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THE AUTO BUILDER
Featured
The Cars & Trucks That Defined PRI 2025
PRI is where performance gets honest. No hype cycles. No trend chasing. Just builders, engineers, and racers showing exactly what works when the gloves come off. At PRI 2025 in Indianapolis, the show floor was packed with innovation—but only a handful of cars and trucks truly separated themselves from the noise. Those are the builds we’re spotlighting here.
AN AMERICAN TRADITION
Here in the United States, we have been conditioned to find vintage tin in many places. The availability of good cars to build into street rods has become more limited as the years have passed, but depending upon your choice of bodies, there are still quite a few options. Of course, the advent of reproduction bodies has added to the choices. Now put yourself in a foreign land and think about how hard it would be to find a good 70-plus-year-old imported American car to build. That is what Wayne Streams faced as a native of the United Kingdom. Building street rods has grown in both popularity and participation in the UK. There are many vintage English vehicles available, but American cars are the most cherished among British rodders.
MERC-O-MATIC MAKEOVER
Gil Losi, the owner of this super-slick ’54 Mercury Monterey—which was a year in the making—has quite a liking for the ’54 Mercury body style. He’s owned several of the stylish Monterey hardtops, but this one tops them all with its slammed stance, laser-straight paint and bodywork and 32-valve DOHC engine. One of the many great aspects of this particular Mercury Monterey is that Steve Cook’s team started with a good body. It was solid and already featured a low-down stance, but the crew reworked every part of the car into what you see here.
Spotlighter
The Steel Wheel Deal
Restoring Styled-Steel Wheels, PLUS a Look at What’s Currently Available
Wheel choice is probably the single biggest factor in determining the direction of your project. Just as the thought of installing stock steel wheels on anything other than a restoration seems absurd, the idea of installing race-styled wheels on a restoration may be just as absurd. Or is it?
Author
Tim Gavern
Story & Photography
Today’s wheel manufacturers are blurring the lines between restoration and race-style wheels, especially with the availability of new and larger tire sizes. Larger and wider tires and wheels are fast becoming the way to go, just as period-perfect restored wheels are on a total restoration.
One of the best new trends are wheels that look like the familiar factory styled-steel wheels, but are built in larger diameters and are available in wider widths. They’ve also been copied in billet aluminum for a more custom, sparkly look. These types of wheels are the next things in style. They are subtle enough that your Chevy won’t look kooky, and the larger diameters provide far more tire choices, adding grip and tough looks for a more modern stance.
Wheel Vintiques is one of the more progressive companies supporting this new trend, manufacturing styled-steel wheels in 15-, 16- and 17-inch diameters in a wide range of widths. It has also created billet aluminum versions of several popular styled-steel wheels from the 1970s in larger diameters and widths. Other companies like Coker Tire provide both wheels and tires in many happy combinations for just the same purpose. And as a unique, old-style tire supplier, Coker has the advantage of matching the right look and fitment for a broad application.
Companies like Classic Industries have brought this trend full circle by taking the search out of finding the correct accessories for many of these wheels. There is no question that these types of wheels can quickly turn a resto into a 21st-century street machine in only the time that it takes to bolt them on. So it pays to spend a little time looking at what works for your project.
Not all of the most popular styled-steel wheels from the ’70s have been reproduced yet. One wheel that we’re all pushing for is the ’70-1/2 Camaro Z28 wheel. Truly one of the most attractive wheels of its time, today it’s highly sought after by collectors and enthusiasts alike. Because it is our mission to get you out and into your garage, we’re going to show you how to restore a set of your own original wheels, using simple methods and quality reproduction hardware by Classic Industries. We’ll also provide you a guide to what is presently available from the aftermarket.
1. This was the best of our Z28 styled-steel wheels. Both passenger-side wheels had damaged trim rings from years of curb abuse. The black epoxy paint would prove to be a nightmare to remove.
2. Z28 styled-steel wheels look great after restoration. Note the new, correct trim rings, center caps and lug nuts, all available in the aftermarket.
3. Classic Industries was our source for these correct trim rings, which arrived in General Motors boxes, indicating they may be new old stock. Reproduction center caps and lug nuts complete our parts list for our wheel restoration.
4. Classic Industries also supplied OER Rally Wheel Paint in correct Dark Gray for ’70-’74 applications. Classic also offers OER paint in silver for many ’67-’81 wheel applications. We used three spray cans of the stuff for four wheels.
5. The Z28 wheels had several coats of paint and plenty of brake dust, but at least this set wasn’t rusty. We sprayed wheels liberally with Gunk and hosed them off to get as much of the grease and brake dust off as we could before putting them into the blasting cabinet.
6. We called around to several machine shops before finding one with a blasting cabinet that we could use. Each wheel took over a half an hour to blast clean with military-spec glass bead. Shops usually charge around $30 an hour for the use of blasting cabinets. Our wheels cost $60 to blast, but it was worth it. Of course, there are other ways to remove paint, such as aircraft stripper or acid baths, if these facilities are available to you. The wheels can also be blasted with sand, although it is more aggressive and doesn’t leave the smooth surface that glass bead does. If your steel wheels were welded together from the factory and have seams in the front (like typical steel wheels that mount hubcaps), sand and/or glass bead will blast into those seams. It is extremely difficult to remove and you may consider acid dipping as an alternative to blasting such wheels.
7. Black epoxy paint applied by a previous owner proved to be extremely difficult and very time consuming to remove. Another reason to consider having the wheels dipped.
8. Military-spec glass bead is one of the best ways to remove old paint and rust from parts. Glass bead also works extremely well on aluminum parts to clean and remove oxidation.
9. The wheels came out beautifully. Since there was no real rust on the wheel hoops, we spent the most time on the front and rears of the wheels. We gave the hoops a quick blast and removed any surface rust that was found.
10. Glass bead leaves a clean, smooth surface. It doesn’t remove steel as quickly as sandblasting and leaves a smoother surface. Be careful if you use sand for blasting, as it can be severe on parts.
11. Eastwood’s PRE cleaner works well removing grease and fingerprints prior to priming and painting. It dries quickly, leaving a perfectly clean surface to paint.
12. One of our neighbors, an Avon lady, gave us these nice shipping boxes that work very well to prop the wheels for painting. After priming and painting, we allowed our wheels to dry overnight before taking them back to our local tire shop for remounting.
RESTO & NEW-STYLE WHEEL GUIDE
Many of the wheel styles that came on General Motors products in the 1960s and 1970s are available today as reproductions. This means you don’t have any rust, curb rash or bent wheels to deal with. These wheels are available in many widths and diameters, up to 20 inches. Many replica wheels are even available in billet aluminum. The selection is phenomenal.
OEM and reproduction rally wheels in sizes from 14×6-inches to 16×8-inches. Chrome reproduction wheels in sizes from 14×6 to 15×10. SS-style ’69-’70 reproduction wheels in sizes from 14×7 to 15×8. Third-gen Camaro 16-inch factory GTA-style alloys and reproduction wheel accessories for many factory styled-steel wheels.
Classic Industries
18460 Gothard St.
Huntington Beach, CA 92648
1-800-854-1280
Reproduction rallye wheels. Reproduction raised white letter, OE white stripe and OE and radial Redline tires for virtually any application. Pro-Trac Performance Tires.
Coker Tire
1317 Chestnut St.
Chattanooga, TN 37402
1-800-251-6336
The original Trans-Am racing wheels, still made in England. Used on virtually all factory Trans-Am racing cars in the late-’60s/early-’70s. Available in 15×5.5 to 15×8 sizes for GM applications in a variety of backspacing and colors.
Minilite Wheels
165 Merryall Rd.
New Milord, CT 06776
(860) 355-8888
Wheel Vintiques offers an astounding selection of reproduction styled-steel and billet aluminum wheels in many sizes and widths.
Wheel Vintiques
5515 E. Lamona
Fresno, CA 93727
(559) 251-6957
Reproduction rallye wheels; custom wheel fabrication and repair. Designed and manufactured in U.S. Over 50 years experience.
Wheel Smith
2025 S. Susan St.
Santa Ana, CA 92704
1-800-854-8937
