wire wheels.. worth it or not???
 

From Day one i have wanted a Racing Green Jag with wire wheels!!! I have the racing green jag, but the wheels have eluded me!!! now i have found a set, way cheap!!!!! however over the years on the forums, both this and JL, i have heard horror stories about creak, leaking and spoke failure!
If you were me ( i know you aren't, cos i am.. lol) and came across a set for 500 bucks would you pull the trigger!!! I know you all have seen my car and its so pretty and would be even better with wires, but 500 bucks seems way too cheap and owner claims they don't creak and are in perfect shape!!!
I know you get what you pay for, but im soo tempted!!!
talk me out of it, or into it!!! hellllpppppp meeee!!!

I'm Not gonna try to talk you out of it because I simply Love my Teardrop wheels and wouldn't even Consider any others!

I've always thought wire wheels belong on *Small* care like MGs, TRs and such, and I wouldn't put them on Nix is someone GAVE me a set!

But that's just me.

You'll do what you want to anyway no matter what anyone says.

But consider this; how ya gonna keep them looking as nice as the rest of the car??
(';')

I love the wire wheel look but....they are very heavy for some reason and this makes the ride a but more rough.

My 2 cents... I had 72 spoke DUNLOP (made in India)genuine knock off wire wheels with the pre 1968 2 ear style knock offs , on my 2200 lb 1973 MGB. Looked the part..little Brit roadster with knock off wires. Sweet. BUT the Jag is a 4000 lb car.
That is "heavy" for Brit style wire wheels maybe some Kelsey Hayes would work better.
The weight of the hub / wheel tire /tube/ knock off at each corner is substantial. You have to tune the spokes every so often....whack each one (wheel off car) with a wrench just hard enough the hear it ring. Do that to all spokes, all wheels. Tighten (the spoke ends that are lower in tone than the highest one) with a small wrench. Balancing is another issue try and find a shop with the right type of equipment so they can mount the wheel and work on it. Then there is the upkeep LOTS of cleaning, keep and eye out for rust at the outer spoke ends, or at the inner ends wheel bearing grease that has escaped from the hub by way of the holes in the hub where the spokes go in. Make sure you have the wraps that are placed around the inner hub to protect the inner spoke ends from chafing the tube and eventually causing a blow out. BUT they do provide EYECANDY if you are willing to pay the price in a couple of ways.

Would I put them on MY Jag NO!! But if I liked the overall look and did not want the hassle of wire I would go for Lattice style wheels from BBS or some other high end wheel manufacturer. I do feel however that the classic lines of the XJ6 S1,2,3 are easily lost in the clutter of too much wheel bling.
Personally when I made my recent change to a different wheel / tire combo, I wanted to emphasize the over all feeling of MY car, without overpowering the car's styling.


The car is a VDP with a super quiet 350 V8 with 700r4. (I will be adding sound deadening to doors /floors) So I wanted an aircraft turbine style 16 inch wheel I am happy with my choice. Puts forward the feeling of smooth quiet reliable power. But everyone has their own idea of what makes their boat float.

With regard to the additional weight that will be added to the car's unsprung weight ...I would rather have rear outboard disc brakes and alloy turbine style wheels ...my 2 cents

Two guys I know have wires, and putting performance aside, they both curse them as a PITA to clean. Look great when they are nice and shiny, but to keep smiling through that cleaning process takes some dedication!
One of the guys has a set from China, nice "10 footers" but close up you can see the chrome finish is left wanting. They were cheap. I'm wondering, are the ones you're looking at cheap for the same reason, or is it a genuine bargain for the real deal?

Well I love the look....for $500 buy them!

I love the look as well,,,,,,,,BUT,,,,,,, would never put them on a car.
As well as a Jag owner i am also a biker & the 1st thing i do with ALL my road bikes is get the spoke wheels off & fit a decent set of mags.
Note before & after shots of my Harley.
Wire wheels on a car, especially if you like to "drive" it would be way too sketchy for my liking.

Well, wires sure can look good. I offer these observations:


1. There was a time in my past that we did away with wire wheels in
favor of smooth disc wheels. And after market covers were available
to give the smooth disc look. Make old look new???


2. Grand Prix Motors was a small specialty car sales place here in
W. C. A beautiful E type was in the window. Primrose, gleaming wires, wide white wall tires. the bonnet was open to reveal a beautiful V12... Oh, I bought my car there...


3. The project before the Jaguar was a "Hot Rod of the Forties".
I rounded up 35 Ford wire wheels from many places. Even pad a "C" note for the bones of a derelict trailer. Just for it's two decent wires!!
It became a project. Sand blasted, primed and painted red. Added new caps and beauty rims. Black wall tires. 6.50 behind and 6.00 up front. Impressed my son. A more modern view,,,


4. A couple of years ago, a pristine grey XJ came into the
Ace Hardware parking lot. Flashing wires, just delicious eye candy.


5. Race cars gave up the wires for alloys! Weight and strength!!!


6. The last racer I saw wearing them was "Poison LiL" at the Imperial County Fair Grounds. Powered by a DOHC "B" Ford sprint car. engine by the genius Joe Gemsa. It raced, but was conservatively driven...


7. There is a shop that services after market wheels, including Daytons.


Heck, my first car had spoked wheels! Wood though.


Carl

I had wires on my 1990 XJ40 when I got it.

I thought they looked puny on such a big car.

I swapped them out for a set of wheels from an X300 XJ12 (alloy) and I was amazed at the impovement in handling.

Im assuming the wires I had were actually flexing a little, making the response feel mushy.

As others have said, its a 4000lb car......

I just sold mine today. Reason, you have to clean them too much, they're not original, they didn't make my car look much better, they flex as mentioned before, not really worth the money all together.

Before I got them I thought they were great. They look great, but only on someone else's car!

You will get bored of cleaning them every other day, they will get dirty and start to rust, an suddenly your expensive wire wheels are a 20 dollar rusty mess. I got my money back and I will spend it to improve my car in other ways. Example, new window rubbers, repair panels for the valance, paint.. LOL.

Quite possibly.

But my guess is it's primarily because the alloys are a lot lighter. A change in sprung/unsprung weight of just 10 pounds per wheel or hub us enough to feel a difference

Cheers
DD

Just reading through this thread again,, and brought back memories of the TR3A I used to own - had wires looked- very sporty..lol and always thought the later Triumph TR4A with wires ...was a classic look. But I also remember going to the high priced car joint near my home, and OOGLING the brand new 1964 Shelby Cobra 289 that was on the show room floor... had a set of beautiful Borrani wire wheels on it - substantial difference from the Dunlop wires on the popular smaller sports cars, MGs, Morgans. Triumphs. Austin Healys. and of course the E type Jags. Once I owned a little red 1960 "bug eye" Sprite. I sold to a friend who put a set of wire wheels on it - the car just about came to life....looked great,...it only weighed about 1600 lbs or so and wires were a good overall choice.

Hi Darren,

I had wire wheels on my Sunbeam Alpine.

I haven't had that car in over 10 years, but the periodic frustration and expense of keeping those spokes clean, tight and balanced feels like only yesterday!

Apart from that, they looked great immediately after washing the car.

Get them if only to warn others from making the same decision as you.

Cheers,

Nigel

Wire wheels? If you love 'em enough the extra upkeep won't bother you.

FWIW, I agree that they're better suited---functionally and aesthetically--- to smaller sports cars, not sedans.

Cheers
DD

Well i am gonna pass on the wheels, think i will look int some chromed kents, as i cant seem to fnd any decent pepperpots on this side of the pond! Hmmm my mums back home visiting my nan, wonder if i could convince her to wedge them.into her suitcases!! Lol

Well I hate to bust your bubble again, but...been there done that .. I had chromed Kents on my 86 Xj6 for several years. The problem was (at least in my case) was pitting and then flaking of the chrome plating.

First off I think a lot, if not all "chromed " Kents are flash chromed over stock Kents, but once you get any perforation of the chrome plate it starts flaking off. Strangely the pitting was worse on the front wheels than it was on the rear wheels...I think the reason was brake dust from the fronts and none on the rear wheels probably because of the inboard brakes and their distance to the wheels. I dunno

Anyway that was the reason I got rid of them once I was due for tire replacement,..then I went for 1996 XJ6 16 inch alloy wheels. Perfect solution perfect fit no hassles - 225 60 15 rubber. Powder coat them and life is finally good.

Well Damn!
Bubble remnants everywhere!!! Lol
Or would that just be called soap??? :)

Guess i will have to look at more options, luckily its not like i hate my kents, just want something nicer.

I never really liked Kents, but in my case ,,,that is what was on the car when I got it. So when the time came,...(new tires needed and chromed Kents were starting to look very ratty) - that's the thing with chrome .. it really shows when it is not perfect,,, nature of the beast.

For me powder coated alloys are the way to go.

We have a Dayton service shop in Greensboro NC.. At one time I had called them to ask about servicing some wires that I had, and they said they wouldn't even touch a wire wheel that was going on an XJ.. ( Hendrix Wire Wheel )
I do like the look, and would consider them for an occasional driver.
I sold a nice set of spin on wires last month. Really neat set that had adaptors for the original hubs, so nothing needed to be modified for installation to the XJ.
They are quite heavy though...
I do have several extra sets of Pepperpots on hand, if you'd really like to go that route. My vote is always with the Pepperpot (or Lattice) for a great looking rim for the Series 3.

David
shop.everydayxj.com

Spin on Dayton Rims fitted to a Series 3
 

Photos of the spin on wheels, just because they are so unusual to find...
These were sold through shop.everydayxj.com :)

David