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MG MGA - Upgrading wire wheels

Thinking of changing from 48 spoke wheels to TR5/TR6 five and half inch 72 spoke wires. Any thoughts on this , will the wheels add too much unsprung weight, and will they fit under the arches, just hoping they will fill the arches out a bit more.

Roy
R Mcknight

I used 72 spoke TR6 wheels while racing my MGA, they are certainly heavier but fit fine and you will need a standard sized spare to fit in the orginal bulkhead gap.

The advantage from a racing point of view was the additional side wall support for the tyres I kept 165X15 tyres on because of the class regulations

J Bray

Hi Roy
I have 72 spoke wires with 165x15 tyres on my MGA Coupe as I kept breaking spokes on the original 48 spoke wheels [may just have been my driving style ] and have had no trouble at all...Still use a 48 spoke for a spare as the 72 will not fit through the bulk head slot...
Rex
Rex Thompson

Roy,

It may seem petty at first, but I guarantee you will not like them from the cleaning perspective. If you don't mind them always looking slightly dirty, plan on some sore fingers and an hour or two per wheel. If I'm going to a show or get caught in the rain in my E-Type, I typically put in 6-8 hours on the wheels.

Dennis
Dennis Suski

Dennis makes a valid point. Just spent 3 hours doing my 60 spoke wheels. Even those are fiddly with brushes. Look nice now though, which is more than I can say for my back.

Steve

Steve Gyles

I think it is all to do with technique and tools. It takes less than four hours to remove clean and replace the 72 spoke chrome wheels on my Jaguar Mk2, even if they have baked on mud and/or brake dust. I could not manage to clean them (unless I spent hours) without one of these:
http://www.autoglym.com/engb/product-proddetail.asp?v06VQ=FJ&Range=1
together with the usual wire wheel cleaning brushes, cleaning fluids and hose. The method is to stab the wheel with the brush, which has put up with a lot of pounding without any damage to the bristles (or the chrome)
N McGurk

I think the 60 spoke wheels are a nice compromise to the 72-spoke.

M.D.
'57 Coupe
M. D.

I was thinking of Black painted instead of chrome, Could i power wash them? Trouble seems to be the more spokes the less room to get into for cleaning.
R Mcknight

You can power wash them in between thorough cleaning and as part of the cleaning process, but you will still need to remove them and use brushes and cleaning fluid.

Black will tend to show the brake dust very easily as well as micro scratches, so you will need to make sure it is a very hard paint with excellent adhesion!
N McGurk

I only give the wheels a thorough clean once a year. This involves taking them off the car and washing with a selection of brushes similar to the one that Neil mentions.

This is followed by a couple of coats of wax.

The rest of the year they just get a wipe over with a sponge.

Regards...John
J Bray

To clean 72 spoke chrome wheels I use a saw horse with a central wood spike so the wheel is horizontal and elevated - easy on the back. I use Simple Green detergent with a couple of soft brushes including a customised tooth brush that I ground down on the sides so it easily fits between the nipples/spokes. Then use Eagle One wadding http://www.eagleone.com/nevr-dull-wadding-polish to polish. Old socks are good polishing cloths as they protect your fingers!
Mike
Mike Ellsmore

The 48 spokers are garbage, suitable only for holding a car off the ground at a show. Even when brand new, they had problems with them.

The 60 spoke are much better and constitute a reasonable compromise between strength and cleaning difficulty.

The 72 are really required for any spirited driving.

If you had enough room, you can use the AC Cobra 70 spoke well laced versions I use on the Jamaican, but that won't work on an MGA at 6" width without flairs.

MGC (5") or TR6 (5.5") are trhe easy 72's to find.
Bill Spohn

I use the Dayton 72 spoke tubeless chrome wheels. Easier to clean because of the chrome, fit well, don't leak, give a nice stance, GREAT adhesion due to better sidewall support.
58 MGA 1500
Russ
Russ Carnes

Bill, you may be being a little hard on 48 spokers, I've driven on them for 10 years or more without any problems. I even drove my big Healey on 48 spokes for years. I'm not saying that they should be used for competition work
or extremely heavy driving but for normal road use I believe they should be adequate.
J H Cole

I put dayton 72 spoke wheels on about 4 years ago and they were true and look great . I followed an advice with the wheels and sprayed them with the wonder juice, wd 40. I find they get a look bright but get a little dusty over a few months so need a normal hose wash a few times a year to get back to bright...then more wd 40. I have a brush but have never used. ( ps I also avoid driving in filthy weather).
Neil Ferguson

You guys must really spit polish your wire wheels! I can pull, clean and reinstall my wires in about 10-20 minutes each, depending on how dirty they are. I typically do this a couple times per year. The rest of the time they just get washed with a thin bristle brush and some cleaner. This goes for all my wires, from 48 to 72 spoke. The 72 spoke wheels are definitely more difficult to clean between spokes than 48 or 60.

I had a set of custom 48-spoke wheels built for my A. They use heavy duty double butted spokes with 4.5" rims and reduced dishing by 1/2". You can't see the difference at a glance, and they are quite strong. One wheel is slightly out of true now after a few thousand miles of canyon driving. I don't race the car but it does see as much four wheel drifting as the 165 touring tires can handle safely.
Steve Simmons

I do clean my wheels once in a year with high pressure jet. Before using the jet I do spray some cleaning agent and let it soak for 5 minutes. You can see the result on the pic.

It takes me 1 hour with dismantling the wheels.


Giovanni

Giovanni Delicio

The thing about the 48 spoke wheels is that even if you can find well made ones they were designed for bias ply tires which don't grip the road and load the wheel in the same way as modern radials. I found out the hard way that radials stress the spokes in a much more aggressive way. After having the spokes of a low mileage "48" give way at speed on the highway, I switched to 60 spoke wheels. It improved the ride, handling, comfort and safety.
Keith Lowman

I have the dunlop chrome 60 spoke tubeless wheels with Vredenstein sprint tyres (Tubeless) the spokes are stainless steel I take them off once a year for a proper clean otherwise warm water and a sponge keeps them reasonable
Paul
P D Camp

This thread was discussed between 09/10/2012 and 08/11/2012

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