Topic: Identifying steel wheels

[hkopp]

Over the years I have tried educating myself on the many parts of my mustangs, but one thing I have never learned is how to identify stock Ford steel wheels.  I have stacks of steel wheels that we had on our farm from the 50's and 60's, and in there are my 65 mustang original rims - somewhere.  They all look similar to me...where exactly are the stamps and what codes am I looking for to find the mustang rims, and identifying other Ford rims? I know I have some chevy wheels in there too, fortunately I think all of them are 6 lug.     If there is a website out there please or if someone has a break down of them I would appreciate it.  Searching online I come up with countless sites regarding the styled steel wheels.  My main concern is locating my original 65 stamped steel wheels to keep, and after that finding what wheels I should hold on to and the others send to the scrapper.

Thank you!

[Brian Conway]

This wheel is OE for my San Jose May of 65 GT disc brake car.  This 14x5 wheel measures 15x6 out to out, is riveted rather than welded, is dated 5MD and the measurement is the same for a drum or disc brake wheel.  Brian

[WT8095]

There are probably other threads that cover this in greater detail, but very quickly:

The date code is Year-Mfr-Month. Manufacturers that I'm aware of were Kelsey-Hayes ("K" code) and Motor Wheel Corporation ("M" code).

[hkopp]

Great!  Thanks Brian, the photos help a lot.  I should be able to locate my 65 wheels easily now....and hopefully some of the other Fords might be similar as well.  Good info too WT8095!  I did not know there were 2 different vendors. Now to get those 30-50 year old tires off of the large stack of wheels I have...that'll cost a small fortune.

[Brian Conway]

Does anyone know what the ' AC ' stamp on this same wheel represents ?  Thanks, Brian

[mtinkham]

A rim with air conditioning 

[Brian Conway]

Well could be.  The other wheel, only two survivors, has no additional stamps.  I know we usually chalk this type of stamping off to ' vendor ' but K/H was the only other supplier ?  Brian

[NEFaurora]

I have found that Motorwheel Corp standard wheels are mostly riveted and their stamping is on the front of the wheel with the stampings on one of the "nubs" next to a lug hole usually with a Ford oval a stamping like "5MB" or "6MD" to that effect..and are pretty commonplace on '60's Ford cars. 

K/H - Kelsey Hayes standard rims (a lot less common) are usually all welded and their "KH" stampings are usually stamped inside the inner well cavity of the rims and are not always date coded. You can only see the "KH" stampings when the tires are dismounted otherwise you'll never see them.  Those are my past findings and experiences..

)

Tony K.

[J_Speegle]

Tony - what time period are you referring to? Have a fair number of 65-67 Kelsey Hayes steel wheels that are riveted only. Now on later ones I see more welding. Possibly a cost saving or in reaction to the issue they and others were having with riveted wheels. - example 69 Shelby wheels

[Crgjohnson]

Over on the Boss 302 registry there was a thread with pictures and info about date codes on steel wheels.

http://www.boss302.com/smf/index.php?topic=72473.0

[J_Speegle]

Over on the Boss 302 registry there was a thread with pictures and info about date codes on steel wheels.

http://www.boss302.com/smf/index.php?topic=72473.0

Think this discussion is (right now) staying with the early versions rather than the later where the dates of the rims are at the valve stems. Hopefully I can get the article on dating wheels and tires done eventually and posted to help out int he long run. So many suppliers and patterns given the different plants and years. - Then of course for some details add the government to the mix 

[Andrew@MagMustangs]

Does anyone know what the ' AC ' stamp on this same wheel represents ?  Thanks, Brian

Brian, all of the original Ford wheels have a 2 letter stamp on the backside at center hub. My assumption is that this stamp was what the assembly line workers used to quickly identify the size of a wheel, IE: Diameter, Width, and Backspacing. Your 'AC' stamp should identify a wheel by it's specific dimensions. I have seen AB, AC, AD, BA, BB stamps, among others throughout the 60's.

I should note that this applies specifically to Motor Wheel Corp. manufactured wheels. Kelsey Hayes might have had different identifying marks, other than these numbers. 

[Hipo giddyup]

Sorry for digging up an old post but I am in the same predicament as this member. I found two standard steel wheels that are not riveted, and I am unsure if they were truly for a mustang. I cannot find the traditional Ford stamping or i.e. 6MB, 5MD, etc. on them. I do know that there is a small hole in one of the nubs? I’m unsure if these are aftermarket or another car manufacture with the same bolt pattern. They do of course mount to a Mustang spindle/drum without issue.