Kelsey Hayes wheel restoration

Paradise Wheels in San Marcos, CA is the place to have your Shelby wheels restored. They do excellent work. I had my Cragers restored there several
years ago and they came out beautiful.

 

It is a catch 22 problem. When the wheels are restored usually the rims are discarded and the centers saved .There is a liability issue by using the old non DOT approved wheel rims. The wheel rims are unique to 67 magstars and without them it is a toss up weather to have a restored wheel with a modern DOT approved rim and original center or a repro set with a identical to original repro center and a DOT approved rim. The repros will actually look better because they are riveted like original and the restored set will have cap screws used instead of rivets which are easy to see when looking at the back side. My 2 cents.

 

I had three of my wheels restored by Paradise about 20 years ago, and they do look great, the only problem was that they never held air afterwards, so I have had to run tubes in them ever since. They told me to send them back to them and they would fix them, but I would have had to dismount the tires, pay to ship them back, wait for them to be fixed, then pay to have the tires remounted and balanced. I decided it was easier to just run tubes. I have been told that they have corrected that problem. I will have to have them re-restored eventually because I have driven them alot, so someday I won't have to deal with tubes anymore.

 

I bought the repops about 8 years ago and they look great still.Only way to go.

 

What I have seen done before and what they probably do is dismount the tire and paint the inside of the rim at the band were the capscrews bolt in through the rim with some glyptal paint of other rubber type product to seal the leak . Surface preparation is important before application of the sealant. Bob

 

I had Jim Cowles of Shelby Parts & Restoration in Green Bay WI do my spare tire wheel. He uses pins that look like the originals. It cost me $300.00 I often have to air up the spare, but since it is an original Speedway 350, it might be the tire. I don't recall any coating on the inside of the rim to retain air as Bob has suggested.
I'm still holding out on my other 4 rims. For originals, they still look good. Maybe it's because every winter, they come off the car an go into the basement.