Every now and then I get to work at this guy’s house. He welded 2 halves together, but couldn’t mount a tire because of no drop center. So he cut the wheel so a tire could be mounted.

 

I finally got a chance to have a close look at what I have. I think I’m lucky. The rears have lock rings on the insides facing each other. Here’s a picture of some markings on inside the rim I was able to take through one of the windows as well as a picture of the DS pair. Unfortunately I think the fronts are WM’s. They are all 5 on 8”.

 

Hi ,

so what we did on our F5 is got blank 19.5" wheels and made a template and drilled them out our self . the new wheels were like 150 each and then there was a bunch of time with the drill , but they work great. We did loose one left hand thread lug nut if any one has one to spare and then for our f3 we got 19.5 srw wheels from boar trailer company and they worked great too . neither are historically accurate , but they both look good , and fit well , and we got a great deal on good year 8r19.5 so they more or less look period ......

 

Where did you source the 19.5 blank rims?

 

How did you ensure that the newly drilled lug holes would properly provide a secure seat for the stud piloted lug nuts? Factory wheels have what are called “ball seats” that locate and center the wheels on the studs. If you’ve just tightened the nuts to the flat surfaces of the discs you’ll have wheels moving on the studs. They will need to be retorqued frequently. Hub piloted wheels center on the hubs which allows their use of straight lug holes and washered nuts. Stu

 

I would absolutely buy blank rims and drill my 5 on 8 pattern. I have a milling machine with a rotary table and can get the holes as accurate as the factory. I didn’t know blank rims were even a thing. Please share your supplier.

 

Bmoran4- we got the wheels from americantruckwheels.net out of CA . The guy said normally he had a machine shop that they could drill them , but the unit was down this last summer when we ordered them .
Also thanks for the recommendation for Chucks trucks , he emailed back and said he could sell us shoes and reline them for us for the f3 so thats great news !
Stu - we used a really big step bit and then several carbide rotary burrs of different shapes until we got the seat to an acceptable place . the one thing we did cheat on is that they should ideally have seats on both sides , but we only did one , so the 4 are only for the inner and the two are only for the outer . I will say several people told us that we would never be able to be accurate enough , and that it would give us all sort of rolling issues , but almost a thousand miles later , we have no issues and no weird tread wear . again the only down side is the 19.5 are a good bit smaller and that makes the already short gearing even shorter , but i will say the one day both of the 6.7s were down we were able to move 3 yards of gravel with no problem . Stu what should we do with the 6 20"s and 5 17"s?

 

several old guys have said they dont like the modern bed on the old truck , but we say , well we like to use the truck as a truck......

 

To me, 17”, 18”, and 20” widow makers are prime candidates for export to be returned as somebody’s new Kia. Stu

 

I found a guy up here in Ontario with 20x7.5” wheels with lock rings. Hole pattern is 6 on 8.75”. I’m gonna pick up two this week to replace my fronts 20x6” with 5 on 8” widow makers. They’re off of an M35A2. I’ll have some modification work to do but I think it’s within my abilities. I’ll report back here how it all goes.

 

I couldn't find a better place to interject my update on this topic.

I got a fresh lecture on WidowMakers from Chuck today when I bought the brake parts I really needed. I'm impressed by the breadth and depth of his stock and knowledge of these old trucks. With any luck it will be running, rolling (and stopping)

I was surprised that when I knuckled down and started doing lots of looking around that I found two semi-local sources for lock-ring rims on a couple of older trucks that were still rolling but not candidates for restoration. Unfortunately they were both about 100 miles from me and the only way I could get the rims was to buy the whole vehicle and salvage/pass-on the carcass. Neither person (surprise) was willing to let me buy the whole truck but leave everything but the wheels behind, even if I swapped in my widowmakers so it could be rolled away. The closest thing to a deal I could find was to pay a junkyard to come haul the carcass to their yard and remove the wheels (hefty price as niether vehicle was close to a junkyard). I kept their contacts to pass on to the next owner for my truck if/when I find one. I'm really not up to these kinds of projects any longer and the only thing keeping me going is respect for the vehicle. It would be a lot easier to let it rust into the ground as yard-art or let some schemer who doesn't really care about these trucks lowball me. This is not to say I couldn't let it go for a bit less than I have into it (about $6-7k with my last order from Chuck), just that I only want to give someone a good deal who really cares about these vehicles whether for show or use.



I'll be updating the thread in the for-sale though with one wheel off it isn't easy to update photos to be compelling... maybe once it is rolling/stopping again.

 

I never thought to take my RH-5 Rims and weld them together until i can get some lock ring rims for my truck.
I will try it and report my findings at some point when i get to it.
For research purposes.

 

I wont put new tires on them before i weld and i will cut the centers out after i replace them to keep.

 

This way after i am done with them they cant be reused.

 

anyone welded the centers into a dayton rim? as i am a good welder of cast iron and thin metal.
what size would i use for the dayton rim shell?