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I have a pair of wooden spoke Chevrolet wheels that have been passed down to me from my Great Grandfather. I was hoping someone could give me a little info on them as to what year they are from.

This is what i have (2wheels). Looking for any info you may have. Looks like they may have been black with red striping?

Not sure if i want to repaint or keep original. Ideas?

My goal is to have rubber on them just for display. My dad "gave" me one when i was a kid and he had the other. They always stayed in the attic. He got them from his grandpa who used to own a auto repair garage

Thank you very much,
Keith Holtzmann

More photos

From the photos they look like a front and a back 26/27 wheel to me, but the rim looks to be for a 28 wheel. Is the felloe (the steel spoke retaining band the rim is mounted on) the same width as the base of the rim? If so they are 1928 wheels: if the felloe is 1/2 inch narrower than the rim they are 1926/1927 wheels, and the rim is for a 1928 wheel.

Normally a 1928 front wheel will have a brake drum mounted on the inside of the wheel hub, which is held in place by the hub nuts, but the 26/27 front wheels do not have front wheel brakes, so there is only a narrow steel clamping ring for the hub nuts to bear on. As a further check the width of the felloe where the rim mounts should be about 2 1/4 inches for the 26/27 wheels, but this can vary a bit with the condition of the wheel. The 1928 felloe will be about 1/2 inch wider.

Frank.

Hello Peter,

Those are called clincher rims, and take a special tire. They were used in the early 20s. Someone might have a couple of old tires and tubes that may hold air.

I have a couple of old wood '26, or '27 spoked wheels with rims that are in no way to be trusted on a car. My thought was to make an out door bench out of them by using an old straight axle. A couple of 4' 4x4s bolted to the spring pads should be a good base. If it ends up too low I could take the spindles off and weld them to a piece of 1-1/2" or 2" pipe. The tail end of the seat would angle back toward the ground so as to not let the assembly tip over backwards when you leaned against the seat back. It could be easily "wheeled" around wherever you needed a bench.