MG-Cars.info

Welcome to our Site for MG, Triumph and Austin-Healey Car Information.

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG TD TF 1500 - Steel Wheels

Somebody was looking for some steel wheels recently.

I came across this ... http://www.newenglandclassics.com/parts/

Gord Clark
Rockburn, Qué.
Gordon A Clark

I was looking for some about a year ago. Went to a very well known company in the UK who had also done a lot of wire wheel conversions.

Despite lots of assurances on how good the wheels were -they were not. None of them was usable. Out of true, damaged rims. And these were 'hand picked'.

Luckily I had a friendly tire shop / alloy repair company near by. The agreed to do their best with the 8 wheels I now had. Nobody seems to have he skills/ presses to straighten steel wheels. All the equipment is focused on alloys.

They made 4 good ones. Made a huge difference to the ride.

Bottom line - caveat emptor. These wheels are going to 50 plus years old. Get a good look them spinning before you part with cash.

I recently started to make some inquiries about buying in some wheels of the old Morris Oxford from India. The Morris ( branded the Hindustan Ambassador) only just finished production there. Apparently the original wheels they were using were the same as the MG TD/TF series.

So far they say 'yes' - no ideas on cost etc.

Would anyone be interested if I could buy in a job lot of brand new MG TD/TF wheels ?

Dave


D Moore

Your experience is interesting and not too different from mine. When I restored my TD, I discovered that the wheels were out of round. I also couldn't find a place that could fix them, and this is in the Los Angeles area, where nearly every kind of automobile service is available. I was told that steel wheels could not be straightened perfectly. There is a place in Sacramento that will put new rims on the old centers, but I didn't want to do that, as I was not sure the new rims would look right.

In the end I mounted them on a rear axle, then pulled and bent them until they were straight. It was a lot of work, very tedious. They're not perfect, but they are now acceptable.
S Maas

Googled "steel wheel straightening" and found several shops that profess to doing it...here's a sample:

http://www.wheelcollision.com/wccsvcs.htmlhttp://www.rimrepaircenter.com/services/rim-straightening/
http://www.mywheelrepair.com/wheel-repair.html

That last place is located in Los Angeles, btw.
Gene Gillam

Ahh... but in Ireland... there ain't nobody...

Dave
D Moore

Maybe not in Ireland but they do in England (not that far away) 😃
Gene Gillam

I located 11 wheels hoping to find a good set. Finally took the best 5, mounted the tires and located a tire shop that shaved the tires for me. World of difference. I can run to 65+ mph without any vibration. The only drawback is that the tires have to stay in the same location on each wheel or I'm back to square one. I marked each wheel and tire so that this shouldn't be a problem. Obviously, I lost some rubber in the process but the tires will rot out before they wear out even with driving the car a lot. This might not be the best way to go but it works for me. Prior to this process, I couldn't get above 50 mph.
Mark
Mark Strang

I found places that advertised steel-wheel straightening. Just none that actually did it and would guarantee that the wheels would be really straight when returned to me. I don't understand what the problem was--it seems it should be possible, especially with some specialized tooling. But that's what I was told.
S Maas

This thread was discussed between 03/11/2014 and 04/11/2014

MG TD TF 1500 index

This thread is from the archives. Join the live MG TD TF 1500 BBS now