crager s/s rim???

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Dirty58

Well-known member
Joined
May 18, 2007
Messages
61
Location
Ventura CO. California
cragar s/s rim???

does anyone have knowlegde of a 16" or 15" cragar s/s rim narrower then 4.50" i swear ive seem em at 4" ,im tryin to pull off a gasser look and im looking for sum skinnys for the front
 
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I saw some new 4" width cragars at Iola a few weeks ago but Ive never seen any advertised. I wonder if that would be a special order type of thing. I am using some 4" Rocket brand cragar copies on my Rat.
 
Dirty, read the below brief history of Cragar wheels that I lifted from the Roadsters.com website. There is no mention of a 4 inch wheel ever being manufactured. Cragar doesn't list one one their website either. That doesn't mean that there wasn't one, it just means that I couldn't find any mention of one. Unless you are purchasing wheels new, be careful what the seller is calling a 4 inch wheel. Depending upon where the measurement is being made, the wheel could appear to be a 4" or a 4.5 ".

As a side note, you can fit even the narrowest of street tires on a 4.5 inch wheel without any issues. Visually, there wont be any discernable difference between a 4" and a 4.5" wheel.




"The design of the Cragar S/S began in 1962, with marketing starting in 1964. Its styling was influenced to some extent by American Racing Equipment's highly-successful five-spoked Torq-Thrust wheel.

The S/S was one of the first production wheels to use a cast aluminum center with a rolled steel rim (both of which were chrome-plated), the way some 1957 Cadillac wheels were made. The S/S was also the first die-cast aluminum wheel. The wheel was designed with ribs and extra material added near the hub. The result was a wheel that offered a load-carrying capacity that was unmatched in the aftermarket wheel industry. Its classic styling made it a huge success with drag racers, hot rodders and custom car builders.

Cragar S/S wheels were made in 15 by 4 1/2, 6, 7, 8 1/2, and 10-inch sizes, and I've also seen early versions of them in 16 by 10.

In addition to the standard 4 1/2, 4 3/4, and 5-inch bolt patterns, S/S wheels were originally also available in the then-popular early Ford 5 1/2-inch bolt pattern.

The original Cragar S/S is still being produced, along with a newer version, designed by the late Larry Shinoda, which is offered in larger diameters."
 
Gastrick is right, you can't tell the difference between 4 and 4.5. Years ago we bought a set of really wide SS wheels for the rear of a car my Son was building, and also a set of very skinny ss for the front. They were the narrowest Cragars made, and to be honest I don't remember if they were 4 or 4.5, but they were perfect for that big and little look.

If you are going to street drive the car, 4.5 really would be better anyway.

Don
 
gastrick,sbj,dons,bonehead, thanks for your input on my prob. all the ones I found on ebay claim the 4" rim i figured it was probably a 4.50, so i thank im jus gonna get me sum 4.50's from summit.....
 
VDub tires!

Years ago I mounted VW tires on the front rims of my '52 5-window Chev PU... but I popped one off haulin' around a corner too. That was NO fun & did it in front of a bunch of people! I was SO kool! NOT!!!

BoB
 
Mine look like 4s to me. I bought them from Ebay, the guy who owned them said they needed to be re-finished. Which let me buy them cheap. But then I never did re-finish them. I think the chrome flaking away adds to the overall value of my truck.
 

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Jeg's lists the wheel as a 4 inch, but if you read the actual description it states that the wheel width is 4.5" so who knows. A guy over at KB said that you can obtain the wheel in a 4" width from Cragar as a race only item.

Just a story. I was running some some narrow 3.5" wide weld drag racing wheels on the front of a big block Mustang I had in the early 80's. While driving along at approx. 45 mph, I had to jerk the wheel hard to avoid an accident in front of me. As a result, the right front wheel folded over like a hotdog bun. :mad:
 
There used to be a guy here who had a 442 Olds that was tubbed in the rear, and he ran the same 3.5's on the front as Gastrick.. Almost the same thing happened to him, he bent both front wheels one day on our wonderfully maintained (?) Florida roads. He said he thought that warning "for drag strip use only" was only done to cover the wheel manufacturers tail legally.

Don
 

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