<VV> Re:Paint/rust question (Now Painted Wheels)

[Tony Underwood]

At 08:51 hours 12/28/2004 -0500, Gary Swiatowy wrote:
>According to Larry Claypool in his "Stock is" series, as best I can
>remember.
>ONLY the Corvair 500 series came with body colored wheels.
>This is because the base line used hubcaps instead of wheelcovers.
>Monzas and Corsas came with Black painted wheels.    


My 1960 700 4-door has wheels the same color as the body... or the color
the body used to be, which was silver.   Likewise, the roman red 1960 900
Monza coupe here also had (under the wheel covers) wheels with
flaking/peeling black rattlecan paint covering the original red paint.
The '60 Monza had no spare when we got it, but my '60 4-door 700 does still
have its original spare w/silver wheel.    It also has its original
dogdishes/trim rings.    The '60 Monza has those "turbine" wheel covers
over it's still-rattlecan black over original red rims.   I bet if I were
to spray them with a pressure washer, the black would come right off... I
can scrape it off with a fingernail as-is.   

My mom's turquoise '61 700 also had body colored wheels which I painted
black when I repainted the car seafoam green.    And, the white '61 700
Lakewood in the barn has white wheels on it as well... with the '61 "spoke"
style stamped wheel covers.   

The 500s and 700s were the ones with body colored wheels.    I've seen a
variety of original early Vairs (500s and 700s both) with body colored
wheels.   This seemed to carry on until the line ended in '69 with the 500s
always having body colored wheels.   I still have two wheels (with good
radials still on them!) that came of a rusty '69 500 coupe that Danny Otey
parted out a couple decades ago and they're yellow like the car was.
Likewise the blue wheels on the '67 500 coupe here and the maroon wheels
that came off another late 500.   

But the earlier production '700s and at least a few 900s in '60 (at least)
came with body colored wheels as well.    

Now:  

Trivia question...

When did the nib'ed wheels stop showing up on Vairs?     ...the ones with
the nibs to hold trim rings?    I was wondering...  I have two wheels that
came off the old "spotted pony" daily driver that Bill Burleson had, which
was a white '64 500 coupe.   It had white wheels and dog dishes.   The car
got some different wheels/tires after Bill bought it from somebody in MD
and I ended up with the original back wheels and the snow tires that were
on them (freebies from Bill).   The wheels were white like the body color
of the car but they had nibs to hold trim rings.   It was my understanding
that after the '61 model year, the wheels supplied with Vairs didn't have
the nibs to mount trim rings.    Were these coincidentally already-white
earlier wheels that were add-on as winter-wear items after the fact or did
they still have nibs in '64?   I didn't get that close a look at the other
rims on the car.    

Anybody know for sure?  



tony..