Posted by jim in n.y. on Sunday, March 13, 2005 at 12:52PM :
just in case anyone is curious the early 30's ford budd wheel center will and won't work in a radial shell.i have access to the ford budd wheels so i started looking into using them to weld into diamond wheels' radial shell.they will fit if you turn them down but the problem is that they are a lot more shallow than the pw wheel.so if you want to keep the original 7-3/4 '' backspacing the wheel center is what i feel too close to the edge of the radial shell. for safety reasons i'm not comfortable with it that close. you also have to open the center hole from 4-3/4'' to 5''. the pw centers will work much better.so i'll try to find more of these for doners. oh, by the way , this is for the 16'' shell.as i already have descent tires. i know some have welded pw centers into 16 1/2 '' shells. jim.