Wire wheel I.D.

[phat46]

Can anyone I.D. these wheels? I know they are Ford, but i am curious about what year. they are 16" with a 5 on 5.5 bolt pattern. I just got them from a friend who got them many years ago to use on a farm trailer! They are in pretty good shape, especially for Michigan, looks like original paint on them. A little sand blasting and paint and they'll be good to go. I hope to put them to use on a four banger modified project I am collecting parts for.

[Dave]

Thems pretty if you like that color  Im not fond of it  they look more like the wires the ussed to run pn the AMC pacers to me
Dave  :!:  

[phat46]

Oh yeah, here's the pic.... :oops:

[enjenjo]

35 Ford. I bought a wagon at a farm auction a while back that had a set of them on it.

[phat46]

35 Ford. I bought a wagon at a farm auction a while back that had a set of them on it.

Thanks Frank. I wonder why so many of these end up on farm wagons/trailers. The guy i bought mine from has two more on a trailer and another friend has a set on an old wagon that's about half buried in the ground at his place. I have a couple more at my place, but they're in a little worse shape than these.

[moparrodder]

Them wheels do look in decent shape, even the caps look good.  You can stop at just about any farm place around here and find at least one or two wagon running gears setting in the groves complete with frame front axel and rearend ,wheels and caps. With the price of scrap iron they are starting to thin out a little.  

 Bill

[GPster]

I wonder why so many of these end up on farm wagons/trailers.

I think history and interchangabilty had a lot to do with it. '35 was the last year for the 5 on 5 1/2" bolt pattern that goes clear back to the steel spoked wheels on the last Model "T"s it was also the first year for Ford to use 16" wheels. During WW II there was a shortage of rubber and other manufacturers used 16" wheels so used tires in that size would have been easier to find. When Ford went to the "wide five" lug pattern from '36 to '39 that stuff was too new and too narrow an interchangability to be as useful (unless you needed rubber on the front of a Fordson tractor). Those wheels are referred to as the "Bent Spoke"  variety and are the most common type. The ones that are referred to as Kelsey Hayes have spokes that are more like the kind on bicycle rims that fit into holes in the wheel centers and can be tightened/tuned with threaded nipples on the outer rim. 16" tires must have been a standard until '48 and probably used tires for low speed use on a farm were faily common. There's an old time machine shop in town that has what appears to be a tire machine that the owner built in the late '40s. It has a center like a brake drum/brake disc turning machine with cones to do the centering. He built it because farmers would come in with old wood-spoked wagon wheels. He could center the wooden hub and cut the wooden spokes to the correct length and drop a 16" rim over the and fasten the rim to the wooden spokes with nails driven through holes in the rim into the cut end of the spokes. This is not gospel but the way it appears to me. GPster

[39deluxe]

I had my eye on a hay wagon with '35 wires last summer but it disappeared before I got around to stopping. You know what they say about those who hesitate.

Tom