289 Cobra - Painted vs Chrome Wires

[david9295]

I Think A Stock 289 Looks Better With Painted Wires Than Chrome
What Do You Think/


66 Gt 350

David

[vernonestes]

I like the painted. But for the sake of originality, id do a car with whatever it originally came with.
Vern

[Cobrafixer]

The Wire wheels to me look better painted, but the best look is on a shelf in the garage. You ever see how one of those flex going through a corner when you're pushing it?? No thanks!

[rr64]

Originally Posted by Cobrafixer

The Wire wheels to me look better painted, but the best look is on a shelf in the garage. You ever see how one of those flex going through a corner when you're pushing it?? No thanks!

Flex? If they have not been run over something too large to run over or badly corroded why would they flex anymore than any other production steel wheel? (You would be surprised how much pressed steel OEM Ford wheels flex! I use to see ones that hub caps would not stay on, espcially on heavy cars like a Lincoln. I had one "bad" wheel on a 1966 Mustang back in 1969 that had to be replaced.) The spokes, at least in the 6" wide "well laced" wheels like on my car are well triangulated and triangles are strong structures.

If anybody has ever seen me driving my car since 1983 they know I do not baby it. 1984 through 1990 I went out to Jim Wick's events in Tulsa and participated in the open track event at the Hallet course. Mr. Dick Smith (the 427 Cobra competition owner and pilot) and Mr. Peter Brock (designer of all kinds of things "Shelby" including the Daytona Coupes) drove my car on Hallet in different years and they didn't baby it either. Hallet was a rough bumpy course, especially a couple of turns. I got enough chassis flex to crack the windshield glass into pieces but I never had wheel troubles. If the wheels ever did flex they would either destroy the brake calipers, the brake calipers would destroy the spokes in the wheels, or both would be wiped out as there is only maybe between 3/32” and 1/8” at most clearance between the spokes and the calipers. My spokes have never touched during hard street driving or running hard enough at Hallet that only the GT40s and Cam-Am cars were faster.

In the early minutes of the first hard driving decades ago I worried about the wobbly wire wheels everybody talked about. I drove am little and stopped to check for spoke and caliper contact, none. I drove a little harder, nothing. I did the same thing in my first run at Hallet. I have never had any issues at all with my painted wire wheels except loosing paint from rock chips and tire changers. I DO remove the the wheels from the car, clean them well, and inspect for things like stress cracks periodically. Last summer I checked axial and radial run out with a dial micrometer before installing new tires. I believe the worst wheel, the one that seems to have been "curbed" before I got it had something like 0.10" out of round in a localized area on the front lip where the "dent" use to be. Otherwise they very true. The tire store checked them again before they installed tires (they won't install tires on bent wheels unless the owner signs a warantee wavier first).

That does not mean I have not seen or know about other Cobras with wire wheel problems, no. Problems that I am aware of include:
 Wheels damaged in crashes that never run true again no matter how much effort is expended to repair them. I looked at the spare wheel in one car that the heads of the spokes had literally been pulled through to the point of splitting the wheel metal in places during a crash. Lots of work and been done to make the wheel sort of straight but the cracks, wobble, and out of round conditions were still there.
 Wheels that were widened at some point and the work quality wasn’t all that good so the result was crooked wheels.
 Wheel rims and or their spokes damaged by clumsy people changing tires. I have seen a bunch of these.
 Severely corroded wheels .
 Aftermarket wheels that have splined hubs too large.
 Aftermarket wheels or OEM wheels designed for other cars that don’t fit a Cobra correctly.
How about “flex or wobble” in general.

Front
Now Cobras often have problems at the front upright areas due to neglect and poor mechanics. I bought CSX2551 in 2003 and it had “loose” front wheels, loose 7.5X15 six spoke Halibrand magnesium competition wheels. The car drove poorly, the front end was “loose”. The back of those magnesium spokes were dragging on the brake calipers. The brake rotors were dragging on the lower ball joint cap. In this case the axle nuts were more than one half turn away from making contact to secure the axle bearings, one ball joint assembly’s bearing cups were badly worn, and one ball joint was an odd metric size ball that was way too small. The whole mess wallowed around. None of the problems related to the wheels themselves. I have seen cars with wire wheels having similar problems. This year I think four owners have asked me about brake rotors dragging their ball joint caps to the extent grooving existed between faint witness marks to 3/32” deep cuts and they were looking for replacement parts to put their cars back right. Not a wheel problem.

Rear
It has not been common but I know of cases where the rear axle assembly had problems including strange modifications or just having loose inner axle bolts. These situations have allowed axles get out of control and slide in and out some. This has led to destroying almost everything in sight. Not a wire wheel problem.

I am real particular about suspension parts and I don't reuse anything I have any doubts in. I shelve or discard items most people will use. I have never had a suspension failure on any of the many Shelby or Boss Mustangs I have owned, mechaniced on and run hard, or my Cobra. My conclusion, don’t blame flexing wire wheels unless you know the integrity of them and assemblies they are connected to. Properly assembled and maintained I see no evidence they are more or less prone to failure than any other design. (I have or have seen lots of cracked or busted magnesium and aluminum wheels for Cobras/427 Cobras too. Every design can be broken.)

To answer the original question of this thread, I prefer the look painted wheels over chrome plated ones if the paint is in good condition.



Unrestored CSX2310 in July 2006 with its then new Goodyear tires.

[bitzman]

Who made the wheels for the Cobras in the Sixties? I have heard Dunlop.
Were they 72 spokes?
AC ran them on the 289 powered 427 Chassied AC 289 so I guess they determined it could take a heavier car.
Were the wheels on the Cobra the same size as the wire wheels on the '64 Ford GT?
I thought the GT had Borrani wire wheels or am I wrong on that?
On the solid Rudge wheels run on the '63 Cobras at LeMans, are those wheels easy to find or very rare? I think I saw a 260 Cobra running at Riverside with the solid Rudge knock offs.

The photo is stunning. I think painted wire wheels bring the Cobra back to a more innocent look, like an MGA, not revealing the holy terror the car can be when you put the pedal to the metal

[rr64]

Dunlop was the manufacturer. The early narrow "lip laced" wheels are 72 spoke. The later 6" wide "well or center laced" wheels are 70 spoke if I remember correctly. Somebody with some mint original chrome wheels pointed out that in the 6" wide design the outer rims for painted wheels and chrome plated wheels are slightly different designs and have different part numbers stamped on the inside. Just to add spice, some 427 Cobras were shipped to the USA on "slave wheels" made from painted 6" wheels with no splines (good for shipping purposes only) in the hub.

I have been told the after-market replacement wheels usually don't fit original axle hubs very well, even if the hubs are in mint condition. One person compared the fit of his old originals and new made replacements and decided to stay with the old ones. One owner had out of round and run out problems with replacement wheels he bought.

[vernonestes]

I look reading about when they originally tested the first "427" cobra, 2196, and they had the thing on wire wheels at riverside i believe.. ANyway, the story goes that they couldnt run the car hard with miles at the wheel as they were afraid that they would pull the wheels completely apart with the power of the beastly nascar 427!
Thats not to say that the integrity of the wire wheels isnt good, it was just that they were trying to run them on a 427!
BEst Regards,
Vern

[Real 65]

On the other hand, if you want to see chrome wires, look at

www.picturetrail.com/64cobra

Bill

[sharpe427]

Painted, just personal preference. They seem more business like while the chrome seem more bling. But in reality, I like the FIA wheel best of all!