Wheel & Rim Original Color???

[Guest]

MY 60 BIRD came with Red Wheels or Rims?? they are original and they have not been painted. The back is Black and the front is Red. We scraped a small part off and no paint residue. Question is.......what was the standard or stock color from Ford taht the car came with or was the Red an option...??

Mark

[Alexander]

RE: Wheel & Rim Original Color???

All the wheels of the 1958-60 Thunderbirds were a semigloss black regardless of body color. Some other cars of that era had wheels that matched the tire or were red. One of the previous owners of your probably stripped off the paint on one side and repainted it red.

Alexander
1959 Hardtop
1960 Golde Top

[Hawkrod]

RE: Wheel & Rim Original Color???

Actually not all Tbird wheels were black. Cars ordered with full wheel covers had black painted rims, cars ordered with dog dish caps had body colored rims. It is a minor detail and rarely comes up on these cars but that was how Ford did it. Hawkrod

Hawkrod

39 Ford Deluxe Coupe
59 Tbird 430
60 Lincoln Premier
(2)62 Tbirds
(3)68 Cougar XR7-G's
69 Cougar 428CJ 4 speed
77 1/2 Ford F250 4X4 w/460 swap
86 SVO mustang
76 F250 Crew Cab
[font size=4][a href="http://www.supermotors.org/members/profile.php?user=hawkrod"] look at my cars past and present at superford! [/a][/font]

[tmjsong1aolcom]

RE: Wheel & Rim Original Color???

If as you suggest is there is an exception, to the black wheels, where is there documentation on this deviation?? Does not fit the assembly line format for the bird??
Is it possible you are talking about the full size Ford??

Tanx
Fuz
58's&64's
Sun Prairie, Wi.

[Alexander]

RE: Wheel & Rim Original Color???

The Thunderbirds were made in the Wixom plant along with Lincolns. I am pretty sure only full wheel covers were available for Lincolns. I have seen examples of 1958 to 1960 Thunderbirds with hupcaps instead of wheel covers, but they are very rare. I doubt Ford would go to the trouble of painting the wheels other than black for the few cars ordered without the full wheel covers. Then again I have seen a Squarebird with a heater delete which had a blanking plate on the firewall where ordinarily the fan and ducts would be installed. I doubt Ford sold more than a handful of Squarebirds with no heating system, yet there was a special blanking plate for it.

In the case here, a mass production car manufacturer like Ford would not go through the expense of making a wheel that is one color on one side and another color on the other.

Alexander
1959 Hardtop
1960 Golde Top

[tarps3]

RE: Wheel & Rim Original Color???

my suspicion is that the wheels are from another Ford car if the paint appears original.
Many Ford cars shared wheel sizes.

I have a set of '63 Galaxie wheels that fit my '64 Galaxie and my '60 Bird. Pretty much identical.

Casey
60 hardtop

[Hawkrod]

RE: Wheel & Rim Original Color???

The wheel color note is listed in the original dealer manual under wheel cover options and notes color keyed wheels with the small caps. This was not a really big deal as the wheels were simply ordered in needed colors for scheduled build units. Ford did not just ship parts to the assembly plants, parts were scheduled for scheduled units so if a car was scheduled for painted wheels then they would be there when needed. In case you are not familiar with this, this is specifically what a build sheet was for. The build sheet was a piece of paper that was used to get specific components to the assembly line for the vehicle they were to be used on which is why you may often find more than one copy. Each phase of the supply process received a build sheet for specific components and the parts were pulled and sent to the line to mate up with the car they were intended for. This is a how a red car got a red interior not a blue interior. the assembly line does not have big piles of parts next to it to be grabbed and stuffed on a car, the assembly is a long process that has feeders coming from part supplies in other parts of the building and the parts have to hit the line in a specific order. Having red wheels for a red car ordered with poverty caps is neither time consuming nor costly and has no impact on the process as it is already scheduled as part of the process. Hawkrod


Hawkrod

39 Ford Deluxe Coupe
59 Tbird 430
60 Lincoln Premier
(2)62 Tbirds
(3)68 Cougar XR7-G's
69 Cougar 428CJ 4 speed
77 1/2 Ford F250 4X4 w/460 swap
86 SVO mustang
76 F250 Crew Cab
[font size=4][a href="http://www.supermotors.org/members/profile.php?user=hawkrod"] look at my cars past and present at superford! [/a][/font]

[byersmtrco]

RE: Wheel & Rim Original Color???

Good point.
I've never seen a TB with the plain dog dish hubcaps. I can see where they would paint the wheels though. In the late 60's when red stripe tires were "in" it was popular to have the edge of the rim red too. May have been more of a Chevy thing. I did see a lot of rattle can red rims over the yrs.

I just never could stand the 59-60 "Sunray" caps. They always reminded me of those dixie paper plates with the same pattern. If I'd have had the TB as a teenager, it would have had Cragers.
I'll stick with the KH wires now.

John

[tmjsong1aolcom]

RE: Wheel & Rim Original Color???

Could you be a bit more specific on which piece of lit. one would find the colored wheel option listed?? And which years. I have an extensive collection of 58 bird lit and have never seen this in print.

I would like to get this info inclued in the next rewrite of the VTCI concourse rules provided the literature piece can be found.

Many Tanx
Fuz
58's&64's
Sun Prairie, Wi.
53590

[ayrwoof]

RE: Wheel & Rim Original Color???

my dog regularly eats out of 49 ford hubcap . he (the dog) has never complained not once... lol dave