Build Diary for
2013-07-06 - Wheels

Wire wheels do suit this stye of car and I wanted to have some 15" wheels instead of the normal Herald 13" ones. So a hunt through ebay found a set of 6 15" wire wheels for £100. They were in a pretty poor state, but I got them shot-blasted and powder-coated silver and they cam up really nicely as you can see.

Tyres are 185/65 and fitted with inner tubes due to the spokes, and special longer adapters from www.mwsint.co.uk with two-eared spinners complete the look. On the car they really set it off I reckon - and that is without the body!

However, before you rush off and fit 15" wheels to your Miglia Kit, be aware that the Herald Chassis is designed form smaller wheels and with the Herald's steering lock, the bigger wheels do touch on the front outrigger on full lock. So the answer in my case was to design a steering stop that would give me plenty of lock but not too much so the wheels hit. After a lok of cups of team and head scratching I decided to weld a 25mm sleeve on the steering rack that in effect limits the amount of travel from lock to lock. This works a treat!

As you can see by the photos, I made up a small sleeve from a piece of tubing I had. It was slightly too large so I slit it and squeed it together and then drilled a through with a 10mm drill so I could plug weld it onto the steering rack. It came out well and finctionsl as I wanted so the whilst I have plenty of turning circle from lock to lock, I don't have the tyres touching the outrigger.

Downside with this approach is that if I want to recondition the steering rack, it will mean grinding the sleeves off, to withdraw the pinion but I figured the rack is in good condition now and any new rack I get I will jsut need ot weld a new sleeve onto.