70 Wheels paint correction?

[Sean]

On the 1970 Chevelle wheels are the spokes supposed to be black or silver? i have seen some LS6 cars done this way but did they come from the factory black or silver not painted black as well? TY!

[ScottG]

Black or dark charcoal on the insert color

[SS427]

I have personally seen original wheels in both black metallic or dark charcoal metallic. It is possible that the black aged and/or weathered slightly and took on a charcoal appearance. I usually restore most of my wheels in the very dark charcoal metallic. The first photo is an original unrestored wheel. The second is a restored wheel.

[DEUCE]

I was always under the impression the center of the wheels were painted Dark Argent Silver from the factory. I ordered a set of SS wheels over the counter from Humphrey Chevrolet back in 1970, and that is the way they came out of the boxes. I also painted the wheels that way when I restored my Deuce back in the day. There is a lot of different opinions out there. I only know what I lived.
Mike

[Mr70]

My experience is they were all sprayed the color Black.
Once the entire wheel was sprayed the color Argent silver,the 5 thin spokes & surrounding areas were masked off,and a thinner coat of Black paint was applied over those 5 insert pockets.Which most likely were still moist w/silver paint,and gently mixed with the black paint over time.

[Bill Pritchard]

My experience is with the 69 models, and the unrestored spare wheel that came in my former 69 SS396 convertible looked black with a lot of silver metallic in it when viewed in the sunlight.

[Mr.Nickey Nova]

I agree what Rick (Mr.70) said. I think the 69 SS Wheels were painted the Charcoal color and the 70 AO wheels were black in color. I purchased an original AO wheel a number of years ago, untouched, it was black with argent silver.

[SS427]

Well to add to this argument, I was hired yesterday to inspect an unknown LS6 that until recently that has been hiding in the original owners garage since the 80's. It still resides in the original family's ownership and is now undergoing a full frame off restoration. It was an amazing car with a TON of paperwork.

At any rate, the original spare had never been on the ground until recently and the 4 other rims were original to the car. Upon inspecting them I found that of the five 2 were black and 3 were dark charcoal grey. Take it for what it was worth as the 4 main wheels all had varying degrees of weathering but all had only been on the car for about a year when a full set of slots were put on the car.

However, the spare was virgin and was definitely a dark charcoal grey. I had a hard time capturing the color in the photo but trust me, that is what I found. The first photo is the spare and dated 1/26. The second photo is the spare overall. The third is one the 2 black wheels and it was dated 1/30. Though the full size photo of the spare may look black in the photo, it was indeed a very dark Charcoal Grey. I still live by, never say never.