Original wheel colors

Bonus Built Acres

Bonus Built Acres

Senior Member
Good morning all, discussing the wheel colors to paint our 21" wheels for the 29 sedan.
I have seen a few light creme yellow wheels, black and red. what where the original colors available when new? or what color did they come from the factory?

thanks
 
We haven't decided on a body color yet, but were leaning towards a green, like a dark (almost Forest) green or just the 30's ford engine green.

maybe green wheels and body, black running boards and fenders? I think that might look good?
 
See you are into military [jeep] nice].See if you can find orginial photo prints of maybe a staff car or something that would be used as a Model "A' of that time. Jeep green and wheels on blackwall tires with a white star[or small stars ,4 star general] on both doors. Maybe Something like a military police car too??? I have killroy on my truck and trailer! But that's after the "A" period.
 
At the most you had 5 colors to choose from,Apple Green,Tacoma Cream,Orange,Aurora Red and Hessian Blue.These colors were not available till July of 1930.
 
What type of paint would be best for the wheels?
I have been told to use an epoxy paint on the wheels vs. powder coating That the epoxy will hold up better.
 
Originally, 28-29 wheels were black, probably painted by a dip process. It seems to me that I have read that dealers would paint the wheels for a buyer - at extra cost. I agree with the above post that other than black, the wheels would look best matching the stripe. :)
 
To the best of my knowledge, all wheels in 1929 came from the factory only in black, although apparently Ford dealers would paint a customer's wheels. As noted above by Jim Baskin, if the wheels were not black, the common wheel colors were Tacoma Creme, Apple Green, Orange, Red, and Hessian Blue. Each wheel color ties in best with certain body colors.

I would decide on body color first, then look at cars painted in that particular scheme to see if you like wheels in anything other than black.

Jim Mason's website has a section on '28-'29 Tudor colors that might be of interest if you are going to use original color schemes.

http://jmodela.com/55Acolors.html
 
Very few cars got the wheel treatment from the factory outside the few bodies the wheel coloring was offered to help sales. I believe it was most if not all on 30-31 bodies.

Of the top of my head, these were the ones that came with colored wheels.
30 deluxe roadster
deluxe tudor
A400

The best paint for wheels would be urethane such as PPG Concept. The urethane paint gets very hard and looks great. Epoxy paints tend to degrade with UV light. Enamel paint is just not as tough as the urethane. You can put a hardener in, but you are best off with urethane. Keep in mind I say you are best of with urethane. The other paints do their job, but they are just not as strong.
Properly done powder coat is also very durable.

Based on my experience,

After you get the wheel done, take a sandpaper and make sure you have no build up on the two areas where the wheel touches the drum. My powder coated wheels would induce up to .012" of distortion in the drum. When I sanded the two major contact points down to bare metal the drum went back to its about .001" out of round.
Towncar delivery
 
Thanks all for the replies, and for the link to Jim Masons site with the color charts. I liked the schemes he's got in there too. helps to visualize the stripe.

I could see myself painting the car OD military green but not sure that will fly with my Father in Law, it's really his car, (our project) just trying to get it off the ground!

Cheers

Josh
 
"Officially", wheels were black until mid 1930.

That said, I see many color pictures of very nice '28-'29 Fords with non-black wheels.

I believe I read in either the "Paint & Finish Guide" or "Judging Standards" that the wheels were dipped in the same black enamel used on Fenders and Splash aprons.

Personally, I feel that black wheels make for "too much black" on the lower regions of the car.

Usually, I'm an ultra-purist when it comes to old cars, but alternate wheel colors on the model A don't bother me too much... but non-black on fenders & running boards does "bother me " a bit... :rolleyes:

If you're being judged for points, black wheels are the only option for a '28-'29... if it's just for fun, paint them whatever color you like...

Good luck!

( PS: the coupe in my avatar came to me with red wheels...;) )
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top