57 Wheels

[Marc W.]

I own an original 57 Corvette (I think).The corvette has a set of steel riveted wheels with the four outer nubs.These wheels are not the RPO 276.The NCRS judging manual states they should be steel welded wheels.Is this 100% true?
I just have a hard time believing the original(New)owner before me going out and changing the welded wheels to riveted wheels.

[Robert Willis]

Re: 57 Wheels

My 57 had 4 original wheels on it when I got it. They are welded. I also have a riveted wheel that I picked up from a passenger car.

Back when I was playing with 55-57 Tin Chevies we were allways told the riveted wheels with tubeless tires on the 55s leaked air around the rivets (sometimes)so in 56 the centres were welded.

Bob

http://members.kos.net/willisb/

[Tracy C.]

Re: 57 Wheels

Do you have a picture of the wheels you can provide?

[Chris H.]

Re: 57 Wheels

'57 should probably have:
welded (per JGM)
large valve stem hole
no safety humps (raised area around perimiter of rim that holds tire onto rim)
dogbones?(but probably not with rivets)
double humps (for structure of the disc)
seals
body colored

Look for date stamp on inside of rim. If they are correct for your car please let me know. (see my photos for date stamp sample). Also do yours have the double hump? (see photos)

There are two wheels released for 56-62, 3723561 and 3714744. Noland in his book says the 3723561 wheel is riveted and 3714744 is welded. I believe he was looking at actual drawings.

I have the drawing for the 15 x 5 3723561 wheel. This drawing is very confusing/hard to read, and unless you do an indepth study of the revision column you would assume it was always riveted. However the rivets were not added until '67 (service wheels) and was welded before then.

Unfortunately it was redrawn in '62 w/o change and all previous revisions are gone but at that time ('62) it was welded. So it is possible that at one time it was riveted.

The other released part number 3714744 Noland says that it was welded. I have no way of confirming this. In his book he says both riveted and welded wheels exist for '57. He does have a photo on page 136 showing a 57 with rivets.

So the drawings point to always having welded but no way to be sure.

See my pics of some wheels I have that explain some of the terms above.

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewalbum.html?alb=105159

user/password is chenige

[Rod K.]

Re: 57 Wheels

Marc,

I have a Nov '56 built '57 which has riveted wheels, four nubs for full wheel covers, three on the center hub for dog dish caps with a single "hump" outside the center hub where the small caps mount, no "dogbone" slots, a large valve stem hole and hose for the slot seals. Haven't checked for dates as Chris suggests, but I've had the car since '64 and was in contact with the original owner in the early '90s and have no reason to think these aren't original.

Hope this will help.

[Chris H.]

Re: 57 Wheels

Could both of you respond and tell me if you have the "double hump" on the disc? If not I think you probably have the 54-56 wheel which was riveted, with rim nubs but no dogbones or double hump.

The info I have was the new wheel was introduced late 1956 which I thought meant model year but may have meant calender year(Pearman/archives). So early 57's look to have the riveted wheels. The big question now is to whether they mixed stock before the change date and what the change date was. This does agree with Nolands book.

marc, when was your car built?

Can other 57 owners check their wheels and give build date?

[Wayne P.]

Re: 57 Wheels

I have a wheel clearly date stamped as 1957 and it is riveted. I'll have to check the configuration. All the riveted wheels I remember seeing did NOT have the double contour in the center. All welded wheels did.

[Chris H.]

Re: 57 Wheels

Robert, what year is stamped in the passenger wheel? Chevy did not have a 5" wide by 15" wheel in that time frame. Perhaps it is a '53 on back?

I think one issue is that Kelsey made a lot of wheels back then for all manufacturers.

[Rod K.]

Re: 57 Wheels

Chris,

I have a total of six wheels, all the same config. I know four were on the car, one may have been the original spare or just another I purchased long ago for a spare, and the sixth was a better one purchased more recently. I can't remember the details of the "fifth" one.

Anyway, all have just one surface between the rim and the center hub where the small cap nubs are located, and no dog bones. Build date on my car is about Nov 19, '56.

I'll try to check for dates later and email you offline if I find anything. Wheels are dirty and a couple still have tires mounted, so I may not find anything. Is there a "normal" location for the date stamp, maybe relative to the valve stem hole?

[Robert Willis]

Re: 57 Wheels

My 57 is #2899 with welded centres. The one passenger car wheel I have is off of a 56 Chevy (15 inch). Chevy passengers cars went to 14 inch while the Vette stayed with the 15s. My car is tucked away for the winter so I can not supply date codes at this time.

Bob

[John N.]

Re: 57 Wheels

In 56(which may or not apply to 57) a optional equipment page dated 3-16-56 and filed in the Regular Production Corvette Parts List states there were five steel wheels available. In addition to the 744 & 561 already mentioned were

3724824 possibly riveted

3724830 possibly riveted

3733435 possibly welded
To make these wheels they listed 3 possible discs, 2 possible rims, 5 possible rivets and the seals.
There was also a optional magnesium knock off wheel available 3735702.
Regards

[Chris H.]

Re: 57 Wheels

Can I get a copy of this document? thanks.

From the archives https://www.ncrs.org/forum/archive8.cgi?review=33641 :

MOST of the 56 wheels that I've seen are riveted.

Kelsey Hayes had two plants. One in Detroit and one in Romulus. The spyder sections (centers) were formed with different tooling at each of the two plants.

Detroit wheels had punched-out patterns in the spyder flanges where they were resistance welded to the rim. These patterns resembled a "dog-bone" with two "moon shaped" punches at either end.

The Romulus wheels had no such punched-out tooling patterns.

Corvette C1 wheels came exclusively from the Romulus plant.

Both plants stamped the inside of the rims (near the valve stem opening) with the Kelsey Hayes trade mark as well as a proof mark. Also they were dated by month and year.

I'm not sure about the 1957 Corvette wheels but I think they're the same as 1958 and later.

Hope this helps,

Dale.

Chris H.: If you look at the archives there are a lot of unknowns/disagreements here. Looks like 56 and 57 could have a mixture of riveted or welded. Because there were two plants that had the capability to build wheels it is always possible that the non vette plant would supply wheels to the Corvette plant for some reason. Dale states that C1's did not get dogbone wheels but I am pretty sure that late 57-59 welded wheels had them.

I have a chart showing what I think is correct. Very hard to confirm though. There probably is a cutoff date where welded wheels were predominately used in the plant. Looks like it may be in the middle of the 57 model year.

Probably the best way to confirm if your wheels are correct is to remove a tire and check the date on the rim. Not easy but if you have the tire off take a look.

[Chris H.]

56/57 owners

If you think you may have the original 5" steel wheels could you please check and see if they are welded or riveted. Please mail this info with your build date to
Henigejunk@comcast.net

thanks.

Chris 248-535-1035

[Marc W.]

Re: 57 Wheels

Chris,
I do not have a "double hump" on my 57 steel riveted wheels.
My Vin # is E57S105091=July 9,1957.
Why would the original owner(who I bought the 57 from)take the factory steel welded wheels off the corvette and replace them with steel riveted wheels? Were the riveted wheels a better wheel?

[Chris H.]

Re: 57 Wheels

Marc, As far as I know there were no reasons to switch from riveted to welded or vice versa. When I got my car I had wheels from all generations of C1's EXCEPT the ones that were correct for my car. But my car has really been mishmashed over the years and I was lucky to have the numbers matching engine and trans while a lot of other parts were incorrect.

Most likely you do have original wheels but the only way to somewhat confirm this is to look at the date code on the tireside of the rim. Perhaps if you take the photos to judging and excerpts from Nolands book you can keep your points?

Per one of my other messages it looks like two different KH plants were approved to supply the 57 model year and it looks like they were transitioning to welded. I hope that all 56/57 owners on this forum send me the data and I will start a spreadsheet. So far in build order it is

riveted (nov 56), welded (March 57), riveted (Jul 57),