[Liberty Garage]

Wheels, brake drums, spacers, studs, nuts and other fun things;

Mounting the tires on the newly cleaned and painted wheels was easy enough, it was the prep work to try and get it done safely with really worn out old wheels that was the challenge.

Had decided to weld a bridge from one side of the split ring to the other, after the tire was mounted and ring in place. This would theoretically keep the ring from spreading apart and blowing off. In advance of this, I pre-welded one side and positioned the ring on the welding table so the gap was in closed position and once the ring was on and a SMALL amount of air in the tire, just enough to lightly push the ring in place, I then clamped it together and welded the bridge in place. Before and during the weld process I packed a wet rag in the vicinity and also dribbled water in between the ring and tire to keep it from melting. Seemed to work.

Once it was welded and cooled off, I flipped it over, covered it with cardboard and then set the loader bucket over the assembly so just the valve stem was exposed for airing up. Then aired up to 10 pounds and checked the ring, all was good and in place, touched up the paint, aired up to 20 pounds and then proceeded to put them on.

I had ASSUMED the wheels would just bolt right on, the donor drums had a set of pretty normal looking lug nuts and thought they would just slip right on, tighten up and be done. No such luck.

The drums appear to be what are called "scalloped" and the rim does not seat down flat onto the base of the studs, it seems to hang up on the face of the hub, like the center hole in the wheel is slightly too small. From reading everything I could find, there was a spacer for early 30 scalloped drums that might fill the void and allow these to tighten, it seems like you would use the dually studs and the spacer plate to make it all fit?

The part number found for the spacer plate is AA-1123-R.

Wheels are Budd C-18596-H 11-30.

Pictures are attached, one side is assembled withe just the nuts and the other side with the studs and nuts. Both sides are about 3/16 from sitting down on the face of the hub and drum. Advice? Thanks in advance!