Need Help! Front wheels broken. What now?

[ECMFab]

Hey all. I noticed one day while cruising my bucket, the front left spoke wheel was wobbling. I checked it out when I got home and there was 8 broken spokes. Dunno what happened, but it's toast. I have 16" wheels with tubes, and Pirelli motorcycle tires. I was going to get them respoked. There's a company in Los Angeles named Buchanon's. They seemed pretty legit.

It's going to cost about 230 per wheel plus tax to upgrade to stainless spokes, they use thicker ones on the rotor side. I would need to get the rim and hub powder coated black. (My wheels are black now and one of the wheels is scratched.) That's an extra 200 bucks, and then I should probably put new tires on it. I was going to leave the rim and hub black, then stainless spokes and nipples. I'm not entirely sure I would be really happy with this or that they can fix them.

My other option is to buy the Dayton wheels. 1300 bucks. Then I need to paint or powdercoat them because I don't like chrome spoke wheels.

I thought about going with Weld black forged fronts, but they are set up for Anglia spindles. (Whatever that is.) I read that it's not early ford spindles, and I still have questions about mounting to my 4 bolt wilwood rotors.

Last option is to buy the Radir wheels. 550 each, 75 dollar bearing and seal kit, 200 bucks to powdercoat black, plus 18" tires. Hopefully I can get some lower profile tires for these.

Anyone have experience with any of this and can shed some light? Do you have the Radir? Heard anything good or bad?

 

[choppedtop]

Maybe just send sample of spoke to Buchanon. There may be two different lengths. They should be able to just send you the spokes. I paid anywhere from 40 bucks to 120 for spokes. Any good motorcycle shop should be able to re-spoke and true. Re-spoke isn't hard, I always done my own, then took them to shop to have trued. Just a thought. I think I was charged less than $50.00 per wheel.

 

[ECMFab]

I thought of that too. I've trued a few bicycle wheels over the years and thought I'd even give it a try. Problem is, the spokes keep breaking so I figured I should "upgrade." Thicker on rotor side sounded good, coming from a place that's in that industry. Spoke set is 122 with nipples and to lace and true them, additional 107. I just thought since I'd be dumping that much into the wheels, I wanted them to look really nice, so powdercoat was first. Additional 100 bucks per wheel. Price just kept going up!

 

[fluidfloyd]

Hey all. I noticed one day while cruising my bucket, the front left spoke wheel was wobbling. I checked it out when I got home and there was 8 broken spokes. Dunno what happened, but it's toast. I have 16" wheels with tubes, and Pirelli motorcycle tires. I was going to get them respoked. There's a company in Los Angeles named Buchanon's. They seemed pretty legit.

ECMFab...Buchanon's have been in the spoked wheel business for many years. I was buying front wire wheels for Harley's in the early 70s and they were top of the line. I still hear nothing but good on them after all these years.

 

[fluidfloyd]

Pay no attention to this as I am running at full throttle insanity! Must be the weather.

 

[409T]

I have Radir's with motorcycle tires on two T-buckets. Makes them steer like they have power steering, I have no complaints. My front brakes are Wilwood 175's but I have friends that run them without brakes.

 

[ECMFab]

I have Radir's with motorcycle tires on two T-buckets. Makes them steer like they have power steering, I have no complaints. My front brakes are Wilwood 175's but I have friends that run them without brakes.

What tires are you running on them and can you measure the total height of the wheel AND tire for me? Im trying to see how much taller it will be on my car as I don't want to change the stance too much. Thank you

 

[409T]

What tires are you running on them and can you measure the total height of the wheel AND tire for me? Im trying to see how much taller it will be on my car as I don't want to change the stance too much. Thank you

One set is Chen Shin 3.50-18 which came from Total Performance when they were still in business, so they are quite old and I don't know if you can still get them. That tire and wheel is 24 1/4" tall. The other set is only a couple of years old, they are Bridgestone 3.50 - 18 and are 25" tall.

 

[ECMFab]

Thanks for the reply buddy. Im all over the place now. It was looking like it is going to cost me 1500 bucks for 2 front wheels, powder coat them black, and 2 front tires. UGH!!

My buddy showed me some pics of the old buckets with white walls on them and steel smoothies. Im kinda feelin those and am getting prices. It looks like WITH a spindle brake conversion, 4 new wheels, hub caps, 4 new tires, 4 new tubes will roughly be 1500. Decisions, decisions.

 

[choppedtop]

Nuttin wrong with smoothies.

 

[ECMFab]

What size Rims are in your pic there choppedtop? It seems I can get skinnier wheels if I get 15". If I go 16", they are all 16x6 is the skinniest I can get. Then tires jump way up too at that point. Id like a pretty skinny front if still possible and not a super wide rear anymore.

 

[choppedtop]

Fronts are 5 1/2 x 15, rears are 8 x 15

 

[Tjbucket]

I am running dayton wheels and have had no problem. Have you called dayton and see if you can get a spoke kit to apply to your rims? I would think they are close. I really like the spoke wheel look on a T bucket, even though they are probably not the best for performance, but, hey, do you really need 400 plus horse on a bucket? I got a great deal on a pair of chrome spoke dayton wheels for $300 I couldn't pass it up.....including tires.

 

[ECMFab]

Thanks Choppedtop!

Tjbucket, I was looking at some spoke wheels by Dayton and they are 1300 so you scored! I woulda definitely bought those too and been done with all this. Right now Im trying to find 16 inch x 4.5 or 5 smoothies and they are impossible to find so far. Still undecided on which direction I heading with this thing. Ill keep you guys updated.