Wire wheels, tires and tubes....

[Baz]

I know this has been beaten, but I'm still not getting a few fundementals.....
I have wires, original octagon knockoffs. These tires are 15 years old (Pirelli) and I'm not driving a centimeter with them on, despite good tread and no leaks.
There are tubes in them right now.
My local tire store can get tubes for $10 ea, but not the tires, I can get tires from tirerack (185/70x14), no big deal.
Here's my confusion.
Q1,There are fellow club members driving original wires on MGA, XKE, Triumphs etc without tubes; what's the advantage/disadvantage of this?
Q2, I have a little rust on a couple of the stems, can I take care of this with a good cleaning and repainting, or do they need blasting/priming/painting?
/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thankyousign.gif

 

[Baz]

One other question....
When ordering tires, do they have to be specific for wires, or will 'off the rack' tires be OK?

 

[Steve_S]

Any tire will mount on wire wheels. Stock MGB wire wheels have 4.5" rims, which limits you to 185 width max without substantial sidewall flex.

All wire wheels require tubes unless specifically sealed to be run tubeless. The reason for this is that air will leak out around the spoke holes. Dayton sells new wire wheels with a special silicon-looking substance applied to the inner rim, allowing the use of tires without tubes in them.

There is one other issue not running tubes in wheels designed to have them installed. Modern wheels made for tubeless use have a "safety lip" on the rim which is designed to prevent the tire from rolling off the rim if punctured. It is unlikely the tire would roll off even without the safety lip there, but better safe than sorry in my opinion.

Dayton's tubeless wire wheels are not only sealed, they also have a safety lip. Because the safety lip is available only on rims from 5" in width and wider, they do not offer sealed rims in the smaller sizes. This also says something to me about the importance of the safety lip.

I run tubes in all my wire wheels because it's cheap insurance. But be sure to carry a spare tube in the car in case of a blow out. You can't find tubes on the road as easily as you once could. Even if you run tubeless (sealed) wire wheels, carry a spare inner tube. If the sealant is damaged or leaky, you will need to put a tube in there to get home. When buying inner tubes, be sure to buy them specifically for use in radial tires. The inner surface of radials is very rough and will rub through a standard tube.

The advantages to running tubeless are:
1. Lighter weight (about 2 pounds per average wheel)
2. Less initial cost ($50 one time purchase for 5 tubes)
3. Better handling due to lack of friction between tube and wheel (this point is quite arguable)

Regarding rust, if your wheels are painted then you can simply sand down the affected area and touch up the paint. You can get various shades of "correct silver" since everyone has a different idea of what correct is. In reality, the correct shade of silver is whatever the factory had on hand that week. It was never exactly the same from one batch to the next. Moss and Eastwood both sell specific silver paint for your wheels. Mercedes silver is also a very close match to original.

For another write-up on this subject, see here: https://www.mgnuts.com/mg/tidbits/wirewheels/

 

[Baz]

Steve, thank you very much, that was so good, I printed it and emailed it to myself.

 

[Steve_S]

Made a typo. The line "The inner surface of radials is very rough and will rub through a standard tire" should have read "The inner surface of radials is very rough and will rub through a standard TUBE". I edited the first post.

 

[2wrench]

Gentlemen, sorry to jump in, here, but this begs a
question for me re stock wheels for my '74 TR.

This car had tubes in the tires. One tire shop suggested removing them; another didn't want to work on the
car citing safety/liability issues. Something about
the wheel was tubeless and they can't put a tube in, or
some such thing.

All sounded weird to me...

Left me a bit puzzled as to why the tubes were in there
in the first place.

Any thoughts?

 

[DrEntropy]

First thought I have is: They didn't want to risk having to deal with 'em. Keep shopping.

Tubes NEED to be in most of the wire wheels we have on our cars. Steve_S explained it well enough.

 

[Exotexs]

my 1965 Jaguar chrome wire wheels have the silicone-looking seal and they still leak if not using a tube, so I always use tubes, and yes I keep a spare tube in the car. (Goodyear Truck Tire Stores always have them or will get them).

If someone refuses to work on your wheels citing "liability issues", the real reason is they don't have the equipment or know-how, so better to move on anyway. Find a shop that can handle wire wheels without so much baloney and waste of your time.

If you're going to repaint the wire wheels, and you need new tires anyway, I would remove all tires and check all the wheels for trueness and spoke adjustment, then have them blasted and repainted for the next 15 years. Some scratching is to be expected when mounting new tires on any wheel, so keep some touch-up spray handy. For difficult-to-get classic car tires there is Coker Tires in Chattanooga.

I saw a "Wire Wheel Silver" spray paint at some auto parts store, but I can't remember which, maybe Advance Discount Auto Parts, or NAPA, or AutoZone. The color looked like a cross between regular Silver and Gunmetal Grey, nice.