When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I know that the wheels on my 70 are argent silver[with a blue look to them] and black on the rear with a hint of silver overspray on the black. Can't tell you about a 67? Thad :chevy
Patrick, I should never go sticking my nose into to these midjeer questions, but I think the black on the back side is original. I believe the 67 judging guide is actually less than complete in its description.
The later rally wheels are painted silver only on the outside. There should be negligible silver overspray on the black primer on the back side. It makes sense from GM's perspective: it saves paint, it saves time, and the owner is not likely to even notice it.
If 67 rally wheels are month/day dated, the thing to do is to check the dates and compare them to cars build date. If they work for original wheels (precede car's build date by less than six months), then they are most likely the wheels that came with the car.
[Modified by Chuck Sangerhausen, 5:57 PM 12/30/2001]
I believe the wheels were originally dipped black, and then painted silver on the outside face only. Sounds like you have the ORIGINAL wheels respot67.
The wheels I believe are original. They are either DC or DG. I can't tell for sure if the C is a G or not. They are Black inside and gray outside. My car has a early production number. I would like to redo them, but I'm not sure if the previous owner painted over the silver. I tried scraping the paint but couldn't tell. Another question is what color black, if black is correct, semi-gloss, gloss, semi flat, or flat? Also, if they should be silver on the inside, what color silver? :confused:
I believe the wheels were originally dipped black...
That is a detail I had forgotten about the later Shark wheels. When I bead-blasted my rally wheels, the lowest point on the back side when the wheels were dipped had humongous runs and pooling that was almost impervious to bead-blasting.
RESPO, the wheels were originally silver on the outside; silver fades to gray as it weathers. Most Corvette vendors sell a version of the Corvette silver rally wheel paint. I have used Quanta products and I have confidence in them, but the only wheel paint I know of any problem matching is that for the 70 rally wheels.
When new, the black was close to semi-flat black, but original wheels will now appear to be flat after 30 years of the elements. You can find semi-flat black at Home Depot.
It appears to me that the 67 Corvette Rally wheel should be silver on the outside and painted on the inside. Since NCRS doesn't address this completely, the black inside is probably the way to go.
Patrick, you probably have Noland Adams book...take a look to see what he says.
Perhaps it isn't true that 67 rally wheels are black on the inside, but I know it's true for 68 and up rally wheels. In my opinion, it is unlikely that they would have changed the process after only one year unless the technique had blown up in their face and caused them some real problems. Also, think about this: your red-line tires don't have red-lines on the back side, why would they worry about the appearance of the wheels on the backside?
Something tells me your wheels are silver on the back side, and you are in denial. :D That's one of the difficulties of restoration...knowing when the area you're looking at is original or "monkeyed with".
I wonder how many Judges know that.
I think they write these judging manuals to leave out a lot of details, so smart aleck wannebees don't get to thinking they know as much about Corvettes as the manual writers. It's kind of like a "secret handshake" they forget to tell you about.
The GM assembly plant production wheel painting process was the same in all plants for decades. The wheels were dip-primed or "flow-coated" with black primer (semi-gloss to semi-flat appearance, not gloss black), then placed on a paint rack with five spindles on it that held the wheels about 30 degrees from vertical. As the conveyor brought the rack past the sprayer, he reached out and spun each wheel on its spindle, then shot color on the face of the wheel while it was spinning. Result - color on the face of the wheel, some color overspray on the black-primed backside of the rim that came through the slots in the wheel. Wheel sprayers were not devotees of DaVinci or the Dutch Masters, so their results varied :smash:
Any rally wheel you see that's evenly-coated with argent silver on the back side was either re-painted by an owner, or is a replacement service wheel; the service rally wheels were painted argent silver at the parts depots on both sides to retard corrosion while they were in storage.
JohnZ how did you find all this stuff out? Pat must be wondering why he painted the wheels silver on both sides. I am always amazed at the ability of CF members who find things like this out. I guess I will try and spin my wheels while I repaint the silver. Should be an interesting operation
Happy New Year :cheers:
I guess I will try and spin my wheels while I repaint the silver.
RESPO, John was describing a process that made it quick and convenient for the painter in a high volume environment. It probably only required about 3-5 seconds to paint a wheel with a thin coat if it was spinning.
If you spin or don't spin your wheels while painting them, nobody will ever know the difference because the result will be about the same. It may help you to not over-restore, providing you don't keep spinning and spraying too long, but there are easier ways to control your inclination to over-restore. :D
Got this from NCRS regarding painting of the rally wheels. "You are correct, the wheels are painted black on the inside. Most originals do show a good deal of silver paint on the back sides from overspray. :)
Most originals do show a good deal of silver paint on the back sides from overspray.
"A good deal of silver paint" is a subjective assessment, and is good for academic information only, not for recreating original appearance. As John said, technique probably varied widely among these artistes, but the original wheels I have seen have very little silver overspray on the backside.
Anyone that's ever heard such a description and tried to get overspray on the backside of the wheels knows that it's virtually impossible to get a LOT of overspray on the backside without contorting to positions that GM painters never would have considered. If it were me, I would spray the outside, and not worry about overspray on the backside...that's what the factory did, and it should come out just like factory.
Any rally wheel you see that's evenly-coated with argent silver on the back side was either re-painted by an owner, or is a replacement service wheel; the service rally wheels were painted argent silver at the parts depots on both sides to retard corrosion while they were in storage.
Admittedly, John, I am really stretching my gray matter on this, but when I ordered a set of '68 seven inch Rallys to install on my SWC in the spring of '68 I figured I would have to paint them black, but when I picked them up at Alan Green Chevrolet in Seattle they were a uniform semigloss black all over, so I just had the new 205HR-15 Pirelli Cintuatos mounted and installed them on the car with the OEM '63 wheelcovers.
May have varied from one Depot region to another, but in this area, GM depots painted them silver before stocking them (not all Depots had finish color facilities, but all had dip-prime systems to handle sheet metal, which was received raw from the stamping plants).
Duke, Am I understanding this correctly. You are refering to replacement service wheels, not GM Factory issued, new on the car when it was purchased wheels, when you say they came painted silver from one GM Depot and painted black from another. Now you really have me confused :confused:
Yes, RESPO, Duke and John are talking about service replacement wheels. This doesn't change anything about factory original wheels being silver on the outside and black on the inside.
My experience is similar to Dukes. I found a black primed rally wheel locally that was clearly a service replacement because it still had the part number label plus a shipping label indicating that it had been shipped from the nearest GM parts distribution center to a local dealer. Except for being in black primer, it was identical to factory installed rally wheels in all respects.
Yes, John and I were just referring to service replacement wheels. My recollection ( vague as it may be) is that my '68 seven inch rally wheels I bought in '68 came with a semigloss black all over - no Argent silver on the outside face.
John is saying that wheels (and body sheet metal) were shipped to the parts depot bare and all went through a conditioning/priming process that gave them the black primer, John also said that some depots, but not all, had finish paint facililities and those in his area were painted Argent silver on the outside face.
I don't know how the wheels arrived at St. Louis for production cars, but my guess is that they arrived bare, were primed similar to the service wheels and then received the Argent silver on the outside face before going to the tire installation line.