Help ID'ing a wheel?

My Father-in-Law recently purchased a 56 short bed Ford Pick-up. He was told that the rims on the truck came from a 40 Lincoln. When I look up 40 lincoln rims, they appear to be different and my understanding was that they should be 16" if they are 40s, and these rims are 15". They have the ford truck bolt pattern and are also running tubes. I don't see any nubs or clips for hubcaps. Any ideas?

 

I believe the early 40s Lincolns and Mercuries did have 15' inch wheels, But those look more like the mid fifties Lincoln wheels.

 

Looks like it has had the center 'reversed'.......the drop center portion of the rim looks more like the backside than typical frontside. But I agree the center does look like a FOMOCO product and does not appear to have provisions for a poverty cap...so Lincoln seems right.

Ray

 

would the mid-50s lincoln rims have still run tubes?

 

Yes to tubes. They look like reversed wheels to me as well, are they welded on the back side? Could be early custom jobs. The trick was to knock the center out of the Ford/Lincoln rim and weld it into the center of a Buick outer hoop, backwards. Buick hoops were the widest stock available 15" wheel at the time and that way you could run a wide 15" tire on the early Ford bolt pattern.

Neat if that's what they are. Can't run a center cap or a full wheelcover on those rims with that setup though.

 

Not sure why you think they are necessarily tube type. If it is the larger hole for the valve stem, that was the standard size until about '60 or so. Tubeless stems were, and are, available for that hole size.

Ray

 

Hard to tell from the photo but you can pull the valve stem and tell its a tube.

 

Ill check them out this weekend and see if I can see any welds on the backside. The previous owner told my father-in-law that he bought a 40 lincoln and that these rims were on it. He sold the car but kept the rims and put them on this truck.

 

I could see that, but my point is that the fact it currently has a tube was probably based on the tire utilized and/or a choice, an option, not a necessity.

Virtually any (reasonably modern) wheel could be mounted tube type or tubeless..........it depends more on the tire, not so much the wheel. Unless of course, you have laced spoke wheels........many of them require tubes, regardless of tire type.

Ray

 

Reversed '52 - '53 Lincoln.

 

Here is the backside of the rim, definitely looks reversed. Looks like I might be acquiring the 56 short bed these rims came from, so I might bead blast them and run them.

 

Yup, looks like they knocked the rivets out, reversed them and welded them back together. Kind of a neat piece of history with those wheels. If they balance out nicely, would be cool to keep using them.