I’ve discovered that my dad’s T has two types of split rims.
Two of the rims are joined with a large panhead screws and two are held together with rotating cams.
The ones with the cams were easier when it came to dismounting the old tires while the rims with screws were harder to dismount while easier to put back together. Is there a preference among you folks for one style over the other?
I also found two more rims in the garage that are the cam type so I could have the same split rims on all four corners. That’s tempting.
Very tempting.
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I would use the ones that you have four matching and look for a fifth.
My spare is a cam design, so I’ve got a total of five of those. They do need to be painted. so I can do that while waiting for the inner tubes to arrive. Maybe silver Rustoleum would be a good match?
They were originally galvanized so a flat silver would be close.
Thanks! I’ll look for it at the Ace hardware store.
After inspecting one of the “new” old cam rims, the cam looks hammered to death. I’m not sure I can trust it on the road, which probably explains dad’s choice.
Oh well, it gives me one more thing (another 450-21 camed tire rim) to hunt for at swap meets.
Yesterday I was given a quart of unopened Hammerite smooth finish Rustcap in Aluminum.
That should handle my rim painting requirements this time around.
So I’m inspecting the tire on that last cammed rim. There’s deep cracks in the sidewalls so I figure I might as well dismount the tire and see what I can do with the rim. I put the jack-iod gizmo ( Master Rim Tool) on it, tap the cam open and crank—
and the rim springs open all catty-wumpus! It was easy to remove— unthread— the old tire after that but it took an entire day to get the rim back together. I eventually used a 5" C clamp to get the tab where it needed to be in order to tap the cam back in to place. I’m not sure if this rim is ruined or if it can be saved.
In good shape they are kind of cheap and sketchy…
I went over my rims with a wire brush to get off any surface rust before painting, On some of the rims though, the outer part—where the inner tube might bear—the rust is severe, so I knocked off as much of the flaking as I could although the surface is still kind of rough. I’m wonder if this would present a problem with the innertubes? Maybe painting that part with some kind of specialized paint would encapsulate the rust and smoothout the surface?
Any suggestions?
Put duct tape on the rims to protect the tubes from chafing.
Love it! Quick and simple.
Thank you!
As tempting as duct tape is, I think I’ll have the tire channels blasted and primed.
The shop offers spray weld zinc coating, which might be a more T appropriate finish than the silver paint I have.
She’s not a show car so it depends on how expensive this is going to be, and which finish—zinc or silver paint—is going to be more resistant to scratching. Silver paint I think would be easier to touch up.
Another (speaking of scratching) issue I have is getting the new tires on the rims. In Clymer’s Model T Ford Restoration Handbook (page 47) I read that clincher tires don’t have a wire bead and difficult tires can be stretched, but the old tires I took off most definitely had wire beads! Is this unique to 4.40/4.50-21 tires? Thoughts? Suggestions? Advice?
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I started mounting the tubes and tires on the rims.
YouTubes make installing tires on split rims look so easy!
.
I didn’t pinch any innertubes, so I’ll consider the exercise a success
EXCEPT for one rim, the kind with a tab and the rim is held together with a screw.
The hole were the valve stem fits in was close to the end of the tab so when I shrunk the rim,
the tab pushed the stem to one side. Since the valve stem is rubber and kind of long I hoped it would return to normal when I expanded the rim.
Of course, it didn’t so I had to pull the tire off. I filled the innertube to see if it leaked air
----it didn’t (so far) but the bent valve stem is the issue.
The valve still unscrews and screws back in with no leaks as far as I can tell, so I’m thinking that’s a good thing.
If there is metal core in the rubber stem, perhaps I can carefully bend it straight, or at least straighter, with a couple of pairs of pliers and save the innertube.
or perhaps not
I don’t know.
I’ve never done this before.
Any suggestions, or advice?
Usually the rubber stems are too big to fit through the hole in the rim so I put metal stems in them. This article is about clincher type tires but the valve stem part is identical to yours.
That’s a very enlightening article! Thank you!
To answer your question about wires… yes, the balloon tires have wires in the rim - it’s what allow them to stay on the flat sides of the split rims without sliding off or dismounting themselves via rubber stretching. Clinchers use high air pressure to “lock” the tire onto the rim; since balloon tires don’t have that advantage, it uses the wires to make an essentially solid rim on the tire. It’s also why you need a rim jack as the tires do not stretch - try to pull a balloon tire over a rim, and you’ll at bst end up with a tweaked rim.
Thanks! That explains a lot.