Some of the most interesting and technical wheels we work on are wooden car wheels.
The bulk of the car wheels we come across are mass-produced and often quite intricate in their design.
One of the biggest challenges of course is putting right a centuries worth of damage or poor craftsmanship, often having to dig out dozens of desperately placed screws and nails or scraping out filler, paint and glue!
Below is a small selection of the car wheels we have restored.
Traditional French Wooden car wheel with pneumatic tyre
Repaired Wooden car wheel for a Dodge automobile
A Dodge wheel, the spokes are inserted into the rim then pressed together. the tapers on the spokes are compound angles turned opposite to each other so that they push outwards as they are pressed down flat, tightening them into the tyre. The hub is fitted afterwards. not my favourite style of wheel but certainly a challenge.
Restored Wooden french car wheel with steel rim for separate tyre.
Some of the later wheels involve some tricky fitting of moving parts like this french wheel that is fitted with an expanding ring to hold a separate rim and tyre in place. this is one of my favourite styles to work on.
