<VV> Wheel Color

[Dale Dewald]

On 5/31/2013 12:00, Ed Bittman wrote:
> I generally agree that even "500"s had body colored wheels,but I think I read somewhere perhaps in LC's "Stock Is' that it sometimes depended on whether whitewalls were ordered.Can anyone verify this?My 60 "500" sedan has Jade Green wheels but again it's Canadian built.Ed in Florida
I am no authority on EM's but in the case of LM's I understand the 
following:

I helps to follow the wheel manufacturing process and how they end up on 
the car.  From what I understand, all Corvair wheels were manufactured 
by a supplier to GM and arrived at the assembly plant with a coat of 
black dipped lacquer paint.  If the wheel was fitted to a Monza, Corsa, 
or similar trim car that came with full wheel covers, then no further 
action was necessary and the wheels were installed as is; in black.  If 
the wheel was to be installed on a low trim model, e.g. LM 500, then the 
outboard surface was sprayed with body color paint, to show around the 
perimeter of the simple "dog dish" hub cap.  For the purely "stock is" 
crowd there is some debate as to whether the spare wheel was painted 
body color on both sides rather than on just the outboard side, simply 
because the inboard side faces up with the spare properly stowed in the 
engine compartment.

Confusion may exist in the situation where a 500 model car was /factory 
ordered/ with full wheel covers. In this case it would come with black 
wheels and full wheel covers /from the factory/. However, it was very 
common for the dealer to fit full wheel covers to a 500 model car on his 
lot that had come with hub caps, and thus it would be sold with body 
color wheels. This was especially common in the case where the dealer 
would order a 500 model with factory white wall tires.  The customer, 
seeing "something missing' would request an upgrade to full wheel 
covers, which the dealer would happily oblige, thus making a greater 
profit than selling the car with factory supplied wheel covers.

Dale Dewald
Hancock, MI