After 65-plus years of wear and tear, it is not uncommon to find an original-style steel Bugeye wheel in need of replacement due to damage around the mounting holes. Upon removing one of the wheels from a Bugeye which is here in our shop this week for mechanical refresh, we noticed just such an issue, a couple of extra large lug holes on the left side of the below wheel.
Presumably, at some point, this wheel was not installed with proper lug nut torque, and as a result, moved around on the studs, which damaged the rim (and one of the studs, as well). With the wheel installed on the car in the photo below, you’ll notice the two damaged holes no longer form an adequate surface for the lug nut to seat to. Regardless of the cause, this rim is now rendered useless and needs to be changed for safety. Thankfully, we have an inventory of original Bugeye rims. This car will get a different rim promptly, and the damaged rim will be discarded.
I share this this week as an invitation to make sure to check the lug nuts (and studs) on your car. The nuts should be torqued to 38 pounds, which is not a lot by modern lug nut standards, and that might be the root of the cause here; many late model shops will over tighten these and damage the threads on the stud or inside the lug nut. Too tight with stripped threads could actually mean insufficient torque and enough of a problem for the wheel to walk on the hub and damage the rim as shown. In other words, by over-torquing the nuts and destroying the threads, you will end up with a loose nut and potential rim damage. We’ve seen this on multiple occasions where people bring their classic car to a shop with unfamiliar technicians and excessively powerful lug nut equipment that immediately destroys the wheel fasteners.
Next time you have your wheels off your car, make sure you check the threads on the studs and the nuts and ensure they are in good condition. We have a full assortment of wheel studs and nuts in our parts catalog should you need to replace a few (or if you want to keep a couple spares on the shelf), which you can check out below by clicking on the pictures of each part. More importantly, take a good look at the rims and make sure you don’t have something similar to what you’ve seen in this post. We have a number of options available to you should you need to replace your wheels, ranging from upgraded Minilite wheels to restorable used original steel wheels. Check them out by clicking on the photos below, or take a look at our full catalog by clicking here!
