Morris Minor Owners Club

It always amazes me how quickly a thread goes off thread!!!!

Indeed - lost me a while back Ian, but then I am just a simple Engineer!

So..... are you going to get that wheel welded up then. But then you will have to do another one as just one wont look right.

I'm waiting to see if your's hold together first Ian!

Chicken.

The beauty of a wandering thread is you never know where it will lead, and there is always the chance to learn something unexpected!

When I was on my apprenticeship, the toolroom machinsits were called 'toolroom machinists' , machne setters were called machine setters and so on.

Agreed but the Toolmakers were always called Toolmakers.

Our wheels use the same principle. They were bought nearly 40 years ago when it was all the thing to fit 'wide wheels and radial ply tyres'!

The wheels are a standard Rubery Owen 5.5" x 13" rim, with an A40 Farina centre welded into it. The welding is only on the back, but run round slightly on to the two short sides to reduce the risk of crack propogation.

Can't remember now why I bought 13" wheels, but probably because low profile 14" tyres were not available then? Originally fitted 165 x 13" tyres, now 185/70 x 13".

40 years ago!!! So what I have done is nothing new then.

I will be taking them to get the tyres on this morning, so will have some more photos this afternoon.

Well here are the next photos. Had the tyres put on this morning and couldn't wait to finish off painting them. Will take then off now and finish painting

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They look grand Ian - now pop the hub caps on to keep it looking right!

Only put paint on about 1hr before fitting them.
So will have to wait for paint to harden first.

I know things have moved on but did wheels with only 12 rivets holding the centre to the rim rather than weld ever fail? Theres a place in Bolton that still makes rivets (as supplied to Fred Dibnah)

Hot riveting is a specialist skill that not many people possess these days since electric spot welding and seam welding took over.

Were they hot riveted? I wonder if they arnt hydraulic pressed ones. They used to run tubes and rim tapes back then.

I think biggest problem with rivets was air leakage - if the rivets worked loose even more so. Hence use of tubes in tyres in those days, and unsuitability of these wheels for tubeless tyres.

Must admit I had thought about hot rivetting them together. but the thought of those RED HOT rivets flying about put me off.

Is no one going to follow my example then.It really is as easy as it looks.

I was going to band some steels for my moggy, but I may go down this route, its a few months away from thinking about that yet. Do you mind me asking how much they set you back?

Not at all.
Cost £10 each to buy wheel and partworn tyre. Did the dismantling work myself. Took 2 for welding they charged £35 but thay included making a spacer to fit underneath to get wheel level, so next 2 will be cheaper. Then it cost £25 to get the 2 shotbasted and primed. I then bought 2 tins of primer filler and 3 tins of Arum White. So that works out at £40 a wheel plus cost of paint.
A place I went to today in Burnley quoted me £40 just to shotblast and paint 1 wheel. Sort of brings it back into perspective.
Hope that helps