AA wheels

[Shiloh8548]

As I’ve said earlier I’m brand new to the Double AA and also to ever chatting on any online forums so please forgive me if I seem really green when it comes to how things are done.

That being said, I do have experience growing up poor. And that has turned out to be quite useful as I’ve grown in years. We didn’t have the money to go and buy new things. We fixed or Frankenstein parts to make it work.

My idea…… I got a bunch of wheels and rings when I bought my truck but they aren’t at all road worthy; badly rusted or seriously pitted. I’ve read horror stories about using rings that were worn and have flown off going down the road or worse when putting air to tire.
I’ve found a place that sells modern wheels that are the right size but without the center.
What do you all think about the idea of grinding rivets out of my old rusted wheels and welding them in to the modern tire ring?
It would eliminate the need for the dangerous split ring and make mounting tires and tubes safe. Although they wouldn’t be Acceptable at all to the purist they would definitly work for the guy that just loves driving his ole double AA.

Here’s some pictures of what I’ve got and what I’m thinking about getting……

[David R.]

It would be doable. I did something similar. I took a good rim off a wheel that had a busted center and a good center off a wheel with a rusted out rim. I cut rivets out and put two best parts together and riveted back with new 9/32” rivets. I found out that the holes didn’t line up so I welded up all the holes in center and re-drilled to match rim holes. I went through 14 wheels to come up with 6 useable ones, but still need another good ring.

[Alan S. - SC]

I have done exactly what you are describing. The 1931 rims I have were rusted through on the rims, but the centers were in very good shape. I ground on what would have been the inside of the rim where the tube sits in the spots I thought the rivets were so I could grind each rivet so I could punch it out.

Once all the rivets are out the rim center is still held tight, so I cut the rims in two using a cut off wheel in my grinder. Once the tension was off the center it came right out.

When I got the 20 inch rims from Heywheel the AA rim centers fit right into the bead edge with a little gap. At that point I knew I could get it to work. (I also wondered if I had gotten 22 inch rims if the centers would have fit into the drop section of the rim.)

The way I did it the center does not go as deep into the rim as the AA rim due to the drop center in the modern rim. That means that the offset will not be the same and running duals probably will not work. If you get narrow enough 20 inch modern rims, maybe. I went wider than the original AA rim to be able to fit more modern tires.

On the truck I found out the wheel with studs that turned the most true. I did this by holding a metal rod stationary pointing at the back edge of the drum while I turned the wheel.

Then I put the rim blank over the drum. Then I mounted the AA hub center to the hub/studs with the dish facing out. I pulled the rim blank over the center and clamped it to the rim blank with welding clamps.



During this test I was able to jockey the rim on the center with spacers around the edge where the welding clamps were until the edge of the rim when I held the metal rod as a pointer to the edge of the rim ran as true as the original brake/hub.

I ran this test holding the metal rod to the rear edge of the rim blank and the front edge. The Heywheel remember is like a farm implement wheel and what I found was it was not equally true on the back to front. It was close. But these trucks don’t go much faster than farm implement trailers!

I took everything off and prepped the rim center by cleaning and grinding down to clean metal where I was going to weld. The rim center spokes will either be right up against the rim blank or really close. Anyway, you are going to do a fillet weld there anyway.

I drilled out the rivet holes to be much bigger as my plan was to weld through those holes to the rim blank.

With everything prepped I mounted it back on the truck hub, clamped it in place and made sure it was running as true as possible. Then I welded on spots around the face where the rim blank and rim center edge met. This was just to hold it in place. I took all the clamps off and checked the trueness of the rim again. I took the rim/center off the hub and welded the back side spokes and through the rivet holes. After that I welded the gap between the rim center and the rim bead all the way around.




After hours of grinding the rivet welds smooth and the bead around the lip of the rim, welding those spots again, grinding some more, I was able to paint and finish them.