"Tires and Wheels"

Probably the most common asked question is...."where did you get those tires and wheels"!!!

well...I had to make em'.....

The back tires are 12"x6" and are made in one piece. I started by edge gluing 3/4 stock to form a 14"x14" blank. Each blank was rough cut to a slightly larger diameter than the finished size. A small center hole was drilled to fit the jig during lamination. A simple jig was built using a flat piece of stock with a dowel rod glued vertically to align each blank. All the blanks were stacked up, glued, and clamped with the dowel rod running through the center to keep them all aligned. Turned sideways, it looked like a big birthday cake!! After the glue cured, I cut the dowel rod flush with the stock, this will be my center point for the lathe.

This is where the fun starts!....This is a Huge piece to turn on the lathe. The blank was an inch or so bigger than my lathe bed, so I had to build some shims under it to get the clearance I needed. I probably oughta add here that my lathe is an old jalopy that doesn't have very good tolerances but somehow I manage to make it work....

WARNING!!!!......It takes some BIG KAHUNAS to turn something this big on a piece of crap lathe!!! Turning the outside dia. is not such a big deal.....gouging out the depth of the rim is very dangerous!! Because I had to shape both sides of the wheel and rim, the deepest part of the rim was done last so that I could keep both center points until I had the proper depth, and then the center was simply knocked out with a chisel. In all, I think I broke 3 different tools turning the back tires!!!!!

The front wheels were built basically the same way, but were much less dangerous. The treads were cut with a Dremel tool, the rivets and lug nuts were added after all the final sanding had been done.
The finishing is one of my coolest tricks......The black is real rubber!..Plast-i-dip makes a spray bomb that is spray on rubber, its a little hard to find, but the results are amazing. The lettering is hand cut and sprayed, the rims are painted with automotive 2 stage. I've got a lot to say about paints and finishes, but I'll save it for a future post

The front wheels for the dragster were a real pain in the ass!!! The wheels were cut from a solid piece of Maple, then shaped on the lathe. After turning the inital shape, the center portion of the wheel was cutout to allow for the center hub and spokes. A jig was built to keep the wheel and hub in position while the spokes were built. These were really a lot of work, but I was quite happy with the end result.