Yesterday's job was the easy bit (or so I thought). Get tyres mounted and pop the wheels on

Let me just cut to the chase and offer a piece of advice to anyone swapping to steels. Get yourself some tyre valves IN ADVANCE!

Bus steel wheels have an oversized valve whole and the standard valves all the fitters stock pull straight through...

So my fitter sent me on a hunt for some valves and I must have tried a dozen tyre fitters who all failed to come up with suitable valves. An hour and a half later, i had a brainwave and called in at Aircooled Engineering in Tyseley, Birmingham to ask for some advice. Mike there said a particular fitter they have used had ordered some in specially for a ghia they had and had a bag full... Quick visit and £10 for 5 stubby wide-base valves and I'm heading back triumphantly to my fitter who's got all my wheels and tyres.

Tyres fitted I headed home for the changeover. I'd forgotten what a palaver this is with a lowered bus (no adjustable springplates here). I also had to swap out the studs on my CSP front discs to suit the wheel nuts as the alloy nuts were 12mm and the new ones 14mm.

So anyway, a pic or two of the results of my labours...


They state of the tyres after the fitter had finished




And finally in place...










See y'all at Vicky Farm!


Nige

That looks awesome, really suits the bus, great work.

clymoj wrote:That looks awesome, really suits the bus, great work.

Cheers bud, saw your bus in Brum town centre last year (Fleet St) and it's very cool.

Nige

nige1171 wrote:

clymoj wrote:That looks awesome, really suits the bus, great work.

Cheers bud, saw your bus in Brum town centre last year (Fleet St) and it's very cool.

Nige

Thanks, outside the office (M&B) as the underground carpark was full that day. It's been undergoing major surgery since then and I have to make some decisions on the look. Must start a thread and get some opinions before I do anything drastic...

That's pure style

Like that a lot

very nice...good thread on wheels...
I want to put white walls on, the PO have them but the tyres are/ were shot so I replaced with standard and want to paint the walls like yours......son does not like them...so we will see...LOL

type21f wrote:very nice...good thread on wheels...
I want to put white walls on, the PO have them but the tyres are/ were shot so I replaced with standard and want to paint the walls like yours......son does not like them...so we will see...LOL

The Mr Whitewalls paint is very resilient as far as i can tell but will take some keeping clean I think. It actually feels like rubber when dry, not a painted surface at all.

The tyre fitter was really stretching and bending it with his machine to get the tyres on the rims and apart from a few dirty marks he caused no real damage, no splitting, cracks, flaking or anything.

Amazing thread, and build. Love your bus

WOW




What a difference mate


It look sweet buddy

you must be pleased with that Nigel Bumble looks FAB

the stock wheels really do look great and colour coded too

Isn't it amazing the massive difference just adding white walls do to a ride .... I hated my bus with plain tyre on

well done Nigel great choice


See you at VF mate


Mark

Very nice

Nige,

Ten times better mate.



Carl.

Cheers all for your nice comments

Looking forward to some cruisin' this weekend...


Nige

Looks stunning dude love the colours

So Nigel


Did ya get any cursing done over the weekend mate ?

How are the tyres holding out ?

See ya in a few days bud


Mark

markp wrote:So Nigel


Did ya get any cursing done over the weekend mate ?

How are the tyres holding out ?

See ya in a few days bud


Mark

Evenin' Mr P!

Got a little cruisin' in yup. Not a lot though as got roped into decorating

White walls are cool so far. They've turned from a bright white to an off-white/creamy colour which looks better in my opinion and is starting to match the paintwork on the lower part of the bus. They were VERY white originally and I'm glad they are mellowing a little.

See you at VF!

Nige