Steel wheels not perfectly round?

[Damian]

I recently bought some stock 14" steel wheels and hubcaps. The steel wheels had be painted and cleaned up. Over the weekend I got some tires put on and the installer said the steels wheel are not perfectly round. He was hard to understand, but I think is was describing the wheel barrel not being round. I have not had a chance to drive on them yet, but wanted to see if this is common for steel wheels? Could they have been damage by a pothole or similar?

[notoptoy]

There are places that will true up steel (and mag) wheels. My 65 Chevy received aftermarket steelies that arrived bent, and I was able to get them straightened out for about $35 a wheel if I recall correctly.

[pebbles]

I think i read here somewhere that the wheels are lug centric and not hub centric.
Most if not all tire balancers use the hub hole to mount and spin the wheel/tire.
I would bolt each one on a front hub of the car and spin it to check.

[redroadster]

I had this problem working on Datsuns in the mid 70's mostly on B210's and 710's and others
It sure seemed as if Datsun put the straightest wheels on the front . As when they were rotated at 1K or 5 k then the customer came back with a steering shake I found that some wheels had a flat section where the rim was welded and some were better rounded ,like they were made by two different factorys
sometime repositioning the tire helps though

[Damian]

So, I took the datty out for a ride today with the steel wheels and new 185/60r14 Falken tires. It rides a hell of a lot better then the knock off wheels that were on it. The ride seems a little floaty sometimes at speed, but no vibrations or wobbles.

[pebbles]

New shocks next?

[Damian]

Probably so, but iirc the rear shocks are new(ish).

BTW I am running 30psi all around, the stock psi is low-mid 20's. Is that too low for modern tires?

[pebbles]

Depends on the ride and handling that you prefer. 30 in the front sounds fine. Try 28 in the rear. Play with it a little. My 185/65/15s have 24 in the rear and 28 in the front. But my seats are shot!
Being radial, the lower pressure will have more contact patch, which will give more rolling resistance,
Heat up quicker, poor fuel economy, softer ride.
Higher pressure = less rolling resistance, better fuel economy, harder ride, maybe even a spot of horesepower