Repairing steel wheels?

[dreamingmuscle]

I have a old home made trailer the bed is a very old pick up bed 40's 50's. Axle is welded straight to the frame no springs. Left side has left threaded lug nuts. Any way I only use it around the property and short trips to town it sets low to the ground so its easy to load and unload. Easy to pull with a lawn mower too.

It set for a while with old tires and the beads are pitted bad and won't hold air. We've wire wheelled and greased them and tried all the other old tricks. So I'm going to set them in a electrolysis bucket to get rust off.

So whats next? Bondo, JB Weld for the pitts? Dont want go on a wild goose wheel hunt.

Glen

 

[DieselNut88]

I would skim with Jb weld and sand smooth. That should work fine.

 

[DAVE VAN]

Put intertubes in. I have used Slime in rusted wheels also.

 

[3rdgendslmech]

Clean the rim up the best you can where the beads are supposed to seat. Grab a couple rolls of electrical tape and wrap the same area. Try to keep a nice even wrap job and you should be good to go. I did a rim on a wheel loader like this one time with duct tape.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Like Dave said, inner tubes. Probably the fastest means to prevent air loss.

What the bolt pattern on the wheels ?

 

[Firebrick43]

Duct tape around the rim to protect the inner tubes from the rust flakes.

 

[Ole Slewfoot]

I had a trailer with a little 8" wheel that leaked like that. To get it home I RTV'd the tire to the rim and let it dry before I left. It still had air 5 years later when I sold it for $50.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I had a trailer with a little 8" wheel that leaked like that. To get it home I TRV'd the tire to the rim and let it dry before I left. It still had air 5 years later when I sold it for $50.

What is TRV'd?

 

[dreamingmuscle]

Inner tubes do sound like a good idea. I'm still going to de-rust them though. Will bondo hold up the the mounting abuse? Is there a stronger bondo than whats out there at the box stores.

 

[The Cobbler]

I would try fiber glass filler over bondo.

 

[dreamingmuscle]

What the bolt pattern on the wheels ?

Dont know the bolt pattern. But I'm assuming thier Chrysler products due to the left threads. I do have some mid 90' jeep rims I'm going to try.

 

[dreamingmuscle]

I would try fiber glass filler over bondo.

Just the resin?

 

[NUTTSGT]

Dont know the bolt pattern. But I'm assuming thier Chrysler products due to the left threads. I do have some mid 90' jeep rims I'm going to try.

This should help figuring it out.

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgur...ved=0ahUKEwiemL6UoczXAhWpv1QKHSy0CJ4Q9QEILDAA

 

[The Cobbler]

Just the resin?

I meant the fiberglass re enforced bondo
sorry

 

[chaosracing]

Like mentioned above, I would find out the bolt pattern. You would be surprised at what you can find that would interchange onto it.
Just a FYI, GM also used left handed lug nuts on some models as well, and military stuff used them as well.

Even though it will mainly be used on your property, just the mention that it might see regular roads once in a while would make it more sensible to try and upgrade to modern rims and tires.

Here is a place that once you determine bolt pattern, can tell you what will fit.
http://www.roadkillcustoms.com/hot-...rn-Cross-Reference-Database.asp#axzz4ywWlpeHo

 

[gungatim]

I have a pair of rims I pulled outta the woods with an odd bolt pattern that fit an old trailer that the lips were all rusted. I just cut the sections out and welded in new steel, welded up the pits and hit with a grinder. it aint pretty but with a fair amount of bead sealer, they hold air just fine...

I would add a spring kit if it were me. I had a trailer I got cheap with the axle welded to the frame, it bounced around so bad it was almost useless over 15mph. I think I paid $35 for the springs and perches and was well worth the money...

 

[PWC Repair]

Depends how bad the pits are. Lightly pitted, just lay down some thick paint. Heavily pitted, jb weld then sand, then paint. Good to go.

 

[MagKarl]

Tube them and be done.

 

[joe_padavano]

Dont know the bolt pattern. But I'm assuming thier Chrysler products due to the left threads. I do have some mid 90' jeep rims I'm going to try.

GM used LH threads on the LH side of the car through 1962.

 

[Justind97]

GM used LH threads on the LH side of the car through 1962.

Seriously??? I'd love to hear the logic behind that..

 

[gungatim]

Seriously??? I'd love to hear the logic behind that..

Chrysler did as well for many years.

 

[pancho400cid]

Seriously??? I'd love to hear the logic behind that.

Quite a few cars did that for a while. I was told the "logic" was that prevailing wheel rotation when traveling forward direction tends to tighten the lugs.... I wonder if it stemmed from cars that had one large center nut holding the wheel on... which makes more sense.

Cars with one center lug still follow the practice I think, but clearly by now it has been proven totally unnecessary when there are multiple lugnuts for each wheel. I don't know of any cars that do it nowadays... but there's a lot I don't know.

 

[dreamingmuscle]

This should help figuring it out.

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgur...ved=0ahUKEwiemL6UoczXAhWpv1QKHSy0CJ4Q9QEILDAA

Interesting. Why does one measure all bolt patterns from the center of the studs but from the outside of one stud to the center of the cross stud on a 5 bolt pattern

 

[kbs2244]

My memory may be bad but I think the LH lugs went on the RH side of the car.
The logic was the inertia would tighten vs lossen the nut.

This was in the days of using a hand wrench.
Air wrench tightening made that problem go away.

Some semi's, with their huge lug nuts, still use LH threads,

If it is a problem, you should be able to get RH studs and nuts at NAPA.

 

[no704]

The iszusi NPR cabover trucks have left hand lugnuts on one side.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

A 1978 ford f350 has left hand nuts on the drivers side. And I remember 60's dodge cars having left hand nuts on the passenger side

 

[Big Bad Dad]

MOPARS used LH lugs on the drivers side of the vehicles from the the 30s or 40s up thru the end of the 1970 model year. And I have a 1937 IHC panel truck that has the same situation.

 

[pancho400cid]

Why does one measure all bolt patterns from the center of the studs but from the outside of one stud to the center of the cross stud on a 5 bolt pattern

You are trying to measure the diameter of the circle that the bolt holes are centered on (Bolt Circle Dia). That is very easy if there are an even number of studs. All you have to do is measure center-to-center directly across the BCD like the posted pic showed because there are always two bolts straight across the dia you want to know..

With an odd number of studs it's a lot trickier. There are never two "diametrically opposite" bolts in an odd-hole-number pattern. The posted pic is really just an approximate measurement that is apparently "close enough".

 

[gungatim]

even if it's an odd # of studs, you just measure center to stud center and to an adjacent stud center to form a measured triangle. then you convert that to the circle diameter.

that's why they taught Algebra and Geometry in school...

 

[pancho400cid]

Algebra and Geometry

That's what I meant by "a lot trickier". Plenty of on-line chord and circle calculators will help also.

NOTE: Pythagorean theorem is no help because you are not dealing with a right triangle.

 

[gungatim]

no but my spreadsheet also has rafter length and roof pitch calculations next to the snapshot which does use that theorem...which is how I find the excel file name

 

[pancho400cid]

LOL...

A kabillion dollar CAD package makes it easy too....

Allright...

I put pencil to paper.... For the SPECIAL CASE of 5 lugs ONLY, equally spaced on a BCD of unknown diameter, and a chord "D" measured center-to-center between two adjacent studs the formula below applies:

BCD = D / .5878

(accurate to at least 3 decimal places or to the accuracy of your chord measurement - whichever is lower)

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

You are trying to measure the diameter of the circle that the bolt holes are centered on (Bolt Circle Dia). That is very easy if there are an even number of studs. All you have to do is measure center-to-center directly across the BCD like the posted pic showed because there are always two bolts straight across the dia you want to know..

With an odd number of studs it's a lot trickier. There are never two "diametrically opposite" bolts in an odd-hole-number pattern. The posted pic is really just an approximate measurement that is apparently "close enough".

Thanks.