Hi All,
I was wondering if anyone knows the original wheel color for the wood spoke wheels of a 1918 735? The wheels on my car, restored in the 1950's, are painted bright yellow with black pin striping. The paint is thick and is chipping off in places, mostly at the joints and where the brake drums are, no doubt because of heat and shrinking and swelling. In looking at a copy of the sales literature they look to be a dark color, possibly black. The color description in that pamphlet says Color: Royal green with running gear and fenders black. I assume that the wheels are part of the running gear? When I scrapped off some of the loose pant it looks like the underlying color is a glossy black. If they were black does anyone know if they were pin striped?
Thanks, Eric

The wood wheels in the condensing car years were painted body color. The pin striping was a fine 1/8" to 3/16" wide stripe depending on the artist doing it. Each spoke had its own separate stripe. Two different ways I have seen the spokes striped: The spoke stripe is solid all of the way to the hub, or the stripe splits at about 3 1/2 " from the hub and flares out towards and terminating at the wheel hub. Three other circular pin stripes were place on the wheel. One around the hub by the hub cap, second around the hubs' flat flange centered between the hup bolts and the hub flange running its outside perimeter. The third stripe goes around the wood fellow and about centered on it. No other pin striping was to be found on the condensing cars. The color of the strip depended on the body color. A blue body had a dove gray stripe on its wheels. 1916 and 1917 Catalogs both say: "Body and wheel spokes called Russian Blue, with fine gray striping. Running gear except the wheel spokes, black without striping. Mudguards black enameled, without striping. Hood and radiator, header, Russian Body Blue". The 1918 Catalog says: "Regent Green, with running gear and fenders black". Surely the 1918 followed the same color locations as both the earlier and later years. The 1919 catalog offers different choices of body colors: green, gray, and blue, with black mudguards. Again, the wheels were body color. 1919 catalog says: "Body, hood, wheels, regent green;..." Vintage 1919 wheel spoke striping photos shows the spokes with a dart stripe without a split in it. Going by earlier years use, striping color of the wheels over the regent green should be using a straw yellow pin stripe. Black wheels? No mention of using black wheels in the Stanley literature from 1916 through 1919.

Thanks Pat, I will start looking for some "Regent Green" paint for the wheels.

After a bit of cleaning things up I now see that there are three layers of paint on the wheels. The base layer is a gloss black color, the next layer is a burgundy red, and the upper layer is the gloss yellow. None of the layers are green. Does this mean that the wheels could be ordered in a different color than standard, or that my entire car, minus fenders and running gear was once painted burgundy? There is no evidence of a red color on the body in the places where the paint is thin or chipped. I will do a bit more scraping and then take some photos, it will be interesting to see if there is any evidence of the original pin strips.

Dear Eric, This is 2011 and your car is a 1918. 93 years is plenty enough time for someone to change out your car's wheels. We have 5 Stanleys and none of them have their same wheels that they left the factory with.

True enough, I guess the true test will come when I see if the pattern is the same on all the wheels?

After a bit more scrapping the paint history is a bit more complicated than I had originally thought. First layer is a green, the second layer is black, the third layer is deep red, the fourth layer is gray and the top layer is yellow! No luck yet finding original pin strips. The green is very thin and faded, now kind of grayish green.

Most wheels shipped from their factory jobbers were shipped to the car builders in a primer coat, and then some are shippent in black enamel. Stanley could have received their wheels from the Firestone factory without any paint on them at all. I would then think that Stanley could have used a primer/surfacer to fill the coarse wood grain, and then next would have been the wheel color. Possibly the primer surfacer was tinted the same color as the final paint color which was Regent green? Next is the question of "have the wheels ever been stripped in the last 93 years down to bare wood?" Example: I think that all of the wheels on all of our 20 cars we personally have,have been stripped to bare wood and metal in their life times. Then one must keep in mind that these wheels could also have been replacement wheels somewhere along the line. If your car had never been repainted and still had its original body paint in usable condition, then I would hazard to guess that some of your paint on the wood spoked wheels was also the original wheel paint. Attached is a photo of Eric's 1918 Stanley that was parked in our driveway. It is a vey fine Stanley steamer.

Here is a picture I got off the Stanley Register site showing the same car in 1955 after it had been restored. Looks like the wheels were a light color and the hub was black, probably the same colors as when I got the car. I think it still had the same non-skid tires as well. The only difference I could see was that now the car has a tool box on the running board. Still has the electric add on windshield wiper.