Ford Blitz Restoration/Rebuild

[Bob Carriere]

I know it has been covered before on MLU but no arm in repeating.

Our experience at the barn has been positive.

First the wheel inside portion has to be very clean by sand blasting and painted with a shinny oil based paint.... we use black POR 15.

We bought half a 5 gal. bucket of lubricating snoot..... it is a lubricant used by large truck tire shop which we lather one with rubber glove.

We have built a home made device to press on the tire on the bottom half of the rim. I should do a new series of pictures on how we use it...... we do have 4 tires to install over the next few weeks.

My device is basically a steeltube cross that bolts under the bottom half and presses the bottom bead over the rim..... just far enough to install the tube and flap and then press down the top half of the tire. The top half of the rim fits easily and using the two long studs start pulling the rims sections together. we use a small amount of air to insure the flap/tube do not pinch themselves.

The first design use regular 5/8 threaded bars but the thread got worn very easily. Replaced with ore expensive grade 8 threaded bar and "never sieze" grease on the thread. Even using the impact wrench works fine.

On the HUP 16" rims the walls of the rim are parallel and not tapered like a CMP rim and tires almost just drop on.

I have seen others shaving the bead down to the steel cable beads but I shudder at the long term results.

There has not been one 16 tire that we could not install

Removal is done with a chain saw and a angle grinder...... very carefully and no damage to the rims. The run flats tire casing do leave a generous amount of black rubber chips on the ground.

Persist and don't give up yet.

Maybe I can try doing a sketch/cross section of the tool we built so any one can replicate the process.

On the manufacturers difference..... we never measured the inside bead to bead but I can tell you that between Good Year....Firestone and Mohawk 9x16 tires that once installed we found a height diferences of over 1 1/2 inch. So the caution in the CMP manuals to match tire diameter is a real issue.

Cheers