any body have any idea where I can find good wheels and nuts for 62 olds 88 , the wheels and nuts are worn that the car will not pass inspection , with the car having left and right threads , hard to find left handed nuts , would help if I could find new studs and change all the drums to right handed , has any body run into same problem , plus looking for gas tank for same car , thanks for any help Dennis

 

Finding both right and left handed nuts is easy - Fusick has them and they can also be found in the Dorman catalog.

 

think my mechanic wants to place the nuts and studs with all right hand studs and nuts , got to find a little bigger nut ,both the nuts and rims are warn from use over 50 years , we are hoping a larger nut will lock the wheel on tighter with the warn rims , they won't pass inspection here in Pa. the way it is , was hoping not to have to put after market wheels on it , like to keep old look with hub caps ,

 

Dorman sells LH thread lug nuts for a lot less than the restoration houses. The threads are 1/2-20. These are very easy to find. If your wheels and lugs are worn, the nuts have not been torqued properly. Dorman P/N 611-031 are the LH thread lug nuts (13/16 hex) and 611-016 are the RH thread. Available at any auto parts store or from RockAuto. The LH nuts are $0.59 each and the RH are $0.55 each from RockAuto. Not hard to find. NAPA can cross the Dorman numbers as well.

Your wheels are 5 x 5" bolt pattern. Also very common if you need to replace them.

 

thanks Joe , rockauto big help , still can't find any steel rims like the original wheels on car , lots of after market , was hoping to stay with original so can still use my hub caps ,do you know of a place , thanks Dennis

 

WTH kind of inspector is looking at your damn lug nuts, really?

Put a thin spacer behind the wheel then and it should draw tight ok.

Of course the inspector would have a cow.

So, your wheels are literally not tight, or the the inspector "thinks" they "may not" hold properly? What is the exact criteria?

 

the hole in the rim have warn to a bigger hole ,I think from years of guys using air guns and over tighting them , he thinks they are unsafe , hes looking into finding larger nuts with bigger flanges , found 2 rims in Delaware ,hoping to get them this weekend if there in good shape , getting new studs and getting rid of the left handed threads on drivers side , the guy that does my inspections go's by the book , they have to cover there rear ends if some thing go's wrong , I know buying a car from out of state could have some problems with inspection in Pa.

 

If the lug holes are worn too large, that's from the lug nuts being too loose. Be careful when swapping the studs. I did this on my 62 F-85, and after pressing the old studs out of the hubs, the holes were too large for the knurls to grip. I had to find studs with an oversize knurl. This is another time when you need to scan the Dorman catalog for the right size lug.

 

its mostly front of lug nuts and hole in rim that are warn down , the threads are good , think its just to many years of taking them off and on using a air gun , thanks for your help , dorman does have larger front on the nuts , the only reason we are changing the studs is to get rid of the left handed threads , unless you tell them that the left side of car has left handed threads , the younger mechanics end up turning them the wrong way , they don't stop and look to see the L on the studs , they are so use to turning them counterclockwise to take lug nuts off , thanks again for your help

 

Well, the solution to that is right in what you said - TELL THE MECHANIC THEY ARE LEFT HAND THREADS. Tell the service manager as well and have him put it in writing on the service order. Tell everyone that may even look at your car. Don't just drop it off and assume they will know how to do it correctly.

 

I know, my problem is this all happen to the wheels before I bought the car , never gave it a thought to pull the wheels and check the lugs , to me they looked good when I toke hub caps off to clean them , didn't get the bad news till I toke it in for inspection , Don't know about other states but Pa. is tuff on inspections , The guys that are doing the work now know all about them nuts ,we are trying to fix the mess with bigger nuts ,Joe all ready helped me with Dorman parts ,

 

"he thinks they are unsafe "

Really?

Is there an actual number or measurement one can go by, or is what "he thinks" the end of the investigation? Opinions vary. Another guy might "think" they are good to go.

That's bullsnort. If the holes are somewhat "wollered out" [the technical term? :-) ] but still tighten and hold properly... then by definition they are serviceable. Every time the nut is installed it will wear the wheel "some".... there must be a measureable numerical feature that can positively discern ok from "needs to be fixed".

 

that's the same thing I said , but if we can fix it now and not have problems down the road , I want to get rid of the left handed threads and hoo , I bought the car to drive , its not a show room baby , If I'm driving it I want it safe , been hard to find 14 x6 stock rims , in 2 months only found 2 that a guy is going to give me I hope , thanks for all your help .

 

Are there not a few guys here parting out rides of your era with steel wheels that will work?

 

Hi Dave , put a message in parts wanted , Haven't heard back from any body on this site , did here from some one on my clubs FB page said he had 2 from olds 98 , then got email from another fella , emailed back couple days ago and have not heard back , My mechanic is hoping putting new studs and bigger nuts with solve the problem and get it pass inspection , I see you are selling the Gray Lady , good luck she's a pretty car ,

 

I was looking at '62 lug nut availability last week. The LH and RH nuts are in my Raybestos catalogs, which means that my local auto supply store can get them over the counter as a regular order item, no shipping charges.

 

I ordered some custom made steel wheels from Wheelsmith for my '57 Chevy. They are able to build the wheels to your offset and bolt pattern specs, and if you can give them specs for the hubcap nubs, they'll put those on too. IIRC they're the manufacturer for some of the restoration parts houses. Ordering direct is far less expensive.

 

Thanks bob p , we are getting new larger nuts and new studs ( doing away with left handed threads ) I gave a quick look at wheelsmith I see they say they only make 15 and 16 inch , a fella from are Olds club has 2 he's giving me , using larger nuts I think will get me past inspection for now so I can get the car on the road , getting parts for a chevy around here is easier we have OLD55 right down the street they sell parts for all the old chevy's , I'm glad I joined this site , learning a lot about these older Oldsmobile's ,

 

As I pointed out above, any auto parts store can either order the Dorman part numbers I posted directly or can cross reference them to their own brand (ie, NAPA). The question is, when you add local sales tax, plus your time and gas for two trips to the store (one to order, one to pick them up), is it still cheaper to get them locally than from RockAuto?

 

the shop that is doing work for me is getting them from Napa I think , theres a Dorman plant about 3 miles from me , they hold a car show there ( Dorman Helps Car Show 4/18/2015 ) was hoping to go but are Olds club has a cruz same day , thanks again joe ,

 

I haven't looked for steel wheels for my Olds, but I heavily researched this for my 57 Chevy about 7 years ago. I needed a custom set of 14" wheels with a specific offset, a disc brake profile to clear a custom brake setup, and welded-on nubs so I could use my original hubcaps.

I ended up calling Wheelsmith. We discussed having them send the wheels out for powdercoating before shipping to me. Doing it this way would be cheaper than having the wheels painted after I received them. The only problem was that the hole for the air valve has to be moved with the new wheel profile, so there wasn't exact alignment between the valvestem and the hole in the original hubcap. People who do this for Chevies that use the full-size hubcaps have to deal with it by enlarging the hole in the hubcap for the air valve. It's not a problem for the smaller hubcaps.

Some sources for steel wheels:

Wheelsmith
US Wheel
Pete Paulsen Motorsports
stocktonwheel
newstalgia wheels
wheel vintiques

Summit even carries a lot of steel wheels on their site. I think the custom wheel fabricators are your best bet. When I had special needs Wheelsmith was willing to spend a lot of time helping me with custom specs over the phone. They expended a lot of effort for a customer who only wanted to order 2 wheels. I would call them, even though they may not specifically advertise 14" wheels.

 

Ok will do , if I can't get them , meeting a fella Sunday that has 2 from a 64 - 98 I think they should be the same , thanks for the help , us old guys need all the help we can get