Scott F,
Wow; the wheels look great and the old school Firestones are very nice.
Mind me asking where you purchased your Firestones from? I’m looking at getting a set of Goodyear Polyglas for my 70 but not sure where to go to buy.
Thanks Philip
Back on topic - I just picked up a fun book, “America’s Wildest Show Rods of the 1960s &1970s”.
As I’ve posted before, several of the Custom “Show Cars” from then sported what appears to be Raders. Sonny and Cher’s Barris customized Mustangs, the “Roach Coach” and the “Vox Mobile”.
Nice shot of the Vox Mobile in the book. Sure looks like 4 lug Raders to me. Or Maybe the Mickey Thompson variants?
Car is 289 powered with Cobra dress up so I don’t understand the 4 lugs, but I do love the deep dish!
Obviously I am a big fan of the color combo on my G. Her GT will look real nice as well. Will it have a parchment vinyl roof as well?
Thanks Phillip.
How is everything going for you in your neck of the woods?
The Hertz cars were built at the beginning of G production, so I would have thought they would all have had the Raders.
I have seen window stickers on a number of Gs and the ones that came with Raders have a different statement when it comes to wheels than those that came with the styled steel wheels, saying “Styled Wheels W/Spoke Design”.
As far as the recall on the Rader wheels… I do have a copy of a letter from AO Smith to Shelby Automotive dated 9 April 1968 calling out numerous problems with manufacture of the Rader wheels at Trans American Products. Rader wheels were later recalled by Ford. In a letter to Mercury dealers dated May 7, 1968 the factory had this to say, “Subsequent to the announcement of this vehicle and the start of production, we have found that air leaks may develop in the attachment of the rim to the cast centre section. We have also found some wheel retaining nuts that have become cracked due to improper heat treatment and certain dimensional variations in the wheels.” Having had several sets of the Raders of my own, I think the air leak problem could have been easily solved. That being said I think FoMoCo was more worried about liability if something happened and recalled the wheels, replacing them with the tried and true Styled Steel wheel available on 68 Cougars.
Dealers replaced the original wheels with Cougar styled steel wheels at no charge to the owner. How many cars were actually produced with Rader wheels and when production changed will probably never be known. However we may be able to find out how many the factory sent out with the Rader wheels by paying for a queery through Kevin Marti with the search looking for the line saying “Styled Wheels W/Spoke Design”.
^^^ COLD!!!
Looks like another bad storm headed this way Wednesday 
I haven’t started my G in months - Looking forward to this Spring. Really going to make it a point enjoy the Cougar when the weather is nice!
Steve I bought the Firestone Wide-Ovals from Summit Racing (cheaper in price and shipping than from Coker Tire). I could not find any Goodyear Polyglass there but did find some at http://www.lucasclassictires.com/Goodyear_c15.htm .
Fordnutz does a club cruise and BBQ every Canada Day (July 1st). This last one there were two 5 spoke Rader wheels with the spinners at one of the locations we toured.
Scott, yes it will have the parchment vinyl roof and the white pinstripes. She likes the Cragar SS wheels I have on BBCat, so we’ll probably go with those. I couldn’t get her to go for the G-style hood scoop (she tends to not like hood scoops at all).
Does anyone repop the Rader wheel center caps (towers) at a reasonable price? I need a set for mine. 
I have not been able to find any reproductions of the G cones (the center caps attach to the cones). I know a couple of people that would like to have a better set than they have, or are missing them altogether.
If there were enough people interested there may be a way to get some made.
Mine are missing all together when I got them. Any chance you could pm or post the dimensions of your rader cones? I might look into someone reproducing them but I have nothing for reference.
Scott, don’t know if you saw this thread I started awhile back on Raders -
https://cccforum.discoursehosting.net/t/xr7-g-rader-wheel-history/2781/1
Here’s an ad for the Mickey Thompson owned Wheel Corp Rader wheel for sale on ebay.
I’ve been poking around the inter web regarding Raders and I found out something that could be of interest.
Originally, one of the Sonny & Cher His and Hers Mustangs that were customized by George Barris had the Rader wheels. Seems that AMT made a model kit of them so it makes one wonder if the correct XR7-G style Rader wheels might be included in the kit?
If so, that would be a great score for anyone customizing an AMT '68 Cougar kit and turning it into an early G model.
Thanks for sending this along Phillip. Very interesting.
Are these the same cones? http://www.radirwheels.com/accessories.htm
Those look the same as some aluminum ones I got with my NOS Rader wheels. I took pictures with a measuring tape of the dimentions of the original cones and the aluminum ones.
http://s1256.photobucket.com/user/68xr7g/library/Rader%20Wheels?sort=9&page=1#/user/68xr7g/library/Rader%20Wheels?sort=9&page=1&_suid=1392324732142036885775597016146
The originals are chrome. The aluminum ones would need to be polished to make them real shiny.
Contact the Radir Wheels guys and ask them for dimentions of the caps they are selling. If they will work then those that need the cones can get them from them and polish them up to a chrome finish. The G caps I have screw right onto the aluminum cones I have, so that should not be an issue.
Thanks Scott, I’m just waiting to hear back from them. I will post what I find out.