[PURCHASED] Wire Wheel 5 x 16 54 Spoke (Qty 1) for a 1958 XK150 FHC

Hello.

I am in need of Qty 1 Wire Wheel 5 x 16, 54 Spoke, for a 1958 XK150 FHC. I currently have 5 wire wheels, four on the car but the fifth one, the spare, is not able to be mounted to the car. After inspection, it would appear some of the splines are crushed, flattened, or whatever and the splined hub is not able to accept the wheel. Color doesn’t matter as I am going to blast and powder coat the 5 wheels.

Can the wheel be fixed? I was thinking of a tool to press thru the wheel to clean up or reform the existing splines. This tool would not do the complete spline; thinking the tool could do 3 splines on one side and 180 degrees from these it could do maybe 3 splines. Basically a flat plate with spline forming on the edge if this makes sense.

Thanks much.
Tim

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Please always be careful before sending money or valuables to someone you don’t know. Use an escrow service if you’re not 100% certain of the identity and integrity of the person you’re dealing with.

By using this service you agree to resolve any and all disputes with the other party directly, and to indemnify and hold Jag-lovers harmless from any claims, losses, liability, or expenses (including attorneys’ fees) that arise from your use of Jag-lovers and this service.

Where are you? I’m in Louisville, KY. And are you sure you want a 54 spoke wheel for a 150? Are the rest of your wheels 60 spoke? In the old days, worn splines could be welded and broached. Not sure anyone still does this.

All XK120, XK140 and XK150 up to June 1958 had 54-spoke wire-wheels, if wires were fitted instead of disc wheels. From June 1958 the 60-spoke wire wheel was introduced, superseding the 54-spoke ww.

So depends when Tim’s XK150 was built, presumably in first half of 1958.

With the 54-spoke wire wheels the default finish was body-colour painted, with Chrome plating a special optional extra. At about the same time as 60-spoke ww were introduced the default/standard finish was now painted silver regardless of body colour, but still Chrome Plating was a special optional extra. The ratio of painted to chrome wire wheel changed XK120 to XK150, but more so based on the new car market the XK was sold into new - with Chrome most often found on USA market XK150s…

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Yes I need a 54 spoke, for an early XK150. And yes I agree they were originally painted body color, cream in my case but my car was repainted, not factory cream. I think I am going to have them powder coated silver. Of course, to find the silver shade similar to factory shade is proving to be near impossible as I can’t find the code for the original silver and powder coat is not made to code anyway.

I did purchase a can of wheel silver from a Jag supplier but who knows if that is even close to Jag factory color.

I will end up picking a silver that I like, right or wrong.

Just be careful when you say blasting, do you intend to sand blast or some other media?
There is some concern that sand blasting can leave particles in the interface between spokes, rim and hubs causing fretting and possible failiure.

If you are gonna drive this car, you are gonna experience a few broken spokes. I found the spokes for the OEM wheels are no longer available as well as shops that will replace spokes and true your wheels are almost unobtanium. Unless you are willing to do all your own wheel maintenance, you would be better off to buy at least 4 nice new chrome wire wheels with polished stainless steel. If you have these powder coated the spokes will no longer be adjustable.

Hell, I can’t find a wheel paint code for my 07 BMW or my 2015 Benz.

I have a bunch of 54 spoke wheels. Where are you?

I have some wire wheels in storage, will check them out and see if one meet your criteria.
If I find one, I will make the price right for you.

Ed

I recall reading somewhere, many years ago, a warning about grit blasting spoked wheels. The premise was that grit blasting has a similar effect as peining and for the spokes, this could cause them to have reduced tension. I have no idea whether this is correct or a valid concern or if it was founded on real results, as it was a long time ago. I wonder if anyone else has any knowledge of this phenomenon. I expect that a spoke would need to be blasted very heavily and for quite a while to achieve this, and I cannot imagine this occurring during a normal abrasive blasting programme, plus, there are gentler methods today.

Hello.
I am in Appleton WI USA

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I too found no one to service wire wheels. I thought motorcycle shops, no. Bicycle shops, no. Hot rod shops, no.

I actually set up a dial indicator on my car and mounted and turned the wheels on the car. Max TIR, (total indicator reading, pretty technical right; ) on all were .060 or less. I read online many different wheel deviation numbers and used 0.125 as my guide.

Let me see what I have. Some are here at the house and some are in storage, so it will take a couple of days.

Tim,

Back to your original question…
For many many years, and I am going back to the 1970s, it was considered totally non-viable to restore/recover the female spline as in the hubs of wire-spoke wheels, given it meant total disassembly, and very difficult internal spline welding then machining, then reassembly of wheel that always need a set of new spokes. It was a lot easier to find good/serviceable second hand wheels.
With the male spline on the hubs, a different matter - and we regularly rebuilt worn hubs by welding and re-machining male spline - still specialised, but back then cheaper than buying new splined hubs…

These days easier/cheaper by far to buy new wire wheels and new splined hubs - only problem being that although there is a ready supply of 60-spoke 16" XK150 wire-wheels, and 72-spoke 15" E-type/Mark 2 wire wheels, I am not aware of anyone in Australia, USA nor UK making new 54-spoke 16" XK120/140/earlyXK150 wire wheels.
But in USA, it shouldn’t be all that hard to find a very-good/serviceable 54-spoke-16in second hand wire wheel…

My own XK140 came with four ‘as-new’ - apart from cosmetics - body coloured painted 54-spoke wire wheels, but inexplicably the fifth spare wheel had a worn, albeit still useable spline. Good enough for emergency use as a spare, but hated looking at it given the worn spline - see pic, note visible ridge where the worn part of the spline shows against the unworn part of the spline that has no engagement/wear with the splined hub…


As luck would have it - I actually found a brand-new 54-spoke wire wheel locally here, that was purchased new from local Jaguar dealership intended to be used on a Mark IV back when you couldnt get 18in tyres, so the solution was to run XK 16in wire wheels, but never happened - so I now have five excellent wheels…
So I used my now 6th spare/worn wheel to play around with relative merit/benefit of painting wire wheels versus powder coating, with powder coating technically preferable, but problematic re colour matching, as locally the can colour match powder, but need to do a minimum volume of powder enough to do 5 or six sets of five wire wheels… So short of offloading powder to four/five others to share my costs, needing to find others who want to fit an accurate colour match BRG wire wheels, its either wear the total cost myself, or go with the inferior technical solution of painted wire wheels that can be readily accurately colour matched…
See pic of my best efforts of Powder Coating this 6th (Spare) worn spline 54 spoke wire wheel - and yes, this is the closest match dark green available in Australia from the several hundred colours available as ‘standard’ - so not even close to BRG…

Hendrick Wire Wheels in Greensboro, NC USA will true wire wheels. They are awesome in restoring wire wheels. They have trued/replaced spokes on my XK140, XKEs and MK2. I understand designer Ralph Lauren has used them! Highly recommended!

Richard

There’s 50 shades of BRG find one you like and go with it ,some of them are almost black :man_shrugging:
enjoying this thread

Cheers

Possible (maybe still) shop… they used to do car wheels.

Hello Ed. Any luck on finding a 54 spoke wheel or two?

Pls let me know.

Regards
Tim

I got 4, looks like 3 good ones and one needs to be restocked. What is a fair price? Want all 4? Where are you located? Only reason I am asking is wondering if this is a pick-up?

Ed

I didn’t get a response back from you so I don’t know if you received ny email.

Ed

If still needed, I have one 54 spoke wire wheel for sale and willing to ship.
Just let me know.

Best Regards
Lukas