Valve Holes in Wheels

[John P]

Hi,

I'm about to fit two new tyres and have always been a little concerned that the wheels have two valve holes, one on the centre line which is the one I'm currently using, and one off centre so that the valve would point outwards like a modern car.

At the moment the redundant hole is just covered with a few layers of electrical tape and I think also partly covered by the rim tape.   This hasn't actually caused any issues and I'm reluctant to get the holes welded up as this would obviously destroy the paint finish.

Just wondered what others have done?

John.

[Robert Leigh]

I made a decent job of welding up the off-centre holes and touched up with some exact matching paint I had for the maroon on those wheels. I think people did this to match the modern Ford Pop type tubes which were widely available to match the 4.50x17 tyres used on various cars, the Ford Pop up to 1959.

["Slack Alice" Simon]

I don't have the problem, if I did, I might use some of those plastic low profile mushrooms you can get that hold things like car panels on.

Used from the inside out, the heads won't interfere with the tube but wil stop it trying to escape, the "stalk" bit can be cut flush with the rim and maybe tidied up with a bit of coloured silicon.