Silver Wheels

[alpinemauve]

The original Silver wheels off a herald. Does anyone know an off the shelf modern car colour that is as close to this silver as possible? The plan would be to get a litre or two and spray up a set after shotblasting

[thescrapman]

You can buy "Wheel Silver" and it  is quite close. Not cans, but by teh litre. I got mine from Stonleigh.

It needs a laquer over it I suspect from recent experience (guess who has some more spraying to do!)

There is a BMW grey metalic that is also close.

Cheers

Colin

[tigger72832]

try austin mini silver leaf ive found this to be a very close match

[alpinemauve]

Thanks I'll see if Halfords have a spray tin to try. The Wheel Silver I have for modern car seems a very bright silver, whereas the original silver wheels seem more darker grey metallic than bright silver.

With early cars the wheels were (sometimes) in the same predominent colour as the car. So a two tone red and white car had red wheels. Green car green wheels. etc etc I'm not sure I really like this style though.
One batch of 59 cars all had black wheels, despite the colour of car. Most had silver - which I guess would have saved cost and stock issues.

Some late convertibles Y20K+ especially for USA markets still retained the colour-match wheels.
Have to say i do like the white-walls on a convertible!

My Old Coupe had the later cream coloured wheels. A Non-original (early) colour they had been powdercoated and looked really smart though.

I must be getting too involved to know about herald wheels!!! :-/

[herald948]

alpinemauve wrote:

Some late convertibles Y20K+ especially for USA markets still retained the colour-match wheels.
Have to say i do like the white-walls on a convertible!

I've always loved the whitewalls, too...but then, I'm an American!  ;D

I can't say, though, that I've ever seen anything other than silver wheels on any original 948 Heralds for the US market. The first 948 I ever owned was an April 1960-build sedan (saloon). It had black wheels, but I found out years later that those wheels had been painted by a previous owner (they appeared to have been silver originally). Besides, that particular car was a "PED" car. Meanwhile, my own Y23217LCV is one of the very latest 948 convertibles I've encountered. It's still almost totally original, including one original Dunlop Gold Seal whitewall tire, and all wheels are silver on that car.

[heraldcoupe]

alpinemauve wrote:

With early cars the wheels were (sometimes) in the same predominent colour as the car. So a two tone red and white car had red wheels. Green car green wheels. etc etc I'm not sure I really like this style though.
One batch of 59 cars all had black wheels, despite the colour of car. Most had silver - which I guess would have saved cost and stock issues.

I've long been intrigued by this, I've never encountered a Herald with original body coloured wheels, though it seems to have been more common with the preceding standard 8 & 10 models. I'm presuming the wheel colour is documented in the build records, if so I'd be very interested to know which batches had body coloured wheels.

I have encountered a few cars with original black wheels, though these were Mk1 1200 models.

Cheers,
Bill.

[Mark Hammond]

I once had a very early ('59 model) 948cc saloon that had black wheels on the centre part of the wheel and silver on the rim part of the wheel, further adorned by "beauty rings".  These two-tone wheels, I was assured, were an original feature by the car's original owner (she is a long-standing family friend).  I do remember the oddity of the wheels from my childhood as the car was owned by her for donkeys years!  Looked good though, but I still wonder whether it was something done at the factory or done by the original selling dealer (LF Dove of Berkley Square, London).  Any clues?  I know that the car was very, very early, possibly G32 or G33.

Mark

[alpinemauve]

1218 wrote:

Any clues?  I know that the car was very, very early, possibly G32 or G33.

Mark

Oooo interesting early car - any photos??

G32 was White with Coffee interior
G33 was a Monaco Blue with Alpine Mauve Interior, but then 'changed?' to Red with a Coffee Interior

[alpinemauve]

http://www.triumph-herald.com/y23379lcvrevised.htm
just see the red wheels
<a href="<br />http://triumph-herald.com/y22762.htm">
http://triumph-herald.com/y22762.htm</a>
white or silver?

http://triumph-herald.com/aaw121a.htm
Yellow?

http://www.triumph-herald.com/y12584lcv.htm
red

[alpinemauve]

I don't think there is any specific reference in the build records to colour of wheels. Limited really to colour, interior colour, hood and full tonneau (if convertible) Occ seat (if coupe).

Overseas specs did have a little more detail from 'heavy duty' or even 'warm weather spec' - which would have been a different airfilter arrangement.

Typically, there seems little continuity for the wheels being silver or body coloured with the convertibles.

Heres another:
http://triumph-herald.com/ya7643.htm
Yellow wheels on a convertible?

[herald948]

I really don't mean to sound so argumentative and contrary (that is not my intent), but none of these examples seems to be particularly "original" (e.g., "as delivered from the factory) car, so I'm not sure I could accept any of them as evidence that wheels might have been body color from the factory.

[Mark Hammond]

alpinemauve wrote:

Oooo interesting early car - any photos??

G32 was White with Coffee interior
G33 was a Monaco Blue with Alpine Mauve Interior, but then 'changed?' to Red with a Coffee Interior

I'll see if I can find any photos, this car was Coffee with a two-tone Coffee and White interior, the white being restricted to the tops of the door cards and rear quarter panel cards.  I do remember it had an alloy all in one cast gearbox/bell housing and straight switch layout on the dash, but I seem to remember that the speedo was calibrated to 70mph instead of the usual 80mph for the 948's.  It also had an exterior keylock on both passenger door as well as drivers door, is that normal for a Herald?  I do remember that it also had a two bladed radiator fan intstead of the usual 4 blades.

M.

[heraldcoupe]

1218 wrote:

I'll see if I can find any photos, this car was Coffee with a two-tone Coffee and White interior, the white being restricted to the tops of the door cards and rear quarter panel cards.  I do remember it had an alloy all in one cast gearbox/bell housing and straight switch layout on the dash, but I seem to remember that the speedo was calibrated to 70mph instead of the usual 80mph for the 948's.  It also had an exterior keylock on both passenger door as well as drivers door, is that normal for a Herald?  I do remember that it also had a two bladed radiator fan intstead of the usual 4 blades.

A couple of anomalies there. I've never seen a 948 Herald with 70mph clock, and the 2-blade fan I would expect to find on a twin carb engine, single carb usually had a 4-blade fan. The rest is what I'd expect of an early 948 Saloon. Did the dashboard have the single speedo, or the three clock arrangement?

Cheers,
Bill.

[herald948]

Exterior key lock on both doors was usual fitment through early 1200 models; possibly the change was when the pushbutton became part of the handle itself? (Bill?) And even the predecessor Standard 10 models had speedometers reading to 80 mph, so I'd be surprised to see a Herald with a "70mph clock"!

[Casper]

Door lock change at GA50248 February 1962

[Mark Hammond]

Definitely had 70mph clock but graduated in 10,30,50 and 70 intervals rather than the usual 10, 20, 30 and so on, but there have been a dash after the 70 to signify the 80mph marker.  Could not say if this clock was original, but certainly was correct in style.

Were there any 803cc Herald prototypes or was this just a myth, just to change the subject?

Mark

[npanne]

Herald948: did you try any of the suggested paint colours for silver wheels? I'm casually looking (when I remember) myself.

[herald948]

npanne wrote:

Herald948: did you try any of the suggested paint colours for silver wheels? I'm casually looking (when I remember) myself.

I wish I still had the can, or at least notes from the label. I bought my (second-)latest (more about the "latest" soon) 1200 sedan -- a late 1961-built 1200 -- in 2002. The wheels were fairly rusty and scratched up from some really horrid wheelcovers fitted by a previous owner (fake wire wheel look...sort of!), so I grabbed a large can of a Dupli-Color silver at a local auto parts store and quickly sprayed up the wheels. A couple weeks later, I was at The Vintage Triumph Register national convention, where a friend spotted the car and commented on how "right" the wheels looked. That friend happened to be S-T USA's own Mike Cook. Mike may not be an anorak like me, but I'm sure he's forgotten a whole lot more about Herald and other Triumphs than I'll ever know!