28-09-2019, 01:16 PM
(This post was last modified: 28-09-2019, 01:19 PM by Tony Griffiths.)
The 7-inch brake closed-centre wheel was made in lighter and heavier versions, the latter, I believe, from some point in 1930. While the light centres are not as strong as the later - and have thinner spokes - there is nothing inherently wrong with them and many continue in use. However, as with any safety-related aspect of an old car, you just need to keep an eye on them. The original heavier centre wheels on my 1930 Chummy - they would have covered around 50,000 miles when the car was bought - were just cleaned up and then did a further 110,000 of daily road use over nine or so years. In addition, the wheels were heavily abused by rather a lot of full-on competition use in driving tests, mud-plugging trials and rallies, etc. In retrospect, I suppose I should have been amazed that, in that time, not a single spoke was broken nor did any of the centres show the slightest sign of distress (for speed events, the standard nuts had to be replaced by a Nyloc type with a flat washer....).