs and hubs–you couldn’t just bolt the knock-off hubs to the existing drums using the wheel lugs.
Aftermarket wires of the day included several options, the most coveted being the Borrani knock offs.
There was (and is) a standardized knockoff hub for British cars made by Rudge-Witworth.
The problem with wires, for guys who put more juice in their engines, was that the Rudge #42 (42mm) splines stripped. This was (is) sometimes caused in part by engine torque unscrewing the knockoffs, which are designed to tighten on braking.
So the old system is a bit dodgy & requires quite a bit of bother even for “real” MGs.
The way forward, for us, is probably something like these Daytons (made for v8 MGBs). Note how the spline system is keyed wider–on the outside of the bolts. Much better design. Note also that these spline adaptors bolt directly to the existing hubs.
MGBs have 4 x 4.5-inch bolt patterns. We could buy blank hubs & have them drilled for those (very common, as this incomplete conversion chart shows), and run Dayton MGC wheels (15 x5, 72-spoke) or the 48-spoke TD version, splined for the new hubs. The more common 4 x 100mm (Chevette, Miata, etc.), which Dayton makes bolt-on 15 x 7 wire wheels for. (You Ford guys are on 4 x 4.25 hubs.)
Then it’s just a matter of checking offsets. With 15 x 5s, that should not be a problem (he said confidently, knowing absolutely nothing).
VW guys–here’s your drums at 4 x 100. $120 each. Discs are the same, or buy other patterns, or by blanks and get them drilled.
It doesn’t appear to me that there is any way to do this cheaply.
Mark II Ad from JS Inskip, circa 1952.
you can just about make out the full wheel covers…edsnova40888.8824305556
Bump.
Spent some time on Craigslist and elsewhere, researching.
Looked to me at first like a set of Dunlop bolt-on splines for the Triumph TR4 maybe could be made to fit the VW hub with a bit of re-drilling for the 4 x 4.5 bolt circle. But maybe not, because the centers of those 42mm hubs might be too tight to go around the VW bearing caps, which on the rear of our cars extend out more than 2 inches and are about 2 1/4 inches in diameter. The fronts are 2 3/8s or so, which appears to be too wide to fit inside the hub splines, the outer surface of which is 2.46 inches across. So you’d be looking at a bit less than 1/8 inch of spline thickness, which I don’t think is enough and I don’t think is how they’re made. Depending on how the flange is made on those knock-off hubs, looks like something would have to be milled, probably the drum, and whatever was milled would be milled at a spot where the most pressure would be put on it when driving the car.
Then again, there is no way to know for certain without getting one and test fitting. I’m trying to find a worn-out one now that I could get for the fitting.
Meanwhile, trolling Craigslist I came across an ad for “bolt-on” wires from an MGB. I contacted the man and he sent back the following description and photos. He’s in Lancaster PA & said he wants $375 for the set. As you can see they look like 5-bolt wheels and I strongly suspect they’d fit a Ford or Chevy, if the said car had enough wheel well to accomodate them. Could be a deal for one of our members (looking at you, Billin’). Chime in or contact the man direct at
?rhohenwarter -ATsign – comcast -DOT- net(This is not an endorsement of the product, just an FYI)
==
The tires are Dayton “Daytona HR” P205/55 R15 and are about 8″ wide.
The nubs are still visible on these tires as they were used less than
100 miles. The wheels are “Truespoke” and like the tires, are only
slightly used. (I used this set to drive to one local show.) They do
have a few blemish spots which I will try to remove, but I must admit
that they are not easy to keep clean and polished.These wheels were several hundred dollars each when purchased new,
and the tires about another hundred each mounted and balanced. The set
of 4 = well over $1,200.00.
edsnova40898.9529282407
Bump, again.
So I got some TR4 spline hub adaptors. Here’s the verdict.
Thank you Ed. I am of the sort that I has been wondering about this entirely too much (I’m not kidding.) This is great info, especially the link to your photos. Unfortunately, I have put this on my “oh well” list as something that I might have done many years ago but now know that I can not afford. But, it won’t keep me from looking for some wire wheeled rusted hulk in a field that I could aquire for a couple of bucks.
Good job. Thanks.
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