steel wheels Back in the day

[Don Dulmage <big-d@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

have made up several wheels. We used to make our own 13 and 12 inch wide Crager  wheels for drag cars. We started with a 15 X 6 wheel  cragar SS no- reversed and would slice the rear side of the wheel off in a large lathe (or a brake drum lathe if you have a sharpe tool and a good pair of ear muffs.) We would make sure the wheel was cut as straight as possible. Next we would have a hoop made at the local metal fab shop. We would measure exactly the distance around the rim where we cut it in inches and would order the hoop exactly that long , rolled but not welded. Using either a set of long necked welding clamps  and later an metal band with gear clamps fastened to it we would stack the front un modified section of the wheel upside down , pull the hoop tight and tack it at the sides about 8 places and at the ends , then place the rim lip we cut off originally on top of the hoop and centre it with clamps  (or the band) and tack it several places. We then mounted it back on the lathe and checked it . We would aim for less that 1/16 runout which is BTW better than a new cragar is out of the box . When we got it right we would weld it at opposite sides in 2 inch increaments avoiding at all costs the tendanxcy to weld  just the bit extra without going to the opposite side no matter how short it was. . I had a set on my Hemi Dart  both in plain steel wheels and later cragars. I think they (cragars ) are still around today some 30 years later. Also made a set for a BB camaro , a dragster  a stock car etc etc.  Mostly it was a time thing. Frank Elliot of Drag Supply in TO taught me how. When I suggested as some of you are thinking right now that it wasnt strong or safe Frank said to me "Well Don I leave in a 3400 pound car at 8800 RPM with an 60 lb flywheel and I have never broke one in 12 years of racing" I had no comeback and tried it . Frank ran a beautiful SS B / A/MP 68 Cuda for many years at Cayuga . This allowed us to run wide slicks without narrowing the rear end but with a wide ffest rim like is on all current new cars. It you are nervous about your welding skills do the tacking a trueing and get a pro to weld the final weld. All I can say is "it werked fuer me". The Hemi dart on my Sympatico webpage is wearing the first set I ever made
Don





Author of
Return to Deutschland (True Adventure)
Old Reliable (Mopar)
http://stores.ebay.ca/Don-Dulmage-Enterprises
http://seniordragster.bravehost.com/index.html
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