Ford 14" wheels for SIV

[pcmenten]

I apologize in advance for what is likely to be an obvious question but here goes;

The back wheels on my 'beam are flat. The rims of the rims are rusted so I'm just going to get some wheels at the salvage yard and start over.

I'm thinking I can use Ford 14" four lug wheels like those on an 80's Mustang. Eyeballing the tires, it looks like I'll need to use a 60 profile, like a 185/60 x 14 tire. Does all this sound right?

Thanks,

Paul in Boise

 

[Toyanvil]

Yes, it should work.
Here is a picture of mine with 185/60 x 14 tires

 

[pcmenten]

That is a beautiful car. Someday my SIV will look like a red version of that. Nice wheels, too.

 

[Cactusmasher]

14" Ford wheels

Having been a Ford fanatic for many years, Mustangs especially, you are on the right track. Some of the early Mustangs came with 4 lug 13" wheels, the later ones being the 14 inchers. Check with your local Mustang Club to see if anyone has some of the wheels you are looking for. Just for reference, 4 lug wheels came only on 6 cylinder cars, and on later model Mustangs, 4 cylinders as well.
There is usually a decent supply of both steel wheels and alloy wheels that come in the proper 4 lug configuration. Have seen a number of Sunbeamers go with the aluminum 10 hole 4 lug wheels. They seem to have the right offset and are quite a bit wider than most stock wheels. Good luck and good hunting.

 

[pcmenten]

Do you mean the aluminum 'telephone dial' wheels? That's funny. I have three of them stacked within two feet of the car. I never thought they'd fit for being too wide. I'll try them tomorrow. Also have the 'turbine' 88 Mustang GT wheels. That might look good.

 

[alpine_64]

The wheels should fit, on the rear there should be no issues, on the front depending on offset you have to make sure that the tyre does not catch the trailing edge of the front valence. Is the car lowered? Has the valence been trimmed already?

i run 14x6 wheels on both my tiger and alpine. On the tiger iwe as running 195/40/14 and they grabbed the front valence.. i swapped them over for the 175/60/14's from the alpine and no issue.. the tiger is lowered.

this is the alpine (photo taken today)

 

[dmich2]

Paul. Are there the "telephone dial" wheels you refer to?

I have two sets, one with center caps. FOR SALE!!!!!!!!

Dennis

 

[pcmenten]

Great wheels on the red Alpine. That's a Parrish top, right? Did it take a lot of work to make that fit right?

I have an 86 Mustang GT with two sets of wheels; 15" ten-hole and 15" turbine. I tried them on the back axle.

I think I prefer the turbine wheels. They both have 225/60-15 tires on them and they just barely clear the springs and front of the wheel arch. I'd opt for narrower, lower profile tires if I go with the Mustang wheels. The inside lip of the wheel arch would need to be trimmed or rolled to allow the tire to fit under the fender.

 

[Paul N.]

The wheels should fit, on the rear there should be no issues . . . . .

NOOOOO!!!!!!

Firstly, make sure you use the right nuts - Rootes nuts are spherical and Ford wheels take conical nuts. Use the wrong ones and the wheels aren't clamped properly and can either crack or work loose.

But the real problem is at the rear where Ford wheels usually need spacers to clear the ridge round the Alpine brake drum. This is why the Rostyle wheels on Fastback Rapiers (Alpine GT in North America) are different to the Rostyles used by Ford.

 

[pcmenten]

Wow, good information about the nuts. So the trick is to find the conical nuts with the right threads. The Turbine wheels use different nuts than the 10-hole wheels. The 10-hole use the conical nuts.

The turbine wheels might actually clear the ridge on the brake drum.

 

[alpine_64]

Paul,

Almost everyone would know that when you switch to alloys on an alpine you run the spacers for the rears (sunbeam specialties etc all have it listed in their catalogue when ordering minilites LAT's etc) So i'm not so sure i see that as an "issue" that said, it depends what drums you have on.. I don't run the spacers as i have the drums without the balancing weights, also many years ago (you would have been on the forum back then) lots of guys were grinding the eights off to do away with the spacers .. as the weights were in the center they didnt seem to make much difference.

on the nuts you should always get the nuts specific to the wheels you are using with correct taper so they seat correctly. same goes for the alpine steels, you need the correct rootes nuts with correct taper or you will oval the holes on a stock alpine wheels pretty fast.

 

[Paul N.]

Your first word says it all:- "Almost" everyone . . . . .

. . . . . and if you get alloys (or steel wheels for that matter) specifically for Rootes cars with rear drums then they fit without spacers and with the correct offset.

 

[alpine_64]

Your first word says it all:- "Almost" everyone . . . . .

. . . . . and if you get alloys (or steel wheels for that matter) specifically for Rootes cars with rear drums then they fit without spacers and with the correct offset.

ok Paul.. indeed.. that said.. how many wheels are being done these days that fit that criteria? I'm not even sure if the PS wheels halibrands and LAt replicas do.. do the UK tech-del minilites?

on a side note.. no way in heck i would fit the rostyles to an alpine..

 

[Paul N.]

I haven't the foggiest how many are available ready to fit (my Alpines have wires) but Minilites do - and what other alloys would you possibly want to fit?

Some plonker had fitted Ford Rostyles to my Tiger!!

 

[alpine_64]

I haven't the foggiest how many are available ready to fit (my Alpines have wires) but Minilites do - and what other alloys would you possibly want to fit?

Some plonker had fitted Ford Rostyles to my Tiger!!

what others would i fit...

* Performance superlites or panasports (the 2 best looking minilite style wheels IMHO)
* PS wheels replicas of the Hollywood sports car halibrand kindney bean wheels.
* Dunlop D1's (or the midland wheel replicas)
* Cosmic alloys on SIV/V cars
* Revolites
* Chevoit hustlers
* Dunlop 15" wheels as fitted to the LM and Fraser Tiger
* J.A.P wheels

these are some period ones that i wouldn't mind.

 

[pcmenten]

Follow-up question:

I have a Dana 44 that will fit under my Sunbeam. It came from an early 70's Jeep Commando. 51.5" wide. I'll need to get the axle hubs machined down and holes for the lug studs drilled into the axle flanges. I would like to use the Ford hub-centric design for the wheels because it takes some of the stress off of the lug studs.

Doing a web search, I have found that 63.4mm (2.49"?) is sometimes cited as the right dimension. I'll bet Jim or Jarred can help me with this one.

Yes, I sometimes get obsessive about the details when I'm doing work on my cars. I've seen people not sweat the details and the results are sometimes bad.

Edit: Looking on the Rockauto parts site, it looks like the registration hole is 2.54".

Edit: Hmm, is it 2.78"?