Vintage disc wheels

[Jam2]

Can anyone advise on disc wheels for a vintage AC?  I recall 30 years ago having trouble getting a decent set together,  are new ones now available or would it be better, if necessary to fit bolt on wire wheels as fitted to some of the SF Edge specials?

[Old Crock]

The vintage wheels have four stud or six stud fitting. Six studs certainly on the early 20's cars with the 4-cylinder engines, whilst later 4-cylinders (at least some) seemed to have four studs as standard. I believe all the 6-cylinder models had four wheel-studs standard, even the earliest cars, though I may be wrong. Additionally, the tyre size varies (= wheel) with the early and later vintage cars; early cars having narrower tyres. Therefore, the wheels I cannot see being simply interchangeable.
   
   I haven't seen any 'new' wheels, but original wheels do come up occasionally (bought-in by AC at the time, they were maybe fitted to other marques). An ACOC member recently advertised some vintage disc wheels for sale which were guaranteed to be 'true'. Also, I know of two wheels (4-stud) that are stashed in a garage, or were two months back, and would be open to offer if these may interest you - they need blasting and checking, though I can recommend a company for this work if need be. Personally, I haven't seen any six-stud wheels for sale for some years.
   
   Wire wheels also were different on AC models, late 20's. Some having a false 'hub', maybe to disguise the actual brake drum size. I know that Rubery were one of the manufacturers, Rudge-Whitworth another. If you are considering switching to wire wheels, I think you would have to be most careful they do indeed fit, as differences in production-year may even involve you changing the hubs.

[Jam2]

Many thanks.
   My main concern is corrosion, a wheel may look good and run true, but one can't be certain of its structural integrity as one does not know what is going on with the weld (?) between the rim and the two discs.  A collapsed wheel could be very dangerous.  Perhaps a wheel could be xrayed to assess its condition?