Rusty Bowtie
General Category => General Discussion - Intros => Topic started by: trbomax on March 22, 2014, 11:50:53 PM
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Back in dec2013 ,after shopping and compareing about wheels,I pulled the trigger on some reproduction Astro Chrome Slots. I ended up with this style because its what I started out with in 1962 , and my goal with the car is to make it as close as it can be to what it was,while at the same time incorperateing some saftey and performance enhancements. My original Astro chrome slots were,IMO, the prettiest wheel on the road in '62 as pic 1 shows! Time was not kind to them however as they sat in my pole barn for almost 50 yrs,un noticed and uncared for. I searched for a month or so looking for nos or even just clean old ones that I could replate,because mine were beyond salvageing. That was when I founs a guy in indiana who makes custom repop wheels. He had just made some chrome slot Astros and I drooled over the pics he sent me.He did not have any more 5 x 4.75 centers and told me it might be a couple months before he had enough orders to set up the press to coin them.This was OK,hell I still havent even started on the car yet! Well,I sent him a deposit and yesterday I get an e-mail from him saying the centers should be in on the 24th and he would send me pics of all the parts before they go to the plater.
He told me he would need width and backspace measurements for the finished product. Now that you have some background, I will start the "Custom Wheels" build thread tomorrow by properly recording the measurements and explaining why I am doing it the way I am!
The first pic shows the wheels in all their pristine beauty in 1962! The second pic shows the rusty piece of crap that the rear one has become!Ignore the "none astro" front wheel in the right side pic,we had to use that to hold air!
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Looking forward to seeing your new wheels trbomax. Post the backside of them also.
3WBill
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trbomax
I agree that those Astro wheels are one of the best looking wheels ever made. I'm looking forward to following your thread. You car was definitely was standing tall back in the day but why were you trying to hid it behind all of those darned trophies? ;)
Moose
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That's cool that they are reproducing those. They should make your car look like it did back in the day. Now you'll have to dust of those old trophies!
Tom
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Well,my lift wont pick up the 28,the frame is too narrow and is too high in the bodywork.So its off to Lowes to get some 4 x 6 to build an adapter rack! I guess I am going to need it anyway to re build the car so no big deal!
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Now that was a great car, and will be again with a little work. Im glad you are doing the wheels the same. Ive never seen Astro slots that rusty. Would make great garden art.
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I had to make some adapters out of 4 x 6 so the arms would reach the frame and miss the bodywork,but its in the air! I pulled the wheels and did a test fit of the new front rotors and calipers. There is plenty of room in there and if I'd known that I would have bought the 12" brakes instead of the 11" ones. The rotor is sitting up 1" from the wheel because the old wheels are 6 bolt and the new are 5 bolt.The old wheels are 7" wide x 3" backset so this will stay the same for the front.I would like to decraese the backset on the front to 2" to help tuck the wheels into the fenders a bit more,but at 7" wide I am afraid steering clearence may be compromised. keep in mind I am changeing the front clip back to parallel leafs with a 56 pick-up frame and straight axel so I am getting ahead of myself with the wheels,hope it doesnt bite me in the ass!
The rear wheels are 7" wide x 3" backset as well.I had clearence issues with the 9.00x15 racemasters as they only cleared the body on the inside by 1/2" an ocasionally would rub.I want a wider (8") rear wheel this time so I will reduce the backset to 2" in the rear,thus provideing 1" of inside wheel well clearence.
I set the rotors and calipers in the rear wheels because the bolt pattern fits and showed me what it would look like (clearence wise) with a 3" backset.
I am going to talk to John (the wheel guy) and get his thoughts on the 2" backset rears just because the offset will be a bit much and I dont want to compromise the loading of the rear axel bearings. Any thoughts you guys may have would be welcome as well.
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This shows the problem that the X frame presents in the rear!
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This isnt mine,mine are about a month out,but its the same. The repops are copper/nickel/chrome,polished in between. The originals were just polished steel and chromed.
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Looks like a quality job.
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Looks great! Should look even better on the car! Bet you can't wait to get yours.
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I have to get the new tires and get the front clipped before they can go on. I am changeing the lug pattern on the front to match the back.I can do most of the chassis set up with the old ones and not have to worry about weld spatter or grinder sparks.