It’s now time for me to switch to correct 16" wheels on my car. I hesitate between common chromed wire wheels or body like painted wheels like my spare wheel. Isn’t that more correct ?
The chrome looks far better, but that’s just my opinion.
Do not forget you have a 3rd option of silver painted wheels. If your car is a standard that looks great and is more likely the way it came. Chrome and body matching were $$$ extra/
Can someone share their recommendation around how to paint wires? I have chrome wires on my Mk2 what are old and corroded. I want to paint them but haven’t heard a solid opinion on how to go about it. Have them trued, then dipped? Sandblasted? Powdercoated? Thanks
Theo then do not paint them–buy new!
Hah well I guess that was dramatic. They are pitted and the chrome is dull. I’ve been driving on them for years and they don’t seem to have any structural problems. But such questions are why I’m considering having them trued and then sealing them with a nice paint job to keep them in better condition.
Painted red, in my opinion.
XK120 and XK140 and also very earliest XK150 if fitted with wire-wheels and not disc-wheels, came as standard in body-colour painted. Chrome was a rare optional extra, albeit with restored/show-cars these days Chrome wire-wheels dominate which I think is a real shame, as painted-wire-wheels I think have THE superb period look that really suits XK120 and XK140. Most XK150 and E-type did not offer body-colour painted wire-wheels, with the default painted wire-wheels now being silver colour regardless of the body-paint colour, but Chrome was still optional extra, but I have to say for XK150 and E-types I think Chrome far more attractive/suitable than the somewhat dull/anonymous painted-silver default. Cant be sure, let someone who knows the USA market better than I do, but I tend to think Chrome Wire-Wheels were actually more common on new XK150 and E-type in USA than the standard painted-silver wheels. In UK and Australia, silver painted wire wheels were more common, with chrome not often optioned, but again today its virtually all Chrome Wire-Wheels, and rarely do you see silver-painted on a restored/show XK150 or E-type.
But the other thing that may matter is that the correct wire wheels for XK120 and XK140 are 54-spoke, and I cannot think off hand of anyone making either painted or chrome reproduction 54-spoke XK-Wheels. All the repro 16" XK wire-wheels are 60 spoke as only used on XK150.
Is anyone making 54-spoke 16" XK wire wheels???
Roger
Painted looks great, chrome a bit tacky garage-queenish IMHO
I agree with the majority, either body color or the standard British wire wheel silver. Either of these two will work better visually than chrome and will be more original.
Thanks. I think i’ll go the painted wheels way. MWS only offers 60 spoke wheels whereas XKunlmtd have 54 spoke wheels…
@theosoares, i’ll soon have nice 15" chrome wheels for sale ! But the shipping costs might be prohibitive…i doubt we live on the same side of the atlantic.
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Roger you are correct for the US market. Few jaguars were ordered from a dealer “list” of options largely due to the delay between order and delivery. Most US cars were ordered by the distributor based on dealer quota. Painted wire wheels are very rare and almost unheard of on the 150 and the E. I once purchased a NOS set of painted wire wheels from a dealer that had been in stock for decades. The parts clerk had ordered incorrectly and they were “stuck” with them… Dealers and distributors tended to order the highest spec for any model. I know you are a 140 guy and one of the rare cars for the US I know is a 140 "standard’ model. here that is so much more rare than a “C” spec.
Roger
are these ones correct?
http://xks.com/i-7087866-jaguar-wire-wheel-16-5-54-spoke-painted-17-0227p-1.html
What is the difference with the so called “Jaguar Curly Hub”?
Best
Herve
Roger_Payne2 Roger Payne
February 19
But the other thing that may matter is that the correct wire wheels for XK120 and XK140 are 54-spoke, and I cannot think off hand of anyone making either painted or chrome reproduction 54-spoke XK-Wheels. All the repro 16" XK wire-wheels are 60 spoke as only used on XK150.
Is anyone making 54-spoke 16" XK wire wheels?????????
RogerHerve,
The earlier wheels were all “Curley Hub”, the “Easy Clean” or “Flat” hubs didn’t appear until the late '60s.
The difference is the shape of the center hub. Curley hubs are Ogee in cross section, flat hubs are… flat.
(and they are only marginally easier to clean.)
Don’t know Here. The pictured wheel is only 48 spokes and has curly-hub, and can’t be sure but looks like 15 or even 14 inch and not 16 inch. So I suspect a generic picture using an Austin Healey or MG wire wheel and not an XK wheel.
The term 'curly hub ’ as applicable to Jaguars, only applies to 15 inch 72 spoke 1960s wheels as used by E types and optional on Mark 2 saloons. The hub on both an XK150 60 spoke wheel and XK120/140 54 spoke wheel is totally different.
You would need to see a real photo of this vendors 16 inch 54 spoke wheel offering to comment any more.
Roger
Here is a curly hub from FHC 681114 April '53.
It appears to be originally red, overpainted with silver, however inside the rim there is no hint of either, just brown primer and a hint of pastel green. Make of that what you will…
This is from a car that was originally battleship grey and subsequently painted dark blue.
Rob,
Your picture shows a normal XK wire-wheel, with a normal XK pressed-steel hub.
This is totally different to the ‘curly’ hub as in common-use debate re E-type 15inch-72 spoke wheels of the ‘curly-hub’ versus ‘forged-hub’ (as I call them, or easy-clean or flat as Andrew calls them) variety.
Clausager in his JDHT publication FACTORY ORIGINAL JAGUAR E-TYPE book (surely the stand-out best book available re E-type originality after his total 100% access to the factory archives/engineering documentation) refers to these latter wheels as having “Forged hubs of conical shape and revised spoke pattern (straight spokes)” with factory records saying being introduced from April 1967 (exact Car numbers given) for Chrome-Plated, and from June 1967 (exact car numbers given) for (silver) painted.
The reproduction XK 16inch-60 spoke wheels (as readily available) have a characteristic ‘pressed-steel’ hub, but any experienced observer can see the minor differences from an original wheel (and hub) as per your XK120 photo, thus clearly new hub-dies and not Dunlop original tooling.
I have my original XK140 set-of four painted 54-spoke wheels in excellent un-worn/perfect spline condition but with their original maroon colour painted over with silver-paint, but my low-mileage (relatively) car at some stage got a ring-in very-worn-spline green-painted 54-spoke wheel as its spare still with hard-as-rock 1960s era cross-ply tyres fitted.
When I recommissioned car to do some rallying/hill-climbing in Australia (club-level, nothing special) I purchased a set of new 16” 60-spoke chrome-wire-wheels and fitted new Firestone Cavillino (?) radial-tyres (fantastic).
Now car is under 100% nut-and-bolt restoration, I started hunting for another ‘as-new’ 54-spoke wheel to replace my worn ring-in-spare, thus my earlier comment – new repro 54-spoke XK wheels were not then available, and the few second-hand ones I found were not much better/if at all than my worn-spare.
But as luck would have it a small advert in our local Club magazine some years ago now from a non-member cleaning out his father’s estate-garage offered two Jaguar 16 inch wire wheels – I quickly visited advertiser only to be told that his father had had a Mark IV saloon and when it was difficult to get 18 inch tyres, had all his wheels cut-down and re-rimmed to 16 inch as 16inch tyres were readily available, so that’s what the offered wheels were supposed to be. One was, a cut down/re-rimmed Mark IV wheel but the other, was a brand-new 54-spoke XK 16inch wheel the son recalled being purchased new from the local Jaguar Dealer way back in the 1960s. So my problem now solved.
I just wondered whether things may have improved now, and whether their were yet any reproduction 54-spoke 16inch XK wheels were yet available, or still only XK150 suitable 60-spoke as per my set-of-new Chrome ones.
(My intention is to run two sets of wheels – body-coloured original 54-spoke-wheels with cross-ply tyres for show, and chrome repro 60-spoke with radial tyres for everyday go)
Roger
Roger,
Dayton still make 54 spoke 5 x 16" wire wheels in Gray paint and Chrome finish. How good a reproduction they are, don’t know.
-David
the wheel pictured at this web address is nothing like the correct wheel for any XK more like what you see on an MGTC!!!
Basically
All reproduction wire wheels made by whoever are incorrect for Concour judging authenticity.
- To start with the profile of all the rims is incorrect by varying margins
- The spokes are always incorrect gauges (thicknesses) and the lengths of thickened sections is usual incorrect as well.
- The centre hubs quite often don’t have correct/same profile as original wheels. At one point one of the manufactures was making centre hub by machining not by the original method of stamping and it was obvious the hubs were machined as they lacked the flowing lines of the originals.
There is only one way to get a set of correct wheels and that is to start with an original set of either 54 or 60 spoke and restore them.
Painted wheels look absolutely wonderful
Silver painted wheels look great particularly if the correct paint finish/colour is applied most people go for simple/cheap option of Powder coating.
Chrome look great on dark coloured cars but these days to predictable.
The worst problem of all is the almost curly hubs 15 inch wheels being sold by certainly one manufacturer of Wire Wheels were the curly hub lacks the depth of the original pressing/stamping of centre hub.
The owner of a early external bonnet lock car at the Quail a couple of years when I told him his wheels were rubbish “but there brand new he replied” that’s the problems I noted. luckily there was a good original car a couple of cars down a invited him to see what the proper wheels should look like. By now the restorer had been summoned and I noted buy a good secondhand set of EBAY and restore them.
terry