15" x 10" Steel Wheel Build:

I needed a pair of plain steelie wheels for my '64 Galaxie that is built Nascar style. They had to be 15" x 10" with a 5 x 5" bolt pattern to fit the Frankland quickchange rear end. The aftermarket wheels I found had a dual bolt pattern that I did not like, plus they were abut $160.00 each. I decided to build my own.

I found 15" x 10" steel wheel "shells" from Speedway Motors for $39.00 each. I had some plain steel wheels with the correct 5 x 5" bolt pattern, so all I had to do was remove the centers from the wheels on hand and weld them in to the new "shells".

Here is the new wheel shell, and the wheel I would get the center from. The I.D. of the new shell was 12 5/8", and the O.D. of the center was 13 1/4". Some machine work would be required:


The wheel center was spot welded in with eight spot welds. The welds are located and center punched. The welds are then drilled with small drill bit at first, progressively getting bigger until a 3/4" drill bit is used:





The center is then persuaded out with a large hammer:



The center is then bolted to an axle that is chucked up in a lathe and the outer edge is turned down to 12 5/8":


The machined center is tapped into the wheel shell, and the backspace is set, which in this case is 3 1/4":


I use an old spindle with a hub on it bolted to a workbench to true the wheel before welding. A dial indicator is used to get as little run out as possible. This wheel had .020", which is really good:


The center is tack welded in four places, and then welded solid alternating welds from side to side to eliminate any warping:


Here is the finished wheel waiting for sandblasting and paint. Total cost about $100.00 for two wheels:


Here is the car they are going on:


Here is one of the 15" x 8" front wheels built using the same method:

Cool car ! thats realy neat..good job on the wheels..

Nice work!

For future reference,Rally America will sell you a wheel in any backspacing at no extra charge.

Very cool

I'm going to do the same thing for some wheels for my '66 Olds Toronado (FWD). The stock wheels are 15 x 7 and like yours are 5 on 5. No body and I mean no one makes or will make wheels for the Toro because of the backspacing which is orginaly 6 3/4". '66 - '7? Toros & '67 - '7? Eldos are the only cars that use this wheel combo so there's nowhere enough demand for any wheel company to build any.
I had already planned on buying the wheel "blank", but you've worked out the details of the rest of the job for us DIY types.
Thanks

Great job! I will have to try this on a set of Pontiac wheels.

heck of a job...nice skills

I did something very similar back in 1971. I took 4 GM 8" wheels and pulled the centers. Then cut the bead bead off all 4 from the short side. Then cleaned the edges with an 8" grinder. I set 2 of the sections back to back over the opening og 2 steel milk crates and tacked the section. Rolled and tacked checking overall width with a caliper. When tacked in enough spots I checked for true, them stitch welded rotating weld areas. Only took a couple hours. Made my own 12" wheels. They were actually very "in round" and balanced well when mounted.