The Road Wheels Upgrades & Alternatives section brings together tyre and wheel accessories, tools and conversion hardware that sit alongside the main MGA road wheel range. Some items in this section are service aids, tyre savers to protect parked tyres from flat-spotting, balancing cones to set up wire wheels on a balancer, wheel cleaners for maintenance, while others are specification changes such as the wire wheel conversion kit that converts a bolt-on steel disc wheel car to centre-lock wire wheel fitment.
Tyre-related items
Four sub-sections cover tyre-adjacent hardware. Tyre Savers protect tyres during extended static storage, preventing the flat-spotting that develops when a car stands on its tyres for long periods without moving. Tyre Trims provide decorative rim-edge detailing. Tyre Valves are the valve stems fitted into the rim for tyre inflation, a consumable item that should be renewed at the same time as the tyre itself.
Wheel Cleaners are maintenance fluids for keeping both painted and chrome wheels in the finish condition that MGA owners expect.
Wheel-related tools and accessories
Three sub-sections cover the tools and accessories for wire wheel ownership. Wheel Tools covers the dedicated tools for wire wheel work, including the octagonal spanner for octagonal-spinner cars (a factory toolkit item for MGAs originally supplied to Germany and Switzerland) and other specific service items. Wire Wheel Accessories covers the hardware associated with wire wheel fitment beyond the wheels and spinners themselves. Wire Wheel Balancing Cones are the specialist adapters required to mount a centre-lock wire wheel on a tyre balancer, standard four-stud balancer fittings will not accurately balance a centre-lock wheel, and the correct cones are essential for getting a smooth-running wire-wheeled MGA at road speeds.
Wire Wheel Conversion Kit
The principal specification-change item in this section is the wire wheel conversion kit. MGA pushrod cars originally ordered with the standard bolt-on steel disc wheel have four-stud disc-wheel hubs fitted front and rear; converting such a car to wire wheel fitment requires replacement splined hubs at both ends of the car along with any associated axle hardware, not just the wheels themselves. Full detail of the conversion kit is covered under the Wire Wheel Conversion Kit node.
Twin Cam and De Luxe, out of scope
The wire wheel conversion kit applies only to pushrod MGAs (1500, 1600 and 1600 Mk II). The Twin Cam and De Luxe use a Dunlop centre-lock disc wheel with peg drive to the hub, not a splined wire wheel, the architecture is fundamentally different from the pushrod wire wheel installation. A Twin Cam or De Luxe cannot be converted to wire wheels using a pushrod conversion kit, as the hub architecture, drive pattern and knock-on thread specification are all different. Twin Cam and De Luxe owners should retain the factory centre-lock disc wheel specification.
Ordering considerations
Tyre savers, tyre trims, tyre valves and wheel cleaners are general service and maintenance items, no variant identification is required for these. Wheel tools and wire wheel accessories should be matched to the wheel type fitted to the car (splined centre-lock for pushrod wire wheels; peg-drive centre-lock for Twin Cam / De Luxe disc wheels). Wire wheel balancing cones are specific to the centre-lock fitment and are essential for accurate tyre balancing on wire-wheeled MGAs. The wire wheel conversion kit is a pushrod-only specification change requiring confirmation of chassis number and current hub specification, see the Wire Wheel Conversion Kit node for detailed coverage.