They look like they would work. I can't see the difference between them.

Ray's wheels are 14" disk brake Mustang wheels he had powder coated. Now that he is finally installing the disk brakes, his wheels won't change. They are the same size as original but they have a different contour inside.


Look at the bottom of this wheel in the snow. Notice that one side has a big bulge. That's the back, for the caliper. To prove it's the back, you can see the stem hole on the left. - Dave

The bottom set are the standard Thunderbird non-vented wheels. The top set are vented wheels which were used on a number of different Ford products. I believe they are slightly thinner. At least the vented ones that I have are. Both will work on drum brakes. Neither will work on disc brakes. They will work fine with dog dish caps but the vented and non-vented difference will be noticable.

Question Regarding Dog Dish Wheels

If you have 14" rims you will want five 14" vented disc brake ready rims which look like the one with the tape measure stuck in it. Why five? Well, if you have a flat on the front you want the spare to be a disc brake ready rim just like the one you are going to have to take off so it will fit. And when you rotate your tires, you want your back ones to be disc brake ready also. That tape measure, as I recall, shows 3 1/2" of depth on the back side.

I found mine at a local car parts yard. One of their employees and I went out and either pulled some of them off a disc brake equipped Ford car, to make sure we got the right rims, or out of their rim boneyard and compared them to what we just pulled off that disc brake equipped Ford. One of them I got out of the trunk of a '79 Lincoln Versailles and they are exactly what you are looking for IF you can still find a '77-'80 Versailles. Those of you who are Paid Members, look in the Members Conference Forum. I put a list of rims that I am told that are disc brake rims that will work on our Squarebirds.

Yes, those nubs are for holding dog dish hubcaps in place and you will want to make sure your rims have them if you are going to go the dog dish route as I did.

I have none vented ones on my 60 but in the trunk were the mounted snow tires on vented and skid chains. I remember those days. It was fun back then.

I'm having a hard time narrowing down my search on ebay. Do we know what years and models would work for the disk brake conversion? We don't really have bone yards where I live. They're called "dismantling yards" and they don't let you walk around in them anymore, so the internet may be my best bet.

Question Regarding Dog Dish Wheels

Hi Marcelo, look in the Members Forum. You will find that information there as to what rims to look for.

PERFECT! Thank you!

I read here & elsewhere that '90s model Ford Ranger wheels work fine, but I'm not sure if the dog-dish center caps will fit on them.

I was checking out a set of those 90’s Rangers wheels and they did not appear to have the nubs for the dog dish hub caps. They would probably be perfect and easier to find for a disk brake conversion if you planned on using the regular hub caps.

I purchased one reproduction steel wheel to test fit from Wheel Vintiques. The wheel is 14"x6" with 4" backspacing. Once bolted up, if I give it a spin, the inside of the wheel just barely skims the top of the caliper. It was worse until pushed the caliper in. I'm hoping that once I have the lines hooked up and have hydraulic pressure in the system that it will pull the caliper in enough so that there is no interference. Even so, do you think I should have more space, is 1/16-1/8" clearance enough?

Question Regarding Dog Dish Wheels

Marcelo, I spent a lot of time this morning looking for any pix I took of my rotor and calipers in place in the back side of the rim. I thought I might have taken some pix of that, but, apparently, I did not. I did take one of my 14" disc brake ready rims from a Granada, slipped the calipers in place on the rotor and laid the whole set up inside the rim. I did not have much in the way of clearance, about perhaps 1/8" or 1/4" as I recall, but it cleared all the way around. Based on that, I went forward with the disc brake conversion feeling sure that everything was going to fit inside that rim. I hope that Howard Prout sees this and chimes in with his comments also.

...it ain't much...




Howard drove four hours to try his wheels on my converted brakes (in the SNOW). Remember that moment when you first tightened the lug nuts, just before you spun the wheel? Look at Howard's expression:


He couldn't be more pleased.
Now compare your wheel contour with the one Howard and Ray used. Look at the silhouette at the bottom of the wheel, where the black rim contrasts with the snow:

When Howard put these wheels on his '60 Thunderbird, they worked with no alteration at all. I believe Ray's situation was identical. Both used 14" Ford wheels on their Squarebirds with S-10 calipers and Scarebird brackets.

I hope this helps. - Dave

Dave Dare tells a good story but it is only part of the story. In fact he arranged to have many of the parts I needed for my disc brake conversion sent ot his place. Ray found some 14" wheels for me so I took one with me when I went to Dave's to pick up the parts. As Dave said, he is only a four hour drive away, I was home again in time for dinner. Dave has the same disc conversion setup on his '59 Galaxy but he has after market 15" wheels so that didn't tell me if the 14" wheels I had would work. It turns out there isn't much clearance but they work just fine - it doesn't matter how large the gap is as long as the rims don't rub on the calipers. If there is a little interference you could try grinding a bit off the back of the caliper.

As for using dog dish hub caps, you need rims with the nubs on them - as can be seen the the photos Dave posted. Those nubs are what hold the dog dish hub caps in place. I don't think post-1980s rims have those nubs.