Here's the Pop as it looked when I finished the Anglia rear axle
installation and set it back down on the ground. Ignore the slave rostyles
on the front, it's the rear wheels that bothered me. They were centred
in the arch ok, but the track was too narrow.
Closer to the camera is a standard Hillman Minx steel wheel. This,
believe it or not is the only 15" steel wheel that fits the English Ford
4 on 4.25" bolt pattern. what I don't like is the bulbous hub. They are
also quite narrow, at 4". At the rear is the object of this story, a Minx
centre in a VW rim. the rim is 4.5" wide, which is ok for what I want,
and I set the centre back in the rim to reduce the bulbous appearance,
and optimise the positioning of the wheel in the rear wheel arch.
Follow on to see how I did it.
Grind the heads of the rivets a little and centre pop 'em. Drill
'em 1/8", about 5mm deep. You dont need to go right through.
Drill 'em out to about 7.5mm, and when you get to the bottom of
the 1/8" pilot hole, waggle the drill around in a circular motion. The
rivet heads will sometimes pop right off. No sweat if they don't.
A good whack with a punch will knock them through, even if there
is a little of the head still in place.
In my case I did not need the rim, so I cut it through with the
trusty angle grinder. If you do want the rim, it's a real hard job knocking
the centre out. A press would help.
Drop it flat on the floor and the centre will just fall out. (if
you cut the rim of course.)
Removing the VW beetle centre is a different matter. It's welded
in 4 places. I did not photo document the whole process, but the piece
I am holding was the piece with the weld. I cut down each side of the weld,
to the nearest "window". I then cut across the windows to release the centre,
apart from the four welded pieces. I then cut each piece almost through,
right next to the weld, and broke the pieces out by knocking them back
and forth with a hammer. I then ground the weld away with the angle grinder.
The Minx centre fitted inside the VW rim, and looked like what
I wanted.
To weld it in, I needed to trim the centre.
I cut along the line, using the old rivet holes as a guide. If
I were doing it again, I'd also trim along the dotted line shown.
I didn't photograph the next bit, but with the trimming, the centre
was a slightly loose fit. I cut some strips of sheet metal, to take up
the slop and make the centre a good tight fit in the rim. It is important
that the shims are equal thickness, so the centre remains, er, centred.
I laid the rim on a level surface and set three 25mm spacers under
the hub cap mounting pips on the center. But this is not accurate enough
to ensure the rim runs true, as I found on the first rim. I tacked in 4
places and the rim ran out by about 3mm. I cut the 3 of the tacks and just
left one, adjacent to the valve.
I set the wheel on one of the rear hubs, and rotated it. I positioned
a pointer very close to the wheel and knocked the rim either in or out
to match the gap adjacent to the valve where the tack weld was. I decided
anbout .5mm runout was close enough.
That's why it is important the rim is tight. I carefully removed
the wheel, tacked in 4 places, rechecked it on the hub again for runout,
and then took it off again and fully welded it in eight runs, doing half
of each of the four weld locations at a go, and moving around the rim to
minimise distortion.
( I will insert photo's here to show the runout check and finished
welding job)
And here's the finished job, (less sandblasting and paint). Stock
wheel on the front, reworked rim on the back. I think it fits the rear
arch just right. Tyres are 6.40's on the back and 5.60:15's on the front.
Bought some hubcaps of unknown vintage and make off ebay. They
fitted the minx steels perfectly, and complemented the bulbous hub too.
Only drawback, they're black rather than chrome, but I'm really pleased
with them.
With such a pleasing shape as this, I can put up with the bulbous
centres (on the front at least)
Back
to Pop Intro page.
Forward
to Page 9 (Bulkhead and pedals.)
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