• Welcome to the new SAOCA website. Already a member? Simply click Log In/Sign Up up and to the right and use your same username and password from the old site. If you've forgotten your password, please send an email to membership@sunbeamalpine.org for assistance.

    If you're new here, click Log In/Sign Up and enter your information. We'll approve your account as quickly as possible, typically in about 24 hours. If it takes longer, you were probably caught in our spam/scam filter.

    Enjoy.

Wire wheel question ?

6

64gt

Donation Time
Hello all,

I am relatively new to this forum, however have owned Tigers for years. I recently purchased a 64 Alpine GT which is in a barn, and has been for 10+ years. It has wire wheels and its tires are shreds. I suspect that trying to pull it out of its current place on bad tires would make short work of the wire wheels so want to get some rubber under it first. Is it feasible to unbolt the wire wheels hubs/adaptors and replace them temporarily with Sunbeam steel wheels?, or do I need to pull the wire wheels and get new tires fitted to them? Thanks in advance.

Doug Babcock
Beaverton (Portland) OR
 
Alpine 1789

Alpine 1789

SAOCA President
Diamond Level Sponsor
Hi Doug. Congratulations on your barn find and welcome to the forum. It is definitely possible to swap the wire wheel hubs for the steel wheel ones. In fact, many of us have done that because wires just got to be more trouble than they are worth. The fronts come off pretty easily, but the rears can be a real bitch. Not bad if you have a good hub puller (there shoud be several threads here on this), but still a lot of work. And, of course, you have to have access to the steel hubs. The fronts are interchangeable across all series (I think), but the rears are not. I believe the only one that is different is the SV, but others here will probably weigh in to correct me if that is wrong. One option might be to get a set of wheel dollies, but I doubt that will help you if you need to get the car onto a trailer. If you have someone who can still work on wire wheels, it might be easiest to just have a set of used tires put on the old wheels. Alternatively, maybe you could borrow a set from someone in the area. (MG Migets used the same wheels, if that helps.)

Good luck.
 
SIVAllan

SIVAllan

Gold Level Sponsor
64gt said:
Hello all,

... Is it feasible to unbolt the wire wheels hubs/adaptors and replace them temporarily with Sunbeam steel wheels?, or do I need to pull the wire wheels and get new tires fitted to them? Thanks in advance.

Doug Babcock
Beaverton (Portland) OR
Click to expand...

That's a lot of work but is doable as has been pointed out. But why do a temporary swap when most tire stores should be able to mount new tires and tubes on your wire wheels? You could put the car on jack stands then take all 4 wheels plus the spare for tires....That's assuming your wheels and hubs are in serviceable condition. If not then you will need to decide on either new wheels/hubs or swapping over to solid wheels. New wire wheels and hubs are available; SFAIK parts car parts will be needed to convert to solid wheels.
 
6

64gt

Donation Time
wire wheels

Great ideas amd information. Thanks for the input. I'm going to follow your suggestion, put it on jackstands today, and get some tires mounted up on the existing wire wheels. The car is a 7 hour round trip from here and I have plenty of Tiger wheels/tires so was going to try to take the easy way out, but this solution is a better one. Thanks again.

Doug Babcock
3 Tigers, a 52 Talbot drophead and now a Series IV GT
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top