MEET THE EXPERTS: MWS

MEET THE EXPERTS

MOTOR WHEEL SERVICE

As the third generation of the family to run Motor Wheel Service, Oliver Smith has a unique perspective on this long-lived cornerstone of the vintage and classic car scene

PHOTOGRAPHY: JAMES GIBSON / MWS

Tell us how Motor Wheel Service began, Oliver. It’s a very long history, isn’t it? ‘Yes, the business was founded by my grandad, George Smith, in 1927. Back then, we were just one of many wire wheel builders and repairers, as virtually every car on the road used them. But as time passed, MWS grew larger and eventually became the UK and world-wide distributor for Dunlop wheels. When the business began, there were lots of wheel manufacturers, but Dunlop became pretty dominant and was manufacturing most of the wire wheels for British cars. Dunlop had worked with Wheels India since the '60s, and by the early 1980s all the Dunlop wire wheel production had moved to India, and they still supply our stock wheels to this day.’ So what’s the mix of business – have you had to diversify? ‘We’re still about 90% wire wheels, but that includes sales of new wheels as well as repair and restoration work. We sell Blockley tyres, too. We’ve diversified to meet some clients’ needs, for example Morgan. We supply the wire wheels for new Morgans and they specified stainless steel, so as well as painted or chromed wire wheels, we do stainless steel in various sizes. We produce all finishes to meet demands.’

What about Rolls-Royce or Bentley wheels? Do they present any challenges? ‘They can do, yes! Pre-war Rolls-Royce wheels are very interesting because there were so many different centres, but it does mean that you often can’t find a spare or a new wheel centre and having them specially made can cost a fortune. Luckily, they’re usually great big pieces of metal and they last well. Vintage Bentley wheels are a bit more straightforward and use more familiar parts. But the good news is we can supply or repair just about anything; the availability of even very old rims and tyres is better than it was 10 or 15 years ago so when we find early cars that should be on beaded-edge tyres but are running the old centres with later rims, we can rebuild the wheels to the original specification with rolledged rims, if the owner wants to.’

Spinning an old beaded-edge wheel to check it's running true. Red press in background came from Dunlop factory How would an owner of a pre-war Rolls-Royce or Bentley know when their wheels needed attention? We’re used to worn out tyres, but how do you assess a worn-out wheel? ‘It can be a bit tricky, but there are things to look out for. If you feel any wheel-wobble or vibration when driving, that’s obviously worth

Worshop manager Dan Cooksley checks a freshly-built wheel after adjusting spoke tension

Process starts by inserting sample spokes to check length and angle required

checking, but vintage and post-vintage cars sometimes vibrate and wobble around anyway. A better indication comes from getting the wheel off and onto a wheel balancer to check for runout, but you can learn a lot at home by jacking the car up and spinning the wheel. Does it run true? Is there any movement between the spokes and the hub or rim, and can you see any signs of broken spokes? Uneven tyre wear is another sign to look for. Of course, any significant rust is a bad sign.’

How much can be fixed? What tends to scrap a wire wheel? ‘Because they’re made up of the centre, the spokes and the rim, they’re often quite repairable even if one or two elements are in poor condition. But a rim that’s properly corroded or bent out of shape isn’t worth trying to fix. It’s always hard to tell how much corrosion we’ll find under the paint, as wheels have often had layer after layer of paint slapped on over decades. You may find only light pitting, in which case we can re-use it, or it could be worse. Cracks around the spoke-holes are a bad sign. If you’re unlucky, a couple of broken spokes get replaced, but as they’re tightened, others break, then you replace them and so it goes on. Re-truing a tired old wheel can be tricky! In fact, we’re in the middle of building a new tyre bay specifically for the older cars, and we pride ourselves on being able to deal with every vintage and veteran car that comes our way - even Rolls-Royce and Bentley.’ ■