When I began working on my '53 3100, I took all four of the original 16" wheels to my cousin's tire shop. He removed the old, dry rotted, tube type tires, ran a wire wheel around the bead of the wheel and mounted a set of used tubeless radial tires. These tire were only intended to allow me to roll the truck around the shop and on/off a trailer while I am working on it. My intention was to purchase some new wheels/tires when the truck is ready for the road.
Well, that's been a few years now. Three of the four have held air the entire time. The one that has a slow leak could be the tire or the rim, I've never soaped it to find out.
Recently, I acquired a fifth rim, that matches my original four, from a very nice man in Alabama. My intention now it to have all five rims blasted and powder coated and run new tubeless tires on them.
We shall see how that works out.
