So with some excellent advice from members Craig, glrasmussen, and buckie I have started work on a set of wheels hoping to match the originals as close as possible.
For reference here's a photo of the original (Thanks Greg!):
So I rounded up a bunch of wheels, including a set of Arnold 8" but they had a bearing assembly.
After looking long and hard I decided I wanted to keep the 8" wheels that came with my 26r (These have to be old Arnold replacements as well!) but use the proper cross tread tire off on of the newer sets.
With a little experimenting off came the newer tires... I had to cut the old ones off as they just cracked apart when trying to remove.
Here are the final wheels assembled but not painted:
Another..
So now they are black and I'm at the last step - hope to find a suitable white paint so stencil the white ring sometime today. Pics to follow!
These should at least look a little more proper on the chief - I also cleaned up the legs and triangle and will next polish off the lower vents then she's going to be back to original glory!
Thanks for looking - tips or comments appreciated!