Kelsey-Hayes Wheels

I have two sets of 14" 65 K-H styled steel wheels. One set is for the car for show: they are for early 65. The wheel chrome includes the tire rim, they came with original caps, and they were very expensive. I paid the price because they are date-code correct for my car. The original chrome restored nicely.

One wheel of the five needed its cinnamon-colored inner part repainted. I fiddled with a color match, found it, and sprayed accordingly. The rest were, as far as I can tell, original with minor scratches and blemishes.

My second set are also 14", dated 11/65, so they are for a late '65- early '66 Kar. They have a painted tire rim which requires a chrome ring to cover. Their between-spokes inserts are painted a charcoal gray. They will be my street wheels, so I don't care that they don't "belong" on my March 1 Kar. They needed lots of work to restore them but restored back to nice streetable form. I had to bang out dings, blast them to de-rust, treat and polish the chrome, and repaint the inserts to match what color was left, as well as re-do the black of the tire rims. I got 4 of these wheels for $250, then did the aformentioned work to restore them..

There were some changes made in April 65, such as the availability of the GT option, dual trumpets through the rear valence instead of turn-downs underneath, and better accessories. This may also have been when the color of the inserts changed. I believe that there has been some discussion of this before, so you may want to check. My two sets of wheels both have been matched to the original colors between their wheel spokes: earlier ones are cinnamon, later ones charcoal. If you have real Kelsey-Hayes wheels, they are stamped by name, along with the wheel size (14-5J), a trade mark symbol, and a date stamp (exp: 65 11).

Some folks may point out that the repros are nice and less hassle, but I have yet to see an insert color quite match up, for what it's worth. Probably more importantly, the originals have certain details, such as the rivets, or the way the just mount on the drum or rotor with NO issues, that make the extra sweat of restoration worthwhile.

Hope this helps.