Wheel Discs for LG45

David Bracey

19 October 2013 at 19:21 #50477

Dear All,

Thanks to those who offered opinions on tyres – very helpful.

I am now turning my attention to wheel discs. The original wheel discs are a but dented and also worn very thin at the edges so I fear that even the best repair of them will fall short of the high standard I am hoping for. I have therefore been looking for replacement discs and so far believe the options are either Ace Discs from Fienes Restoration Ltd or New ones from Lmarr in the US. I know that the Lmarr ones are superb but they appear to be 3 x the price of Fienes. Does anyone have any experience?

Best wishes,

David

PS. As I have decided to replace my wheels with new slightly wider ones I have a set of 6 (yes 6) original wheels which I would be happy to sell. They need refurbishing but are quite usable.

bill

21 October 2013 at 18:46 #50482

Hi
Yes. I considered the Lmarr discs. However not only are they expensive but they are really too perfect for an 80 year old car !! Therefore I hunted around and found original discs in nice condition for very little money. I was very happy with the result. I think you will find original discs fairly easily as everyone seems to have taken them off in the past (they obviously had someone else to clean their wire wheels !). At Beaulieu there always seem to be lots around (but make certain you get the correct “offset” as well as diameter).
Best of luck !

David Bracey

27 October 2013 at 08:44 #50488

Thanks Bill,

If my car looked like a lovely original 80 year old beauty then I agree with you entirely. Unfortunately, my LG45 saloon was a total wreck so I needed to have it stripped back completely and rebuilt. It is now so new and shiny that it is probably smarter than it ever looked when it came out of Staines so I think new wheel discs are the only option.

Having also changed the wheel I now have different hub to rim offset so think new ones that are built to suit are the only option anyway. I will send a wheel to Feinnes and see what they can offer.

Thanks again,

David

Jan, thanks for your email. I sent a response similar to this but it bounced back – sorry. Thanks for your offer anyway.

DavidLG45

27 October 2013 at 09:41 #50489

Hi David,

I bought an incomplete second hand set of discs a while ago. Mainly missing some of the fixing bits and locking rings.

If you have any bits you want to sell I would be interested to know what you might have.

David

bill

28 October 2013 at 18:57 #50490

Dear David LG45
Just a tip in case in helps as you say you are missing the locking bits.
When I looked at the job of fixing the main Ali bits with metal fixings against my nicely rebuilt wire wheels and the consequent damage I decide to fix them with plastic cable ties !! I know that the purists will not like this but none of it can be seen and I found it a very easy way to fix everything.
Cable ties are immensely strong (as you may know the Police use them for “arrest”). My discs have been on for about 5 years without any problems apparently and my wire wheels are not getting scratched !!
I would welcome any views – positive or negative – about this dodge !

DavidLG45

30 October 2013 at 18:37 #50493

Hi Bill,

Thanks for your tip. Perhaps you could explain how you are using the cable ties as I can’t think how you are doing this?

David

bill

24 November 2013 at 17:00 #50540

David
I did send you an email with my telephone number suggesting you call me so I could explain – but perhaps you did not get this ?
However for the benefit of anyone else who might be attracted to the idea : –
Simply line up the alumunium cast centre over the centre of the wheel and drill a few holes in the edges (where they cannot be seen after the disc and screwed ring are on). It can easily be centred using the wheel disc itself. Insulate the aluminium centre from the wheel with some foam, cloth or something similiar before using the cable ties to grip the centre in position. Use as many cable ties as you think necessary. I think I used about 5 or 6. Then fix the disc and other bits with the screwed ring etc.
I did not bother with the disc that goes on the back of the wheel as it cannot be seen and I think it could be a real nuisance. Theoretically the rear of the wheel could become dirty over time but does that matter ??
OK it is not a “proper” way of doing it but I think it is much kinder to the wire wheel and perhaps a more secure fix anyway.
Hope this helps.
Bill

bill

24 November 2013 at 17:07 #50541

P.S and by the way may I take the opportunity of thanking Peter and any others who initiated and maintain this forum for members such as myself.
Thank you very, very much.

David Bracey

7 February 2016 at 06:38 #51726

As a new member has shown interest in reinstating wheel discs on his car I thought I should update this subject.

I was fortunate to have all the original wheel disc components as a starting point, although they were mostly in a shockingly poor state. For anyone that isn’t familiar with what a ‘set’ of parts is I’ve tried to list them below. I’m not sure what the proper names for everything is but I can’t be too far out.

Front wheel disc. (The shiny part you see.)
Valve extension (Links the wheel valve to the new disc.)
Valve extension fork. (Holds the extension piece in place so you can line up the disc over it.)
Valve extension locking washer.(Chromed threaded washer with 2 holes for tightening with special key.)
Threaded dust cap shroud (Screws down against the locking washer.)
Dust cap.
Backing plate. (functional and not decorative disc to fit on the rear of the wheel.)
Hub ring. (Quite complicated flange ring to fit in the front of the wheel and clamp through the spokes to the backing plate. Includes an external thread for the final locking ring that holds the wheel disc in place.)
Chromed centre ‘dish’. (This is a tight fit in the hub ring but it moves just enough to push tight to the wheel centre when you knock on the spinner.)
Spoke clamps. (These are themselves short spokes that fit between the wheel spokes and clamp the backing plates to the hub ring.)
Chromed threaded locking ring to tighten up onto the wheel disc. (Has 3 small holes in rim to accept C spanner.
C spanner. 7″

I refurbished the rear discs, spoke clamps, chrome centre dish, dust cap parts and C spanner. All the other bits were newly made.

The attached photos will show how it all fits together. These photos were taken after about 1,300 miles of driving in all weather so you can see that the discs have done a great job of keeping them clean. All still secure and no damage to the wheels.

The masking tape on one photo shows where I was balancing them so please ignore that. They were my marks of where weights were needed. I had them balanced and marked with all the discs in place then removed the front disc only and stuck adhesive weights to the inner and outer rims in the appropriate places.

If anyone wants to go through this themselves I would be happy for them to come and measure up but I suspect there are plenty of these parts knocking about under benches in members garages as few people seem to use them. Perhaps they can’t be bothered. I think they look smart and are a nice original feature but accept that it’s a heck of a lot of work and not to everyone’s taste.

Attached files

TVJL

7 February 2016 at 10:24 #51728

Thanks vey much indeed for posting, David – incredibly helpful. May I ask, please, who made up the new parts for you?

Best regards,

Tim

David Bracey

7 February 2016 at 11:08 #51729

Will Feinnes of Feinnes Restoration. It wasn’t, how shall I put this, a seamless process…… Excellent quality so no issues there but I must have made 8 trips from Kent to Gloucestershire – many of which were a complete waste of time. The whole process took over 18 months.

Will has the wooden former for my discs but as I had them made to fit new wheels I can’t be certain that they have the same hub to rim offset as your wheels. You would need to give them a wheel to work with. If they’re the same as mine then it couldn’t possibly take as long as they’ll have the former for spinning the discs. The machined parts will be turned by them from billets. Plating always seems to take a while. All that said, Imwould use Feinnes again because to me it’s the quality that counts above anything else.

Give me a call if you’re thinking of pursuing this as I have some thoughts about how I would do it next time round. I’ve possibly got some spare bits and pieces you could borrow.

Lmarr in the US eventually offered me a price that was very favourable but it came through after I’d placed orders with Feinnes and I wouldn’t go back on a deal once agreed. Lmarr’s original price was way out once you factored in import duties so it was frustrating that he didn’t just give me his best price from the outset.

bill

7 February 2016 at 17:44 #51730

You will find that there is a company in this country who sells the Le Marr discs so no need to import them. From memory a garage in Yorkshire – but I could find the details if necessary.
However from my experience there are lots of second hand ones available – although you need to find discs with the correct offset.
In my opinion second hand ones -suitable refurbished- are far preferable to new ones as they look so much more “authentic”. However that is just my opinion.
There always seem to be a lot of them for sale at the Beaulieu autojumble in September – and no one buys them !!
I agree they are beautiful and apart from being practical they look good.
Even Frank Feeley put them on his original drawing of the LG45 Rapide – although it would not appear that any of the original Rapides were in fact produced with them – certainly none of the original Rapides seem to have them now anyway !

David Bracey

7 February 2016 at 21:40 #51731

I didn’t realise that Lmarr have a UK agent and am surprised that they didn’t mention it as I had several phone conversations with Mike Rabin. That could well be of interest to anyone thinking no f buying new. I agree with Bill that refurbished originals is an excellent way to go if the offset works. I’d have probably gone that way if it would have been an option.

bill

8 February 2016 at 09:30 #51732

I have checked and in 2004 I contacted Ristes Motor Company of Nottingham. They still seem to be going. They seem to be mainly Rolls and Bentley but they told me they could get wheel discs for Lagonda. I think that I came to the conclusion that they would be getting them from Le Marr – but I may be wrong.
They had made the “tooling” for discs for Rolls and Bentley – although I think that this was just a pattern in wood.
They certainly had/have all the little bits that you need to put the discs together on the wire wheels. I bought the rubber extension leads from them.
Hope this helps.

TVJL

28 April 2016 at 10:37 #51885

Chaps, I’m being offered a (near) complete set of discs and parts. They are said to be LG6/V12.

I have two questions please:

1. Will these discs fit the standard wheels of LG45 S3 saloon?

2. Are the outer discs likely to be of the same design (in appearance) as those fitted to an LG45?

If the answer to both questions is ‘yes’, the way forward is obvious. However, as the ‘kit’ for 5 wheels is not cheap, I would like to be sure.

Many thanks in anticipation.

Tim