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Any decent aftermarket wheel store can find you a selection of wire wheels that may fit your particular application. But be aware of two unavoidable issues with wire wheels:
1. They are very expensive.
2. They are a royal pain in the *** to clean. I had a set of wire wheels on my Datsun Z back in the 70s and 80s. Never again. They look great when they're clean. But when they're dirty, they look lousy and take longer to clean than washing the entire rest of the car does. Getting in there with a toothbrush and sometimes even a Q-Tip or a wooden dowel with a small scrap of a rag rubber-banded to it was about the only way to get to some of those spoke surfaces. As I said, never again....
Dayton may have some available. However, plan on spending more time on them than the rest of the car. Not only cleaning them, but keeping them true and the spokes tightened. There's a reason no car has wire wheels anymore.
Actually they look pretty neat on a S type since it is a retro design....
Dayton makes them...
They would not look good on the sporty R.. Better fit on a base car..
Here is a '66 from Dayton's site for comparison...
Jeff, I don't think that is a original S-Type. The rear wheel arches have been modified. Having said that, the car looks fantastic. I would go with black wall tires instead of the thin white walls.
Dayton rims are awesome thats for sure and that s type looks fantastic with those rims, and i dont think its a huge deal to clean them as long as you have some powerful pressure washer
Jeff, I don't think that is a original S-Type. The rear wheel arches have been modified. Having said that, the car looks fantastic. I would go with black wall tires instead of the thin white walls.
It is definately an S Type. The wheel arches have been modified. I've actually seen quite a few early S Types and MKII's with that modification. Kind of like the fact that a bunch of people cut out the window split on the 63 vette, way back when. I used to always get the MKII and S Type confused. The easy way to tell the difference is the MKII has the rounded boot where the S Type has the longer squared off boot.
It is definately an S Type. The wheel arches have been modified. I've actually seen quite a few early S Types and MKII's with that modification. Kind of like the fact that a bunch of people cut out the window split on the 63 vette, way back when. I used to always get the MKII and S Type confused. The easy way to tell the difference is the MKII has the rounded boot where the S Type has the longer squared off boot.
Jeff, the modified rear arches make the original S-Type look a lot better. The stock wheel arches which are squarish like the MK10 make it look like two different cars. Jaguar should have made the S-Type with the wheel arches as shown in the picture you provided.
As an aside, growing up in SoCal it seemed that most of the 63-67 Vettes were modified in some manner. The most common modifications were the six tailights, fender flairs and side mounted exhausts. A number of the 63's did have the split window modified like you mentioned. They didn't know then that they really detracted the value of the car.
Yah, I'm not too taken with the wire rims on our modern S-types. To me, wire wheels harken back to an earlier time period and only seem fitting on cars from that time period. You won't see me replacing my rims any time soon with wire ones.
I know old post but I figured I would share a 2000 silver S.
They should have saved the money spent on the rims and invested in a headlamp polishing kit instead... Jeeze...
Actually, I really don't like those. Buuuut, I did see a modern S Type with a set of Dayton knock off wheels complete with the Jaguar spinner like those that came on the MK2 and first S Type. It was at the Father's Day car show at Stan Hwyett Hall in Akron. I wish I had a picture. I was more interested in the late 70's 280SL. Straight 6 and stick shift. What a rare beast that was. I did ask the owner about the wheels and he said Dayton made them for his car along with the knock off adapters. They actually looked real nice on the car. It was dark green as well.
Just changing my wheels over to wires as I got a set donated.
Changed all the hubs just to find that the wheels are not right.
They came from a Mk 2 and I was assured that they would fit the S type
They dont
The wheel catches the brake caliper so be careful if you are thinking about second hand wheels. I now need to fit spacers or change the wheels.
Must have been by coincidence that only last week, an episode of Wheeler Dealers came on featuring a BRG Mk II. Beautiful body and paint...and wire wheels. And for the brief moment of "what if..." Came up.....but fortunately the coffee kicked in, and common sense prevailed. No wire wheels for a S.
Now, I DO have a set of Daytons on my 66 Caddy. Opinions are at both extremes of the spectrum. Love or hate. Nothing in between.
WOW, digging up a 6 year old post about wire wheels.
At least he used the SEARCH function.
Here's why you don't get wire wheels...
I took these off the '94 XJS I just acquired. 136k miles, I'm guessing the rims are at least 20 years old and probably have not been tuned or attended to in all that time. All 4 wheels had an exorbitant amount of wheel weights, and when I drove it, it starts shuttering at 60+mph.
08-03-2010, 11:05 AM
