Wired In: Adding Beautiful Wire Wheels is Simply a Bolt-on Job

It’s hard to beat the classic good looks of chrome wire wheels. This probably explains why they were fitted to so many of our British classics.

However, many more cars left the factory without wire wheels. Fortunately, upgrading to a set today is as easy as 1-2-3 thanks to the Moss Wire Wheel Conversion Kits. Each kit comes with five wheels—don’t forget the spare—plus everything else necessary, including the adaptor hubs, knock-offs and all needed hardware. Finish choices include either silver paint or chrome plating.

We recently did a wire wheel conversion on a Triumph TR6, and the entire project took less than an afternoon.

STEP 1: REMOVE THE OLD HARDWARE

This step is fairly self-explanatory, as the old wheels are simply removed and put aside.

STEP 2: FIT HUBS

Since the wire wheels use a center mounting point, a splined adaptor hub must be bolted to the stock hub. The wire wheel hubs are threaded so that the knock-offs won’t loosen themselves as the car drives down the road: The left-side hubs have a right-hand thread pattern, while the right-side hubs feature a lefthand thread pattern.

Since the stock disc wheel studs are too long, two options exist:

• The disc wheel studs can be cut down by 5/16 inch. A hacksaw or die grinder will work just fine. If using a hacksaw, use high-carbon steel blades— and start a new blade on each wheel. When going this route, new full-length studs will need to be installed before the disc wheels can ever be reinstalled.
• The other option is to remove the hubs so that the stock studs can be replaced with shorter ones. A hydraulic press is needed to install the new studs. (Hint: Moss stocks the shorter, wire wheel-spec studs.)
• Now the hubs can be physically bolted to the hubs. Each mounting nut should be torqued to 65 ft.-lb. and then retorqued after the car has been driven about 10 miles. Another check should be done after 500 miles.

STEP 3: FIT NEW WIRE WHEELS

Now it’s time to put the mounted and balanced wire wheels on the car. Apply a light coating of silver anti-seize to the splines and install the wheels. Each one is simply held in place with the center nut.

GET BALANCED

Properly balancing wire wheels takes a special technique, but fortunately Moss has some easy-to-understand directions. Moss includes a copy of these directions with every set of wire wheels sold, while a copy can also be found online.

REPLACING OLD HARDWARE

A lot of wire wheels have been in service for 40 or more years, and these components do age: splines become worn, while spokes loosen or go missing. If the hubs have worn splines, simply replace the unit. While wheels can be rebuilt, sometimes it’s just quicker and less expensive to replace them, too. Worn wheel splines are usually a sign that it’s also time to replace the entire wheel. Moss carries the wheels and hubsyeah needed to renew most original equipment wire wheel setups.