Bolt pattern for 1951 Henry J?

[DylanFan]

Can anyone tell me the bolt pattern on the stock wheels on a 1951 Henry J?  I asked someone about the wheels and tires on their Henry J and was told they were American 5 spokes.  When I looked up the wheels they said they were 15 X 5.5 with a 3 3/4 inch backspacing.  It also said they had a 5 by 205MM pattern.  Would those wheels fit a Henry J and if not what size should they be?

[Fid]

The thing to remember about a stock Henry J hub is the wheels are held on with bolts as opposed to nuts as modern ones are. There is also a guide pin on them to align the holes (about the 9 o'clock position in the picture) so any wheel would need to accomdate that... or it would have to be cut off.
Here's what they look like -

[Fid]

I have heard that the bolt pattern is the same as Chysler if I'm not mistaken. I have Edgar Kaiser's Henry J here and it has Keystone wheels with the stock drums.


Studs were installed from the back and it appears the original holes/pattern was used.


The guide pin is still on them too (it's hard to see in the picture but it's there, about the 11 o'clock position) as it fits right behind the spokes and does not cause any problems.  I'm guessing the pattern is stock as it would be difficult to drill 5 holes on each hub and get them correct so the car rides smooth, which it does.

[swade41]

The pattern is 5 X 4.5, same as ford/ (common) mopar. Some rims also may require a thin spacer to get past the rivet heads, once the guide pin is ground off. My car had the bolts replaced with regular studs but needed that spacer for the aliminum slot wheel face to sit level against the drum.
 I did redrill my pattern to chevy 5 X 4.75 , it's a close fit but there is just enough meat on the hub to do it.

[HJ-ETEX]

swade41 - You should be careful about referring to the 5 X 4.5 bolt spacing as Ford because Ford rims have larger studs, nuts & holes than Mopar, AMC, Studebaker, Kaiser, etc. The Studebaker people have problems using Ford rims on their cars as a result but Mopar works OK.
I used a set of wheels & tires off of a 1975 Dart on my 64 Stude Commander for a few months and the main problem was that the Dart rims were 14" so the tires were not as tall as they should be.   

[Fid]

Here's something I found on Kaiser Bill's site. It may be helpful -

http://www.kaiserbill.com/Web-PDF/Wheel-List.pdf