OEM rims

[Cwcb08]

While putting my recently acquired spare rim away in the garage we noticed it looked slightly different that what was on the car, after even closer inspection turns out the car came with two different styles of rim.

A: large "windows" beteeen rim and center



B: tiny "windows" between rim and center ( easy to see with flashlight behind the rim)



C: ( new spare, solidly welded rim to center)




Which style is correct?

[simplyconnected]

Ford made stamped steel rims (chromed bumpers, cat converters, sway bars and coil springs) in their Monroe plant. If they are 'Ford' parts they should have a stamped logo. BUT...

There's no way one plant could possibly produce all the wheels. In 1966, Ford produced nearly 70,000 T-birds but each car had five wheels. Now, we're at 350,000 wheels.

Remember, this is only ONE car line with relatively low production numbers. IE: 1966 Mustang, 607,000 cars. Don't forget full size Ford, Mercury, Lincoln and trucks. The real numbers are almost inconceivable.

I will say that each plant received parts from the same suppliers. So, different wheels from the factory would be rare but different wheels from different models might be common.

We used to buy snow tires, commonly mounted on aftermarket rims from the tire stores. You may have a pair of those rims. Back in 1966, all of our tires were bias-ply that typically lasted about 15,000 miles (when not abused). - Dave

[Cwcb08]

We used to buy snow tires, commonly mounted on aftermarket rims from the tire stores. - Dave

I hadn't considered that. I will have to look for stamped ford logos on the 5 of them, who knows if the 4 on it are original to the car at this point.

[jopizz]

I don't remember them having vented rims and the odd shaped hole in the center. The rim in the top picture looks later to me. The bottom picture looks closer to the factory rim.

John

[YellowRose]

OEM rims

Here is a pic of one of my rims that were on my '59 Tbird when I bought in back in 2007. I pulled one of them off my rim stack and took a quick pic of it. I do NOT know if these were the OEM rims. But here is what mine looked like after I pulled them off the car and replaced them with disc brake ready rims from a disc brake ready 70's something Ford car. Notice they are vented in a different way, so they may not be OEM, but something a PO had put on the car. Notice also that they do not have the nubs for mounting a dog dish hubcap on them as my disc brake ready rims do. He was pulling a boat with it to the Mississippi coast and back. This rim is for a Squarebird, so I don't know if this will be relevant to this rim discussion.

[Cwcb08]

I don't remember them having vented rims and the odd shaped hole in the center. The rim in the top picture looks later to me. The bottom picture looks closer to the factory rim.

John

the fellow down the road (Mort White) who deals in tbird parts & where i bought rim "C" said something about rims with "vents" (or whatever their technical term is) were knows to flex over bumps and the hubcaps would pop off so people didn't like them or something?





this is Mort's car, its pretty nice




he is one of the writers of Thunder News, published by the Southern Ontario Thunderbirds Club (SOTC) and when i first met him he gave me a copy of his article on restoring the above car

[Deanj]

My original stamped steel wheels are not vented. That is definitely a late 60's wheel. I did have one of those body color painted wheels for the spare which was repainted black when the original owner rotated it into use. It's now on the right rear. I'd paint my spare wheel Palm Springs Rose, but some day I'll use it on the car when I get new tires and rotate one on the car to the spare.