Post
by OilyBill » Sun Mar 16, 2025 10:55 pm
Your wheels look very nice. You will know as soon as you drive on them if they are OK or not. If they make noise, then you have some other problems to solve. But it sounds like you got them off to the best possible start. I hope you tour happily with them for many miles!
As far as natural finish wheels, I am in the group that doesn't like them.
HOWEVER, this being said, I ALSO am doing a set of natural wood wheels, for my 1910 Brush Gentleman's Roadster. It is a car that has a wooden frame, wooden wheels, wooden axles, wooden hood shelves, and a wooden body. Because so much of it is wood, I wanted to accent that feature of the car, and thus the wooden natural finish wheels. It is part of the ethos of the car, even though Brush never sold a car with natural finish wooden wheels. (They also had a joke slogan applied to them: "wooden wheels, wooden axles, wooden chassis, wouldn't run!"
As far as I know, natural finish wooden wheels became a fad in the 1970's. At least, that was when I was starting to pay attention to antique cars in general, and Model T's in particular, and that was when natural finished wooden spoked wheels started showing up at car shows. In Milwaukee, a car dealer named Wally Rank, had a HUGE car collection, and once a year, he cleared out all his dealerships, and EVERY car club in Wisconsin and Illinois was invited to bring their cars to show them. It was held at several large locales, and there must have been a thousand cars at least, at some of the shows. Mostly it was all pre-war vehicles. This was in the 1960's, and showing a 1957 Chevy would have gotten you laughed off the lot. (Although I DO recall some Corvettes being displayed.)
As I was just getting interested in old cars, I became acquainted with people that HAD some, and I heard a lot of stories about how they acquired their cars. These were guys who actually traded V-16 Cadillacs, and Bugattis, for other cars, including Duesenbergs, when at the time, the biggest primary concern was whether the tires were any good. He related buying and selling these cars for $200 to $500 and even doing simple swaps just to try out a different old car. (If it had a good set of tires on it! If the tires were bad, and new ones could not be found, no one wanted the car anyway, regardless of what it was!) In the 70's he had stopped trading, and wound up with a couple of V-16 Cadillacs, a Cord, a couple Packards, and a Kissel. By then prices were starting to climb quickly, although it would still be a few years before they became trending towards what they are now for high end cars. In the 1950's, he turned down Bugattis, because "there might be something wrong with them, you couldn't get parts, and they were an orphan make with no support at all. Plus they took European size tires, which NO ONE in the U.S. stocked at that time!".
Anywho, as I started to obtain cars, I also would obtain the owner's manuals, and the parts books for them. Studebaker, Franklin, Reo, and Overland all state EXPLICITLY in their parts ordering section of their books, THAT REPLACEMENT WHEELS WERE AVAILABLE IN PLAIN LEAD FINISH ONLY, unless the customer wanted a specific current color applied, which would result in a time delay, and an additional charge. Most of them recommended that the owner order the wheels in the plain lead finish, and have paint colors applied locally, for the fastest service.
I have yet to see ANY early car parts catalog the has natural finish wood wheels listed in it as being available.
I KNOW that no Brushes ever were sold with natural finish wood wheels. They would have had to have been re-varnished twice a year to keep them looking decent. But my Brush will only be on the road a few times a year, and will be out of the weather (and the sun) the rest of the time. I expect my natural wooden wheels will require extra effort to keep them up, but I accept that as part of the deal of showing off the "woodiness" of the car. I honestly expect that the life of my wooden wheels will probably be half the life they would give if they were primed, painted, and sealed, and I am OK with that.
You did pretty good, to get 4 solid wooden wheels done, and ready to roll for about $100 total! Elbow grease DOES pay off!
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I enjoyed the process and found it challenging and a good learning experience and I learned a lot. I encourage anyone else who is not trying to build a professional restored car to give it a go. I was quite intimidated by the idea at first especially when I took out the hubs, but I feel better about doing it again. I have mounted both of my front wheels and installed new bearings they are whisper quiet and roll as straight as a Model T wheel can roll. With with all of my supplies, teak oil, polyurethane, brushes, paint, hardener, and paint prep I had a little over $100 invested in my wheels. If I would have had to buy new hubs that would have up-ed the price but I was fortunate enough to acquire a few used hubs. It took more time than anything but hopefully now they will be good for another 30 years. I have yet to drive a foot with the new wheels and it will be interesting to see how they age, I won't promise anyone that this is a tried and true way of doing it but at least it gives you some ideas if you decide to do it for yourself.