I have a 1959 f350 dually flatbed with an A-frame mounted on it that we occasionally use for pulling wells. My husband's motto was "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." so this old beast has been sadly neglected. After Billy died last year, I noticed the trucks rear bumper was pretty much sitting on the ground. Sure enough, 5 flat tires don't give much support, so I've been learning about tires and wheels (and right and left lugs!). I have the truck up on blocks and I now have all the tires off the wheels. The wheels are 6 lug, 7.25 which were once painted various colors. I have 2 white, one blue, one orange and two black! All are dirty, peeling, rusty, so my "personal trainer" (Mr 22 lb Black and Decker) 9" grinder with a wire wheel and I have spent the last week cleaning them up to paint. The paint and crud is gone, but they still seem dirty to me. I've been advised by a few of my husband's buddies that I should wash them in either gasoline or diesel, then soap and water, then paint them. Hmmmm. First of all, I'm not scrubbing anything in gasoline. Diesel, maybe, but won't diesel leave a residue? And then, what kind of soap and water? Dish soap? Laundry soap? Can you guys help me? I thought in the long run I would paint them with Rustoleum automobile primer and paint, Do they need to be treated with some kind of etching for the paint to stick? I would appreciate any help you can offer. This poor old truck gets driven about 400' every 4 years or so, but if I'm going to work on it I might as well do it right.

The problem with living with a mechanical genius, is that soon everything you own can only be operated by a mechanical genius!

 

I would most likely take them to a manual car wash if you have one nearby. Spray with good soapy water, and then rinse them good. And I would take them home dry them well and right before you paint them wipe them down with mineral spirits and a rag. And they should be ready for primer and paint.

 

Welcome. Your resourcefulness is admired. I’ll ditto the car wash suggestion, and add a recommendation shortly thereafter to squirt bottle spray the wheels with a phosphate product like Ospho to soak into and neutralize remaining areas with rust. Available at normal auto parts stores. The seams where the center discs are riveted/welded to the rims cannot be reached with the wire wheel. Stu

 

It depends on how nice you want them. Good enough, great, or really permanent. Good enough was good enough for my old truck. I washed the rims with a purple driveway heavy duty degreaser from home depot. Then sprayed them with a tractor enamel. Stripping like you did is better. Prime and paint after. Best, most permanent is take them to a powder coat shop. They can sand blast and powder coat any color you want and it outlasts paint.

Good enough was good enough for my old yard truck. Looks good from a distance. Original was a red orange but I had this Case tractor paint on the shelf. Good enough.

 

Take them to a car wash! Yes! Thank you!

 

Thank you Truckdog62563. To make you laugh, I actually did a pretty good job on that center weld. I put a skinny wire cone on a 6" drill extension with a regular hand drill and it went right down in. The crud is gone, the rust is gone, but there's still a minor amount of paint here and there. Thanks to you guys, I might win. I pulled the brake cylinder off to replace 4 lugs. The brake shoes are good, but rusted solid to the cylinder. Left and right lugs, Whoever thought of that!

 

Thank you, JohnNewb. I think I'll have to stop at "better". I don't have a cage for those split rings here, so my 6 tires will have to be done by a tire shop. That should fracture my budget for a couple of months.

 

Four broken lugs! Ouch. Left and right hand threads go back to the dawn of time to ensure the nuts remained snug while in service. Glad you got the seam cleaned out. I hope you had your tire shop pull the rings and dead rubber. Pulling the Firestone RHP style side rings can be a real chore to the uninitiated. Stu

 

I found the "L" on the front left stud after breaking it off. Threw me because original rear axle had right hand threads on both sides. Hopefully you have a local tire shop that still does split rims.

 

I think my motto should be, "If a little cheater doesn't work, get a bigger cheater". Pete's Road Service in Corona, CA stripped the rubber and rims off for me. They have been pretty good to me considering. I'm 77 and I think they think I'm comical. I seem to have 3 8-17.5 and 3 8-17's. I think that means some need tubes and some don't. I have a variety of hand-holes. The 3 8-17 rims each have 6 lugs, 5 hand-holes and no split rings. The 3 8-17.5 rims are 6 lug, 3 hand-holes with split rings. Do you know what make of truck they are off of? I'm going to put the 3 8-17 rims on the back, with one split ring rim, and then put the other two split rims in front.

 

Hmmm, I’m confused. I’d ask that you take another look at them. There were two wheels optional on a 59 F-350. The 17.5s are tubeless, meaning no side rings, and on the version having three hand holes you’ll find the Budd number 79120 on the bump of the concave centers - called the “drop centers”. The other optional wheel was the 16” semi-drop center two piece having the Firestone RHP style rim. They are the Budd 65340. The 17.5” and 16” with tires are near equals in diameter. Not so the 17” that, with tires, are 2” taller. The only 17” wheel fitting the description that comes to mind is the “widow maker” Firestone RH-5° that came on 1953/1954 F-350 single wheel Express pickups. You’ll find Budd 65720 on them if that’s what you have. But that deeply dished wheel was not suitable for use on a dually mounting. If you do have them they should be replaced. Pictures of the various types mentioned. Stu

Tubeless 17.5”:




The 16” Firestone RHP:




The Firestone RH-5° “Widow Maker”:

 

OK, now we're both confused. I'll have to take your message and go over to the shop to look at the wheels. I'll try to take pictures to send to my computer when I get out of the canyon. I have no cell phone reception here. Yup, still in the dark ages.

 

Pictures would help, and please see if you find numbers or sizing info on them. It helps that you wire wheeled them like you did. Sometimes the numbers aren’t real prominent. Thx. Stu

 

This question sent me back to the books to see if there were 17” dual wheels having the 6 x 7.25” pattern. Rather than edit my above post I have highlighted the section that will be changed by what I’ve found.

I found three Budd Company wheels that I’ve never previously come across. They are numbers 63770 and 63780 having Goodyear style split ring rims. An example of a similar rim is pictured below. The third I found is number 74270 that has the RH-5° rim mentioned above. All these would have their Budd numbers stamped into the metal on the concave sides. Stu

 

I apologize for the delay. I had to take a break from wheels to mow the Marijuana I found my neighbor's had planted in my horse pasture. I always like to mow with my little Ford pretend tractor, but this time, with those sad guys driving slowwwly down the road watching me chop up those weeds was great! Meanwhile, back at the ranch, here's what I have for wheels. I have three rimmed wheels for tubeless tires. Two have 5 holes. On the inside they are stamped "71320B" and on the outside they have"C59" a "3" and an"8". One rimmed tubeless wheel has 3 holes. It is stamped "71920" on the inside with "max tire size "8-175". On the outside, they say "C2" and "4". I now have three wheels that require tubes and the tires are mounted with a split ring. One is stamped "Kelsey Wheel-Canada". Inside it says "Precision 43362 and outside "B5515TS". The other two say "Firestone 16 made in USA, Pat No2164.984" and a stack of numbers "64" (bottom) "9" (middle) "8" (top) on the inside. Outside, they are stamped "3ULC" and "11". Does any of that sound familiar? For many years the old truck has only had three tires in back but I rattled around and found that "Kelsey Wheel". All these wheels have the right 6 lug spacing, so I thought I could put all the tubeless on on side of the truck (duals in back and the orphan in front) and all the tube tires on the other side in the same configuration. Do you think that would work? I'm going to try to attach some pictures. Hmmm that didn't work. I'll try something else.

Kelsey wheel in the middle

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