Rally Wheel Color

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Aug 31, 2004 | 03:32 AM

70L46Conv4Sp

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Instructor

Joined: Aug 2002

Posts: 195

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From: Upstate SC

Rally Wheel Color

I'm sure this has been discussed before but for some reason the search tool has disappeared. The Forum was offline for quite a while Sunday and Monday, some of the time it said the server was overwhelmed and other times it was down for technical difficulty, Anyway, I know that most rally wheels are argent silver or something like that, but when I bought my car in 1971 it was only a year old and the wheels were black from the factory. I remember thinking they were different from all the others so I painted them a shade of silver. I do, however remember reading somewhere that some came factory black. I've got a lot of Corvette books but with all the work I'm doing on the car now I don't feel like looking through everything in search of the answer. I ordered a new wheel from Bair's and it came in black just like my originals. What's the scoop?

Aug 31, 2004 | 05:01 AM

Graemeinvette

Drifting

Joined: Jul 2002

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From: Edinburgh

I believe they were black with silver paint on the outside, I seem to remember reading about them leaving the siler overspray on the inside edge. The silver had a slight bluey tinge.

Aug 31, 2004 | 08:00 AM

stingr69

Le Mans Master

Joined: Mar 2004

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From: Little Rock AR

The wheels were all black dip primed then the front faces were sprayed with either argent silver or silver with a slight green tint depending on the year. There would be light overspray on the back side where the paint would drift through the holes. If you have black wheels they probably are not production line finish.

-Mark.

Aug 31, 2004 | 03:02 PM

70L46Conv4Sp

Thread Starter

Instructor

Joined: Aug 2002

Posts: 195

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From: Upstate SC

Quote:

Originally Posted by stingr69

If you have black wheels they probably are not production line finish.

-Mark.

I must not have made my points very well in my original post. The car was a year old and I bought it from a "hands off" owner who did not modify it in any way. I am sure it came off the line in St Louis with black wheels. I had to rough the paint up with sandpaper before painting them silver and they were original. I'll say again: I have read in a Corvette book (it's around here somewhere) that some (very few, probably) came with just the black finish. It may be that cars with the optional 72 spoke wheel covers were left black and my car's wheel covers were switched to rallys by the dealer at the time of the original sale. It seems that in the Corvette book where I read about the black ones that there was a different reason. Maybe some NCRS guy will weigh in on this topic. Stranger things do happen. In this month's "Corvette Magazine" it is mentioned that a few cars were delivered in primer. I imagine these were special order cars intended for racing and destined to have custom paint applied by the buyer.

Aug 31, 2004 | 03:46 PM

Star79

Melting Slicks

Joined: Apr 2004

Posts: 2,083

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From: Montreal Qc.

Mine are black, and look better than silver if you ask me (red car) I'll hang around here to see what the ncrs goys say re: originality

Aug 31, 2004 | 09:02 PM

Big Fish

Safety Car

Joined: Jul 2002

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From: St. Charles IL

Cruise-In 5-6-7-8-9-11-12 Veteran

A CI-6 Car Show Winner

Why not post the question on their web site? Those guys were a big help to me when I was doing my restoration. Let us know what they have to say?

http://www.ncrs.org/forum/tech.cgi?review=51310

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