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Make
It Purdy, As We Say In Texas
Wheels are
a dress-up item but also potentially a performance enhancement item.
The 
502 came with a 41/2 inch wide wheel, not the right path to modern
handling and stability. The wheels needed to be steel and not aluminum,
to withstand the rigors of Mexican potholes and 'topes', or speed
bumps. Carrera rules specify a maximum wheel size of 6" X 15", but
what should they look like? As a matter of personal preference,
I decided that they should be of period appearance—they should look
like they belong on a car from the '50s. I chose CRAGAR wheels (a
rare, back-of-the-factory-parts-book option: stands for Complete
Rim Assembly: Groovy, As Required) because they looked strong and
had round spokes to go with the roundness of the car. After buying
eight wheels and having a machine shop modify them to fit the 502
bolt circle, I talked to some drag racers who tell me that the Cragar
centers are not steel and that they are, in fact, brittle. Oh, well.
They may not be great wheels, but they were expensive and we've
got a lot of them. We also chose a set of high traction Hoosier
tires and a set of Yokahama AVS Intermediate tires to mount on the
wheels.
Body preparation was next. All 502s have rust, and this one was
no exception. Rust repair was done at the bottom of the front fenders
and at a few scattered other
places. One such place was the firewall. The stock battery location
is on a shelf at the firewall and 40 odd years of battery acid leakage
had left little of the original metal. We cut out the remainder
of the shelf and replaced it with an aluminum panel. The rear fenders
required slight recontouring for tire clearance, and this was done
by combining the original fenders with the spare fenders from our
parts car. Careful welding allowed this to be completed with minimal
body filler giving a finished look that's hard to spot unless a
stock car is nearby. Another optional and unnecessary step happened
at this time. We had the sunroof installed from our parts car, thinking
that it would make the car cooler inside---interior temperature
being a known problem with these cars.
With the
car completely emptied, scraped and sanded, the inside of the body
and trunk were painted a clean and bright gray color. Remove-able
panels were also fabricated at this time above the transmission
area and new seat supports were installed to hold some old comfortable
Koenig seats we had at hand. Then the car was sent out for a month
to receive a fresh silver paint job at Rob's Paint and Body in South
Austin. At the same time the bumpers were sent out for silver powder
coating.
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