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I have a 1950 pick-up 3600 3/4 ton. What color should the wheels be on a 3/4 ton. I noticed all the 1951 to 1954 pick-ups at Flint the wheels were the same color as the body. Was this true in 1950? Is this true for the 3/4 ton?
My pick-up was red and I have 3 different color of wheels, most are black, one is green and one is yellow, no red ones.

3/4 ton trucks had black wheels only.
!/2 ton trucks had black wheeels....the exception would be the Deluxe cabs has body colored wheels and the colored wheels could be ordered as an option for the standard cab models. All suburbans had colored wheels.

Here is a '50 3/4 ton runnin' down the Van Nuys assembly line with body color rims.



Although the 2 piece 15" 3/4 ton rims may have all been black....
I have seen alot of 3 piece 17" 3/4 ton rims that were painted body color.

The spec. book even shows where the 2 pinstripes go on the 17's " rims...
http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/chevyresto/5069.htm


The factory body color paint codes & contrasting belt line & wheel pin striping colors are listed near the bottom of this page...
http://1954advance-design.com/AdvanceDesignTrucks/Colors/Advance-Design-Colors.html

Here are a couple of 3/4 tons being loaded at the factory....en route to a dealership.

It's a black & white picture & those rims don't look black to me.

I believe what we are aeeing is the silver locking rim. The "books" list the colored wheel option for 1/2 ton trucks only.

I see 3/4 ton rims that match the body color in this GM sales brochure picture.

Thanks for all the information above. This one does have 15 inch wheels and maybe the above brochure and photos that indicate a color were the 17 inch wheels. I have reason to believe that most of the wheels on this truck are original and there is no hint of red on them - this truck must of had black wheels. It would look better with red wheels.

our 52 3600 had the 15 inch wheels and no evidence of the body color anywhere, but black was evident. However, the question is if the locking rings were silver or black as well, and did that vary by year? We had one wheel that may have had a silver lock ring, but the others were too rusty to tell. Does anyone know if the lock rings were actually painted silver, or maybe just cad plated natural steel?

They were cad. plated when new.

I was lucky to find a pair of NOS wheels for the front of my '36 1-1/2 ton. The rings had respectable cad plating. I powder coated the wheels and left the rings in original cad. They look fantastic.

Mike

Gene,
Were they cadmium plated or zinc plated? Most of the wheel literature specifies zinc plating or galvanized wheel parts. The look the same except that zinc generally does not have a shiny surface. It provides more protection in wet environments than cadmium.

I remember handling them when they were new. It was a silver plating so wwould assume it was cadmium.

Cadmium is what is commonly thought to be the silver plating on wheel parts but, it will be galvanize or zinc plating instead.

I dug around through our stacks of rims today & it does appear that the 2 piece 15" 3/4 ton lock rings were galvanized.

But....Every lock ring I found from the 3 piece 17" 3/4 & 1 ton rims was painted.
It's difficult to get paint to stick to a galvanized surface so, my guess is that the 3 piece outer lock rings were painted.

Don't know why the link showing 17" body color painted rims on a 3/4 ton that was runnin' down the Van Nuys assembly line showed up dead..... but here it is again.

The picture of that truck is rather small but could it be a 1/2 ton?

Here is the original image....




You can clearly see the larger rear 3/4 ton axle hub protruding from the painted body color rim here on the assembly line photo {after isolating & enlarging it}.




And off the same picture....

Close up of painted body color 3/4 ton front rim here...

Clearly shows that it is a 17" 3 piece 3/4 ton rim.




Unless someone has any more evidence to submit.....
I do believe that this proves that the blanket statement of...
" All 3/4 tons had black wheels only " .... is not correct.

So it looks like the 15" 2 piece 3/4 ton rims rims were painted black & the outer lock rings were galvanized with no paint on them ....
& the 17" 3 piece 3/4 ton rims were painted body color.

Before concluding that the "black wheel only on 3/4 trucks" was not correct, I suggest to all involved that special order vehicles with deviations from standard practice or specifications were produced. Some fleet purchasers could specify their own paint colors and other changes and have them assembled on the production line. Swift Co. comes to mind. I have in my possession Chevrolet Engineering Drawings for Swift Co. vehicles that were "production" vehicles with special paint jobs.

Here is a 2 piece 15" 3/4 ton rim on the tire rack of the GM assembly line.

It's not painted black.

This link to restoration packs and specifications data may help.

http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/chevyresto/index.htm

In a nut shell for 1948 it says 15" wheels no stripes, 16" wheels three stripes, and 17" wheels two stripes. In another area it says stripes on 3100 series trucks and 3600 no stripes and stripes on 3800 wheels.
No stripes were used on the standard black wheels, only body colored wheels. Basic trucks had black wheels with colored wheels optional. Deluxe cabs had colored wheels as well as suburbans.

My work is done here

I had a 51 Chevy and 50 GMC both being 3/4 tons and the rims were body color,the GMC might have been repainted but the Chevy still had original paint.