Hello FiatSpider.com forum

[mighty7]

Checking in from Northern California.

This is my first post to learn how to use the forum. I have a web server for hosting my photos. So let's see if I can figure out how to make a picture of my beautiful and fun car appear here.



Thanks

[mighty7]

Great. I'll consider that a success. Now on to more interesting posts.

[RRoller123]

Welcome aboard! You will find plenty of knowledgeable and friendly people here.

Pete

[aj81spider]

Nice car - love the hub caps!

[mighty7]

Those aren't hub caps but original Dunlap real wire spoke wheels. That means that I run on inner-tubes and yes from time to time get friction flats. It is getting harder and harder to find shops willing to patch inner-tubes. I did have to get them trued, and ultrasonically cleaning once. And I even did an on-the-car balance once with the guitar player from Donna Summer that now owns his own tire and wheel shop. He even said that people don't come in much anymore for on-the-wheel balance, but it did seem to smooth out my ride considerably.

[Martin124]

Friction flats would be annoying. Is there anything that you can do to prevent them? Is there some sort of covering the could go between the tube and the spoke heads? (I assume that is what causes them)

[redcars]

There is suppose to be a flap between the spokes and the tube just like in bicycles.

[mighty7]

There is a rubber barrier between the wheel and the inner tube that prevents the spoke tops from rubbing on the inner tube. That is not where the friction flats come from. Even with properly inflated tires there is always a small deformation as the wheel rotates. This causes a slight rubbing between the outer rubber tire and the inner tube. Eventually you wear through the softer inner tube. There are easily patched at a tire shop, but like I said tire shops don't want to do it since it takes some time and isn't very lucrative.

There are some modern spoke wheels where they weld the outer end of the spokes to create an air tight wheel and do all the spoke truing adjustments on the inner end of the spoke. Bottom line is that spokes are a pain and the automotive industry moved away from them long ago. Only vintage car nuts like me that like the look really bother, although these Dunlap wheels were popular on the spiders back in the day.

[Martin124]

Ahhh. I see.