[cdrookie]

Badassery right there. I need to get my car painted, I need to get my car painted...

[73LeMans]

Appreciate the positive comments sir! I totally understand the hesitation on paint. If what you see was any more than $75 in paint materials, the car would still be 7 different primer shades. Biting the bullet on real paint will always be big commitment, but then again, you only live once.

You comment makes me look to the semi near future (5 years?) when I tear the car down to the frame and put it back together with the NOS panels in my basement. Considering Ive never welded a panel to another and that I'll likely have to fab up a lot pieces that may not exist or I cant find (trunk extensions, inner wheel houses etc) it should be pretty entertaining. I'll paint it then with real paint.

[cdrookie]

My problem is finding someone to paint it. Apparently, the first thing they teach you in auto body class is to tell the client you will stop over, in a week or 2, and look at the car. The 2nd thing they teach you is to not show up or I make any sort of contact with the potential client.

I live in a rural area so my choices are limited. The last place I talked to, the guy lives a few miles away. He can literally drive right past my house without going out of his way. He said the obligatory week or 2, it’s been a month.

I have 1 more place to check. If they aren’t interested, it’s either bite the bullet and go with the guy farthest away and the highest quote, or order more Seymour paint and do finger exercises.

[73LeMans]

Time to get to gettin on removing the axles for stud replacement. Good thing the 9" has a short axle on this side, huh?



Its tight, but I'm feeling pretty lucky about this positioning. I'm even going to move that chain fall bucket to the floor and use as a seat. Bonus!



Last picture of the 1/2" studs before they go away.



Move on over little dog, the mean old dog is movin' in!



5/8 studs overkill? Yup.
More unsprung weight. Yup.
Do I ever have to buy lugnuts for the rear wheels ever again? Nope.

I just love stuff that can be beaten on time and time again and still look this good.





While I call them studs, these 1/2" "studs" are really bolts. Axles had to come out to get these out the easy way....with a 1/2" impact gun.



Easy peasy.



And with the right tool, I can get to installing.



50 ft/lbs of torque on the nylon stop nut on the backside and we're done here.



Final step to completing all of this is to drill out the drum. I know, I know... who else is using a beadlock wheel with drums?? Admittedly, probably not many. As mentioned earlier, I may move to a disk setup, but for now, I need to reassemble the car 100%. My memory is so bad and I see the car so little, I may try driving it with literally, no rear brakes if I don't do this now.

Speaking of the right tool for the job, this one gets a A+. I give you one drum fully clearanced for 5/8 studs.



From here you just need to trust me that I put all the rear brakes back together without needing the service manual. (Does the actuating link go on the pin before or after the return spring?....hmmm). Its before btw, and no I didn't need the book! You know, come to think of it, the last time I fully disassembled a drum brake may have been close to 15 years ago!

Man I'm old.

[Brian Baker]

Wow...I've got one of those stud removing tools in my box that was handed down to me by my father (he bought it sometime in the 60's) and this is the first time I've ever seen anyone use one.

[73LeMans]

Originally Posted by Brian Baker

Wow...I've got one of those stud removing tools in my box that was handed down to me by my father (he bought it sometime in the 60's) and this is the first time I've ever seen anyone use one.

lol..where do you think I got that one? Not sure its vintage, but it was definitely a gift from dear old Dad!

I actually tried a stud with one of the 15/16 wheel nuts before I remembered I had it. It was awkward handling the two wrenches at vice height and attempting to get an accurate click from the 2 foot long torque wrench. (I have none shorter) The installer allowed me to get in closer to the flange and gave a better grip than my crappy chrome 12 point was giving me.

Thanks Dad!

[73LeMans]

Tires came in early! They arrived last Saturday in the middle of the stud replacement.



Considering Summit treated each tire as an individual sale for some reason, I was ready for at least one to be so out of date, it wouldn't be worth using. I got separate emails and separate delivery dates even, but believe it or not, both look to be in excellent condition. Both are born the same week (5th of 2021) and both weigh in about the same, where the slight difference might actually be the shipping label and stickers on them. I'm a proud Papa!! Well done Mr. Thompson. (I think hes talking to you)





But lets not get ahead of ourselves. Instead, lets get in the Wayback machine and"roll" back to the wheel arrival.


This is definitely coming on vacation. I'm on hold with the travel agency as we speak.





This is per wheel, as its a DBL rim -


The only drawback were these buggers.



All coated for corrosion but apparently they were allowed to become friends a bit too early. As is good practice (and this sealed the deal), I decided I'd run a die down each of these bolts by hand....all 80 of them...to make sure they don't cross thread and ruin the Aruba trip I just booked.

Small army coming together here -



Best 2 hours of my life getting the whole platoon done. NOT. I think I now know why they call it a die.



Nice thing about soft sidewall tires is you need no machine to mount them. A bit of soap and water, some muscle and BLAMO, you got yourself a mounted tire. Good thing my wife was around for the muscle.

================================================== ==============
Tip#18 - Don't get so excited about new wheels and tires that you forget to pay attention to the tire rotation before mounting the tire. They are not the same from side to side and removing a tire is harder than mounting one.....so I'm told.)
================================================== ==============

BTW - even though Summit only has one valve stem listing for the Weld beadlock wheel, and just because the description clearly says "Fit Weld Beadlock Wheels Only"....



...doesn't really mean they'll fit your Weld wheels. Ask me how I know. And why are there 5 to a friggin package? Where is that O'Reillys???

Still not deprived of courage or confidence and not disheartened in the least, (undiscouraged you could say) I was determined to forge ahead. (a little wheel joke there for ya).

Assembling these wheels is....ahem.. interesting, to say the least. Here is what is written for proper assembly.

1. Begin tightening each bolt with a speed wrench in a crisscross pattern until they are fingertip tight.
2. Continue tightening with the speed wrench in a crisscross pattern until each bolt is hand tight.
3. Torque each bolt in the crisscross pattern to 50 in-lb
4. then 100 in-lb
5. then 150 in-lb
6. Begin torquing each bolt in a clockwise or counterclockwise pattern to 175 in-lb
7. Then to a final torque of 221 in-lb (18 ft-lb)

That's 40 bolts visited 7x per wheel. Allow me to do the math for ya........give me a minute.....carry the 9......minus 27.6..... bear with me..... divide by a factor of Pi.....times the radius.... That's 280 visits to a bolt head for one wheel. 560 if you are doing both in the same weekend, which I now do not recommend. Please understand, power tools and me don't normally get along. I screw up things with less speed when I use hand tools, so its with those I stick, especially for something as soft as aluminum.


Does anyone else balance their drag wheels? With the old Prostars and M/T radial, each wheel took a ton of weight - about 6oz -



I was hoping these new units would be somewhat better than that. They aren't. They took the same amount - 6oz. Well, at least one of them did. The other wheel just showed a straight line on my friends Hunter 700 System balancer. Neither one of us knows what it means. I'd love to believe it was perfectly balanced combo, but the machine would have returned a rdy indicator, so we know THAT didn't happen. (one can dream!) We even threw the "good wheel" back on and the machine sure as heck came back normally. There are no runout dots on these wheels or tires, so I'm at a loss.

The advice? Take it apart, rotate the wheel 180 degrees, put it back together and come back. 40 bolts....undone, then redone 7x. Fun times!!!

Well, at least we can see what they look like on the car, right?



I'm sure it wont be noticed here, but I can see how much more inboard this wheel sits compared to the ProStar. Amazing how much difference 1/2" of backspacing can make.




You think they'll rub?







A bit tight, Id say. Passenger side hits the exhaust - (ignore the sock)



As mentioned previously, a disk brake setup tends to push wheels out a bit...maybe 1/8", maybe a tad more. If I don't pull the trigger on that, some wheel spacers will be in order. Not for the exhaust, but for the frame. Anyone happen know how much growth an M/T Radial R will see during a run? I cant imagine much being a radial.

Guess you know what my search history will look like for the next week.

[OZZIEVILLE 67 2 door]

Just found your thread, what a great read, and I like the way describe it, " I did it my way "
The pro tips are fantastic for a rough bush mechanic like me , I'm up to post 20 , after starting at end. Thanks again mate
John L.

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

[Brian Baker]

Fore safety concerns, you may want to duct tape over those wheel weights to keep them from coming off the rim. I bubble balanced the tires on my funny car and taped them as such, as was recommended by everyone I spoke to who did the same. The tape won't throw off the bubble balance.

[73LeMans]

Originally Posted by Brian Baker

Fore safety concerns, you may want to duct tape over those wheel weights to keep them from coming off the rim. I bubble balanced the tires on my funny car and taped them as such, as was recommended by everyone I spoke to who did the same. The tape won't throw off the bubble balance.

Very good advice! I have seen this on many heavy hitting cars and always thought it was a good idea. I will definitely be doing that with these.

[73LeMans]

Yesterday, I took apart the rear wheel that wouldn't balance. 40 bolts, all taken off by hand, in stages.

I spun the wheel 180 degrees on the tire and reassembled....all 40 bolts, by hand, in stages. To the balancer I went.

Hold the phone. That cant be right, can it? 9.25....oz???



Ive had 22-inch truck wheels that took less weight than that!

It certainly explains the machines inability to register last week...must have been over 10oz.....but cmon now. I'm annoyed that a wheel and tire that's going to see a lot of wheel speed is going to have to try to hang on to 9.25 oz. There is no way I'm sticking that much weight on here.

Since Im here I break the wheel down again. It cant get much worse. 40 bolts all taken off, by hand, in stages.

I spin the wheel only 90 degrees this time and reassemble...all 40 bolts, by hand, in stages. To the balancer I went.



Not good enough.

Which piece is causing this to be so far out of shape? The wheel? The rings? All 3 together? The tire?? Let me try to narrow it down.

40 bolts, all taken off with an impact gun this time, in stages (because I'm thoroughly annoyed annoyed and my patience has run out - get it, runout?). To the balancer I went.

Wheel only.



(hint - it ain't the wheel!)


Add in a beadlock. Spin.



(hint - it aint this beadlock)

Add in the other beadlock. Spin.


(hint - it aint this beadlock either!)

Anyone want to venture a guess where the blame lies? If you said tire, you get a gold star! Well done!

Disclaimer - I'm not blaming M/T for what is potentially a slightly our of round tire. Melting off a few 16ths will probably get this back in line just fine. Heck, with solid motor mounts and solid body mounts its not like I'll ever feel an out of balance situation anyway but always best to get it "right" prior to letting nature take its course.

Upon disassembly, there is a very faded green dot on the tire bead...not on the sidewall as is typical, but on the bead....obviously didn't see it the first time....presumably a run-out dot? This pic makes it a look a lot better than it is, trust me.




I was too annoyed to stick it all back together. I guess I'll find out next week. I'll mount that portion of the tire l opposite the stem and see how it goes.

Geeze, 6oz is looking pretty good right now.