are these pro car wheels

John ED Renstrom

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these are the one off the 53 Pontiac. the are 51 inch ad have the 3 rivets in them. but are they pro car wheels or just standard 53 GM wheels?
 

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The 1955 and early 1956 wheels were the last of the riveted wheels for passenger cars. Starting with most 1956 wheels, GM welded the two pieces together for fewer leaks and reduced production costs.
 

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yes these are standard sedan wheels. Got one set out of Ohio on one of the meet trips. I just find it amusing that they would go back in there construction to get a wheel strong enough. This car is of course way lighter then anything in the late 50-70s. But standard equipment is built heavier. Of course with tube tires leakes were not a problem.
 
You have to realize that in the era of your car, the tires carcass was made differently, and they needed to keep everything from breaking, so they built the entire car much more differently than they do today. Every piece of metal on your car is much thicker than the gauge of metal that is used today. Even the paint on a 1952 car was thicker than the paint that they use today. Today, they can paint a complete car with a pint of paint, and if you brush up against a briar bush, it will scratch the paint down to the primer.
 
This is true paint is thinner and water based. But as someone who has now spent over 45 years peeling graphics off cop cars,ambulances,etc. I can tell you the chance of digging up the paint removing graphics has gone way down in recent years. We also have had the advent of Vinal Wrap had a car come in the other day former FD car red doors peeled off all the red wrap to find perfect white doors under it. I use a regular razor scraper to remove letters etc and digs in the paint have gone way down with todays paint. On the bad side Ford spent thousands of $$$ on peeling paint warrenty work on Crown Vics. I have an 06 CV here right now that has almost no white paint left on it (it just peeled or fell off)and that never happened in the old days.
 
This is true paint is thinner and water based. But as someone who has now spent over 45 years peeling graphics off cop cars,ambulances,etc. I can tell you the chance of digging up the paint removing graphics has gone way down in recent years. We also have had the advent of Vinal Wrap had a car come in the other day former FD car red doors peeled off all the red wrap to find perfect white doors under it. I use a regular razor scraper to remove letters etc and digs in the paint have gone way down with todays paint. On the bad side Ford spent thousands of $$$ on peeling paint warrenty work on Crown Vics. I have an 06 CV here right now that has almost no white paint left on it (it just peeled or fell off)and that never happened in the old days.

I should probably quit running my white '04 CV through the automatic car wash! I am probably pushing my luck as I haven't lost any paint as of yet.
 
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