Steel Wheels - Which Do You Love, Like and Dislike, and Why?

[Casey]

Trevor/Bainford's comment:..."accurate steelies. 95% of the steelies out there are unusable absolute  including those offered in newly tooled kits (yes, I'm looking at you, Revell). JoHan had the best ones."

...got me thinking. I've seen plenty of poorly executed steel wheels and have favorites and some I would never even consider using on any projects, but opinions differ. If you can post pics and/or mention the specific kit(s) in which the wheels you like (or dislike) are found, even better...unless you're hoarding them and don't want to share your secret source.  

[Ace-Garageguy]

I like the very old AMT 16" steel wheels. Though a little clunky as they come, with some tweaking, they can look quite good for the right application.

 

[Foxer]

These aren't available but I believe are excellent steel wheels. They were made and cast by Ryan Silva here in Massachusetts. Ryan stopped casting wheels as far as I know. These were exact replicas of the 16" 8-lug GMC wheels on a model of my daughter's van.

Edited March 14, 2018 by Foxer

[Ace-Garageguy]

Everything I've seen from these guys so far has been exquisite.

Several styles and widths available.

Injection-molded styrene.

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

The chrome-reverse steel wheels in the recent repop of the AMT '36 Ford, and the set in the "new-tool" Ala Kart are also both very nice.

[Erik Smith]

I’ll dig out some others later, but for anybody looking for late model 4 lug steel wheels, these from Asuka are very nice:

 

They include four, two piece wheels with either a shallow or deep rim. They also include extra lug nuts and two clipboards. 

Edited March 13, 2018 by Erik Smith

[Erik Smith]

For 5 lug, late model cars, this kit from Aoshima has the best (and the cool thing is, it also includes wheels with the wheel covers, so you can raid the steelies and still build the model):

I got this kit to replace the wheels in Fujimi’s Evo model with these horrible wheels (photo from the internet - can replace with mine when I get home):

Edited March 13, 2018 by Erik Smith

[Rob Hall]

For '60s-70s American car steelies, I've been happy w/ those from Fireball Modelworks, Scenes Unlimited, and Missing Link Resin. 

[Erik Smith]

Just now, Rob Hall said:

For '60s-70s American car steelies, I've been happy w/ those from Fireball Modelworks, Scenes Unlimited, and Missing Link Resin. 

Yes...and, as far as I know, all three make their own wheels, so they are very accurate for the purpose - I don’t think any are copies of kit wheels...?

[ChrisBcritter]

I find myself scrounging for the old chrome reverses from the '60 Ford pickup; not as accurate as some but they have a nice shape. The wheels from the '58 and '59 AMT Chevies aren't too deep but look good for stockers, and there are some two-piece wheels AMT (I think) made for one of their mid-'60s kits that had the center detail inside the wheel backs, and the outer part was just the rim. I'll need to post photos of them to try to get them IDed.

One of these days I'm going to convert some of the AMT compact 13" steelies to four-lug when I get one of those miniature chisels to pick off the lugs cleanly, and start casting them up...

[martinfan5]

Yes, all of them.

[martinfan5]

2 hours ago, Erik Smith said:

For 5 lug, late model cars, this kit from Aoshima has the best (and the cool thing is, it also includes wheels with the wheel covers, so you can raid the steelies and still build the model):

I got this kit to replace the wheels in Fujimi’s Evo model with these horrible wheels (photo from the internet - can replace with mine when I get home):

The Hiace kits also include steelies with wheel covers.

[Fat Brian]

A recent favorite of mine are from the last reissue of the Monogram 32 Ford with the blue car on the box. I dont know how accurate they are but they've got a nice look to them and the they're big and little which is really important to me. I've got two sets and would love several more, they pretty much inspired this whole build.

[Greg Myers]

Pegasus 

[afx]

These are from Scenes Unlimited.

 

[espo]

While there are several steel wheels from various kits the one thing that they all seem to be lacking is accuracy with the center section. They may have fairly accurate looking lug nut area but not the mounting for the small hub caps. All to often the offset of the center in relation to the outer rim as wrong. You wind up with a hub cap that stands to far out to look realistic weather your using a small center cap or a full hub cap. As much as I like the Pegasus chrome wheels, and I'm even finishing a build now with them, the ones with the spider center cap are the only ones that look right to me. The wheels from the Dodge "Joker" car had some great looking wheels but only if you're looking for a reversed of extra wide wheel.  The Revell '57 Ford kits have a fairly realistic looking wheel but again the offset is not what it should be, and you're limited as to what tires you can use unless you modify the outer edge.   

[Snake45]

I like the 2-piece ones in the AMT annual '66 Vette roadster (and possibly other years as well, I'd have to check). With the rim being a separate piece, you could match them up with different width rims (often used as the backsides of wheels) to make them as wide or thin as you need for any particular tire. I have a few sets of them stashed up (will be using at least one set very soon) and wish I had many, many more of them. 

[1972coronet]

For the longest time , the AMT Chevy Van from the 70's (and later , the A*TEAM van) were my favourites . I used to buy those 80's A*TEAM vans for dirt-cheap back in the mid-late 80's *just* for the tyres and plain steel wheels ! I put them on every dirt-cheap Joker Goon Squad / "Gotham" Police kit that I built ( to rid that kit of its ridiculous , deep , non-stock-in-every-way "Wide Country" wheels !! ) .

Now , we have Fireball , Scenes Unlimited , et al. , for the absolute best steelies ! 

[Robberbaron]

I always thought the AMT '58 Impala and '59 Elco Steelies were pretty good versions of factory stock, I've put them on a couple different beaters over the years

[High octane]

8 hours ago, Rob Hall said:

For '60s-70s American car steelies, I've been happy w/ those from Fireball Modelworks, Scenes Unlimited, and Missing Link Resin. 

My thoughts exactly.

[berr13]

I second, or third, the Scenes Unlimited suggestion.  I also like the chrome wheels in the Lindberg Maverick '64 Dodge SS.  They look good to my eye, with the smaller center section typical of Chrysler wheels (or Ford for that matter), and the rears are slightly wider than the fronts.

[Joe Handley]

I picked up the Scenes Unlimited Mopar steelies with the '69-'70 dog dish, I do really like those, same with the Pegasus Chrome Reverse, deep Dish Goon Car wheels and the AMT Chevy Van steelies are nice too, I'm even a fan of the cop steelies and chopped down Truck Rally Wheel centercaps that come on the '05 Impala snapper.

[Joe Handley]

6 hours ago, Greg Myers said:

Pegasus 

Oh, something I discovered a couple weeks back in relation to these and the Astro Supreme style wheels is that the tires that come on those wheels are taller than the ones on the Astro lookalike, but are also a direct swap and fit perfectly.  Just thought that might be appreciated since it would help with a big and little stance and allows for a better appearance when used on different sized cars.

[mikemodeler]

While the Steel Wheels album was successful for the Rolling Stones, I am a fan of the Some Girls album. 

[afx]

9 hours ago, 1972coronet said:

For the longest time , the AMT Chevy Van from the 70's (and later , the A*TEAM van) were my favourites . I used to buy those 80's A*TEAM vans for dirt-cheap back in the mid-late 80's *just* for the tyres and plain steel wheels ! I put them on every dirt-cheap Joker Goon Squad / "Gotham" Police kit that I built ( to rid that kit of its ridiculous , deep , non-stock-in-every-way "Wide Country" wheels !! ) .

Now , we have Fireball , Scenes Unlimited , et al. , for the absolute best steelies ! 

Are these the wheels from that kit?  If so they are available at Scenes Unlimited: S22 '70-80s Chevy Van /Pickup