Constructing the spokes and fitting tires on a 1:8 scale wheel
A feature of classic cars, expecially those from the 1960s and earlier, are the gorgeous wire-spoked wheels. Having a model at 1/8 scale allows us to replicate closely the construction of these wheels by building them up spoke-by-spoke. This gives a beautiful finish to your model and the joy of seeing how a selection of loose parts form into a rigid wheel structure. As well as our own videos, there are many 'influencer' videos on YouTube showing how to make them.
The rubber tires on our models are exact replicas of the real ones used, even copying the tread patterns! They are quite firm to handle so below you can find a technique using warm water to soften them prior to fitting to the wheel asembly.
James Bond Aston Martin DB5
Our 1:8 scale model comes with two alternative ways to construct the wheel. The 'Easy-build' version is quite straitforward and each wheel comprises just 9 parts. The instructions for these are in our build instructions
The 'Regular-build' version of the wheel has individual wire-spokes to gradually build up the structure of the wheel. We have produced this YouTube video for you to follow how it is done:
You can also watch Pitstain Hobbies on YouTube construct the DB5 wheel:
1961 Jaguar XK-E (E-Type)
The Jaguar wire-spoke wheels have a similar construction method to the Aston Martin DB5, but you can follow World of Wayne's video build on his channel using this link:
Ferrari 250 GTO
The Ferrari 250 GTO has 5 rows of spokes; unlike the Aston Martin and Jaguar which have four. Therefore the construction method of these wheels is a little different.
World of Wayne has produced this video which shows how he constructed the wheels and the tecnique that he used:
Rubber tires
We find that the best way to attach the rubber tires to the wheel is to warm up the tire in warm water prior to fitting it around the rim.
Here is a video showing how we do it. This particular video uses the Shelby Super Snake wheels but the process is the same for all of our 1:8 cars.
