In August of last year at our clubs annual meeting I was talking to one of the members of getting some various cast track sections of German wartime vehicles for my little collection. I was asked by the newsletter editor if I wanted a "big road wheel" off a German prime mover that he was tired of having and getting ready to dispose of. I said by all means I would take it, did not have any idea what i would do with it but would take it anyways, the first fellow said without missing a beat put glass on it and make a table top, and so the project was born. Skip forward a year later and in August the wheel and I finally meet and we collectively determine it is the outer wheel of a Sd.Kfz.8 12 ton half track. It had been made into something else by some Euro Bubba but the hub was there (more on that shortly) and the wheel was as expected, rusty and shedding the rubber. During its post service life "Euro Bubba" had removed the hub end off 12 tonner inner wheel discarded the end cover and welded some crazy heavy tube like thing through the wheel and hub. The Germans in their love of making things difficult constructed the inner wheel to have a heavy tubular extension heavily riveted to it with the hub welded to the end of the tube/extension. I had been told it was a heavy and awkward thing but I had a mission to get it home, surgically cut off that crazy heavy tube, figure out what was the way forward and get to it. So here was the wheel on day one back in Canada.
^ Note the tube thing.
^ Tube thing cut off, even saved original nuts...........heat is your friend.
^ Saved original parts, the scrap metal guy that rolls around on collection day was happy to make the tube thing go away.
^ now after sandblasting and paint.
^ What "could" be battle damage, something impacted the wheel at some point so the strike is painted with a touch of POR15.
^ I had to make a hub cover for the hub, used MDF, plywood and a bottom off a collandor from Value Village ($1) ice it like a cake with JB weld then pat with a Scotch pad when the JB weld is almost set to make it look like a casting and glue on with Devcon. The black lock wire is just a coat hanger formed like the spring steel original. Button style grease nipple is off the kettenkrad and retains traces of original red paint, the fresh red model paint looks glaring in the flash.
^ The wheel size , have to do a little touch up paint to cover the construction adhesive I used to glue the road rubber back on. The rubber itself weighs 18 lbs the wheel 80 lbs and the hub 12 Lbs, the stupid tube thing was 32 lbs by itself.
I had a shop CNC cut a piece of 3/8 acrylic and next up will be figuring out the base. As its a wheel and round I am thinking it would be cool to have a bearing used to see it spin/rotate, but I kind of just like the look of it as is also.
If anyone knows what the manufacturer code of pgh is please let me know
^ Note the tube thing.
^ Tube thing cut off, even saved original nuts...........heat is your friend.
^ Saved original parts, the scrap metal guy that rolls around on collection day was happy to make the tube thing go away.
^ now after sandblasting and paint.
^ What "could" be battle damage, something impacted the wheel at some point so the strike is painted with a touch of POR15.
^ I had to make a hub cover for the hub, used MDF, plywood and a bottom off a collandor from Value Village ($1) ice it like a cake with JB weld then pat with a Scotch pad when the JB weld is almost set to make it look like a casting and glue on with Devcon. The black lock wire is just a coat hanger formed like the spring steel original. Button style grease nipple is off the kettenkrad and retains traces of original red paint, the fresh red model paint looks glaring in the flash.
^ The wheel size , have to do a little touch up paint to cover the construction adhesive I used to glue the road rubber back on. The rubber itself weighs 18 lbs the wheel 80 lbs and the hub 12 Lbs, the stupid tube thing was 32 lbs by itself.
I had a shop CNC cut a piece of 3/8 acrylic and next up will be figuring out the base. As its a wheel and round I am thinking it would be cool to have a bearing used to see it spin/rotate, but I kind of just like the look of it as is also.
If anyone knows what the manufacturer code of pgh is please let me know
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