Tiring not so easily

Martin

Well-Known Member
On my 52 Merc pickup I have odd wheels and tires so I thought I'd look for replacements. I went to 5 different auto wreckers looking for 5x5.5 bolt pattern on either 16 or 15 inch rims.
On the 15" rims side of things, Seems for $100 you get 4 rusty rims without tires, stuff you probably couldn't give away at a garage sale but $100 none the less.
One place seemed less than impressed that I was looking for something cheapish as opposed to spending loads and then became a little less than helpfull.
I did find a set of F150 mags that would have probably looked ok but they were $300, needed a good buffing and then the tires priced out getting close to $900, yoiks.
Then found some older white (ish) 16" wheels that looked more in keeping with original style for $120 but again a set of light truck tires still ran in a $650. What I really didn't get was the $28 per wheel to balance them.
I guess I'm just really out of touch with prices, I thought that $400 ish would get me a set of nice ish wheels with half decent, rubber, oops I guess not
 
Have patience and change where you are looking, wrecking yards have wages and overhead to pay, I have seen the prices that you are looking for on Kijiji but the listings change by the moment so you have to stay on top of it ..........and also I scored after much searching and waiting and looking on eBay, (4 new Foose wheels with tires shipped prepaid from the USA for $ 1200.00) :)
 
Tires

Keep your eyes open for a tire machine I scored an old coats 1010 for $100.00 that also came with a balancer a few years ago. I woud'nt recommend it for mags or the new 18s or 20s . Its from the 50s or 60s I used the same machine working in a service station in Calgary in the late 60s. This thing has saved me hundreds over the years as well as gotten me lots of beer from my friends.
 
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Check Craigslist Vancouver.
Type in hot rod in the search, there will be something waiting for you.