Confession — I dig the wire hubcaps

I'm due for tires soon, and the original wheels on my 96 RMW are too far gone to refinish, so I've been planning on buying some wheels for this next tire set.

I've been considering the usual suspects (all 15"
- Buick rallyes
- Turbines (can't find)
- Maybe some old Trans Am turbines

But lately I've been leaning toward a more subtle look, and the Caprice wire hubcaps on steel wheels have me smitten. It looks like the hubcaps are relatively available in NOS or used.

What should I be looking for in a wheel? It'd be nice to pick some new ones up so I don't have to mess with refinishing anyting. Does anyone build these wheels new/aftermarket? I'd be interested in a set that are a bit wider that OEM.

You can go with Chevy 5x5x 8 rally wheels these are powder coated and probably the easiest to find new Summit Racing has them, They sell a regular 15x8 steel wheel but it is primered and would need paint or powder coating . I will be swapping my wire wheel caps for the rallys in the next couple of days so I can check and see if the caps bolt on with no issues . One thing to be aware of a lot of the wheels that they sell now are made in China and bottom line is they are junk . My brother in law bought a set for his Caprice from Jegs (their house brand made in China ) and a couple were not welded correctly , the centers to the rim , and he had a hell of a vibration from them . Spend the money and get decent ones mine were made by US Wheel .

Agreed on the wire wheelcovers.  Make sure you get the "key" to remove them, unless you replace the bolts with a standard hex head.  You'll need a set of the inserts that bolt onto the hub to use the OEM wheelcovers also to receive the center bolt that holds the cover in place.  Just about every Caprice I see has swapped out the wire covers for something else, so there are heaps of steel wheels, inserts and covers kicking around.  However, a matched set without curb rash, dents, and rust can be hard to find.  The center caps can be harder to find, as people just seem to lose track of them.  Try posting a "wanted" ad here and on the "B-Body wagon mafia" facebook group.

If you don't mind spending more $, what about a real set of wire wheels.

A quality wire wheel like Dayton which I had on my Town Car are $500.00 a wheel and up .I saw a set of Cragar wire wheels off a Fleetwood that J&J Autowrecking ( 800 425 1555)had sometime ago can't remember the price might want to contact them if that's the route you want to go .

Buickman1 wrote:

If you don't mind spending more $, what about a real set of wire wheels.

Wojtek wrote:

A quality wire wheel like Dayton which I had on my Town Car are $500.00 a wheel and up .I saw a set of Cragar wire wheels  off a Fleetwood that J&J Autowrecking ( 800 425 1555)had sometime ago can't remember the price might want to contact them if that's the route you want to go .

Honestly, I hadn't really considered real wires — not a bad idea, though.

Here's something I found while looking around online that looks pretty good:


I guess the big tradeoffs are cost and maintenance. I figure I can pick up some steel wheels and wheel covers for $800-$1000; wires will be $2500+.
I've built and maintained spoked motorcycle wheels for years, so I understand their quirks, and makes me hesitant to put four of 'em on a nearly daily-driven wagon, but it might be cool. Just paying another $1500 for more complexity and maintenance is a hard pill to swallow.

It is too bad that this wasn't a little while ago. I took the wire covers off so I could go to 17" and get better tires as the 15" don't have a lot of choice anymore. I had the no slot steel wheels, pretty nice covers, center caps, no rust adapters, lock nuts and tool which I first tried to sell and then give away locally and no takers.
Finally scrapped it all except the centers.

I'm sure you can get a complete set of the OEM wire wheel covers for less than half the cost of one wire wheel, and a set of four good used stock steel wheels and a rattle can of black Rustoleum shouldn't set you back more than $250-ish.  They're a hell of a lot easier to clean, as you can take them off in about 10 seconds if you have the matching wrench.  You'd still need the inserts to receive the bolt for the wire wheel covers, but those are everywhere.  Try the B-Body Wagon Mafia facebook page, and just put out a call for a set.  eBay also has them every now and then.

I once owned an MGB that I converted to wire wheels. They had to have tubes even with tubeless tires. They had to be broken down by hand since a mounting machine will bend the spokes out of true. And they had to be strobe balanced - hard to find someone even 40 years ago. My advice: Stay away from real wire wheels.

I never had a problem mounting tires on my Dayton wheels and yes they used a tire machine with no problems ,these were direct fit bolt on type ,modern wheels run tubeless tires .  . A couple of  things you need to be aware of if your thinking about going this route is how is the rim mounted ,a Dayton, Crager and  Truespoke bolt on like a regular rim ,other mount with an adapter and you use a lead hammer to tighten the the knock off (like an old school british wheel ) I see a lot of this type on Ebay .. Also the number of spokes that are on the wheel ,the set that JandJ Autowrecking  had were Cragar 30 spoke the set above look like a 50 spoke wheel . I saw a Roadmaster wagon for sale in Michigan  a couple of years ago that had real wire wheels on it and really looked good . Good Luck !

If you're interested, I have a complete set (5) factory wheels and four wire covers with lugs, centers, and tool from an '88 Caprice wagon. All of them are deep in the back of my shed since 2012. Again, if you're interested, I can dig them out to get pics. I'm in 40272 if that's close enough to meet as shipping all that would probably be pricey.