AD original wheel questions.

[ghettoluxury]

I have a '49 GMC and I would like to keep the originality of it, with a little flare. So I have a few questions about the original wheel color options. I have always thought that they were black from the factory. The problem is that I have seen black, tan, white, silver, and even body color. So what is correct?

Looking at old advertisements has been no help either. Both Chevy and GMC ads are all over the place, some have color matched some are not. The few GM file photos I have been able to find had black wheels on the trucks. I also know that the added pinstripe was an option. My truck has an apple green stripe around the belt line, so adding it to the wheels would be ok with me.

[mr48chev]

The ones on the 54 my family had when I was growing up had body color wheels with white pinstripes that mached the top.

Year to year may have changed too.
I can't find info on 49 GMC but the GM Herritage page on 49 Chev trucks says that RPO wheels are body color and the 15 inch had no stripe, 16 inch had 3 stripes and 17 inch had 2 stripes.
page 68 and 69 https://www.gmheritagecenter.com/doc...olet-Truck.pdf

[OrrieG]

Originally Posted by ghettoluxury

I have always thought that they were black from the factory. The problem is that I have seen black, tan, white, silver, and even body color. So what is correct?

Probably what ever was available on the assembly line, may have been different by plant too. Black would be a good back up if they ran out of painted wheels to match the bodies. I do not recall tan, white or silver on stock original AD trucks, white or body color came on the TF models.

[wood1]

GMC had different colors, options, engines, etc. as you probably know.
If you have original apple green pin stripe, the wheels would have been that also. Assume your truck was Brewster green?? This may help

[ghettoluxury]

Thank you guys for the information. This is the reason I love this site.

[ghettoluxury]

To further add to the confusion here's a photo. The first one has white wheels second and third are color matched and fourth has cream colored wheels.

[ghettoluxury]

And here are two Chevrolet photos, both with black wheels.

[ghettoluxury]

I'm not sure why but it only let me upload 1 at a time.

[dwcsr]

Usually the wheels were part of a paint or trim scheme. See if you can get a salesman's data book for your year and see just what was available for the options you have. I do know that gmc had its own paint schemes that were not the same a chevy. Try going to
oldgmctruck.com and poke around over there.

[wood1]

As dwcsr says, try oldgmctrucks.com. A ton of info on that site.
If you look at the attachment I posted before it gives you paint info options.
GMC had different interior & exterior paint than Chevy among the other
different things; front bumper splash apron & bed to running board aprons were black, positive ground, larger engine, etc.