70 Yenko Nova Wheel Paint

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Hey Bob;
I just found this old post about the wheel color.

The '69 SS wheels were the argent silver (without the green tint) with very dark charcoal painted inserts. The '70 SS wheels were the same silver, but the inserts were black. I will check the brand of the silver paint that I use, but I remember that the number is 1403. I use a semi-gloss black for the inserts, and I taped them by hand rather than using stencils. It's time consuming, but they look good when finished. The backs of the SS rims are a 'dove' gray, a little darker, and a little smoother. I don't know of anyone who looks at the backs of the rims, but that's what I found out when I did my research so that's the way I painted mine.

For the XT coded steel wheel in the trunk, only the front-side of the rim gets painted red the back-side remains black. The rim gets mounted upside down in the trunk, but your efforts are not wasted because you will be able to see the red overspray blown through the holes in the front.

[ORIGLS6]

Marlin,
Correct on the Argent Silver for the spokes and rims as well as the "Dove Gray" for the back. But the '70 SS wheel was also very dark charcoal in the inserts. The '69's and '70's were painted identical. Many people think the inserts are black but if you paint them black and set them near a charcoal wheel, the difference is obvious. Most of the resto suppliers offer all three colors. I just recently ran across a couple of wheels that I thought were Chevelle SS wheels, only to discover they had a 4 1/2 inch bolt pattern. FORD wheels!
I swore they were the same as the ones on my car; right detail on the spokes, color, back color, everything is exact. The fellow at the tire store proved me wrong with his gauge. FYI everyone, if you're looking for these wheels, check the codes and the bolt pattern.

[Rat_Pack]

ORIGLS6, even an easier way to identify those wheels. The Ford Magnum wheels have the Ford logo stamped in them on the outside lip on the backside of the wheel. I ran into this problem with a 69 Chevelle I bought. The spare would not fit and upon closer inspection there was the Ford emblem stamped in the wheel! Since then I watch what I buy very carefully. I have seen the crooks sell complete sets of Ford wheels with the SS center caps installed and get away with it. Buyer beware.....................RatPack............

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Sorry Origls6, I have to disagree! The '70 wheels, coded 'AO' for the Novas and Chevelles should have the black inserts, the '69 wheels coded 'YA' should have the charcoal. I agree the charcoal is very dark, close to black, but the '70's are definitely black!

I'm sure some of the '70 wheels may have been mispainted, mistamped from leftover '69 stock, or an early owner already painted incorrectly, but all of the original wheels from '70 deuces have been black.

[SS427]

Marlin, Is there a chance Novas and Chevelles were painted differently. I cannot imagine why they would be and '70 Chevelles used both the YA and AO wheel. I have documented many survivor Chevelles but never had the oportunity to do a Nova. Dennis's LS-6 is an original owner Fred Gibb car and I looked the car over very thoroughly this weekend at VetteFest, his wheels are definitely Charcoal Grey metalic. Dennis's car has never been restored or "fluffed" and remains as delivered excluding some consumable items.

[JoeC]

The SS wheel paint color as been debated by Chevelle people for years as far as black/gray colors. There is also a question on UV damage changing the color of original wheels. In my opinion there may have been different colors from the factory because of a variance in paint mixing. We don't know how tight they were on the quality control of the colors. There are examples of original wheels in both black and gray.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

I'm not sure if they were painted differently, I wouldn't think so because I believe that is the reason for the wheel code change from YA to AO. If you get a chance, check the dates on the wheels, maybe they're super early AO's, or YA's. Don ordered the Deuce wheels directly from kelsey hayes/motorwheel, and not from GM - hence the magnum 500 inserts on the centercaps under the 'Y's. All of the Deuce wheels are dated from approx. 4/18-4/25 of '70, so we have some good info that by that date the inserts were consistently black.

[Mr70]

Of all the Survivor 14X7 SS rims I have seen,YA or AO,they are painted Charcoal Grey.Besides Dennis's,at Vettefest there was Daves Citrus Green special order Chevelle,and it had a Uniroyal Spare tire & Original SS wheel.When I removed it,and flipped it,it was dated 2/70 AO,and painted Charcoal grey.Also one of the most Virgin unweathered Wheels I have ever seen.I have seen Survior SS wheels dated as early as November 68 to July 70 and all were Charcoal grey.When I see them Black,they were recently painted.Could Don have had the Deuce SS wheels repainted Black for a bolder effect back in the Day?

[ORIGLS6]

Marlin,
I certainly don't mean to dispute your information. I guess I should have said IMO, the correct color for a '70 Chevelle wheel, etc. We all know the quality control issues we've encountered in the past with any suppliers of OEM parts. So it's entirely possible some wheels were black. I just know mine and most of the Chevelle, Camaro and Nova wheels I've seen were charcoal. Sorry if I came off as too negative.
Ratpack,
The wheels in question had a lot of surface rust and probably had the ford stamp. It was just too dirty and rusty to see. I'll definitely be alert the next time.
Dennis

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Don't worry, your posts are fine - nothing taken out of context, and certainly no offense taken. You guys have seen a lot more wheels in your chevelle research than I have seen in my deuce research. If you guys have consistently seen something different, then I need to go back and do some more research!

I had spoken with a couple of guys in the Nova club, and one guy in Florida who is a wheel 'expert', so I'll have to call them back up. I initially called them because I thought there might be a paint difference between wheels sold directly to GM vs wheels sold OTC. You know, one painted per GM spec's, vs the OTC wheel painted a universal color like black, but both stamped the same application code due to wheel size, bolt pattern etc... What I found out from my phone calls was that AO wheels were black whether they were GM ordered or OTC. However, I'll have to go back and check on that some more. Maybe they came both, maybe there was a mid-year change, could be a number of factors.

I wonder why they changed the app code from YA to AO? I have never really looked at a YA wheel really close, are there differences between the YA and the AO?

Earl;
Vince has some NOS sets of wheels he got from Yenko, does he have them on his Deuce? And are they black or charcoal?