That makes sense. When the Alpine I came out, it was the only Rootes car to
use 13 inch wheels. So the wheels could be "customized" to the car. Late in
1961, about 1/2 way in the Alpine Series II production run, the Hillman Super
Minx was launched. This was the first Rootes saloon to use 13 inch wheels.
It actually used the same wheel as the Alpine. From 1957 (with the
introduction of the "Series" Minx) onward, Hillman's used "Foam White" wheels
(color code 8)(also called "Foam Gray"). From a manufacturing point of view,
it is cheaper and easier to just use one color wheel for all applications.
This is apparently what Rootes did.
Jan Eyerman (past member of the American Institute of Industrial Engineers)
Ian Spencer <ian@sunbeamalpine.org> wrote:
Curt,
The Series I and Series II's all had steel wheels that were painted to
match the body color. The brocheures are correct. I have a lake blue SII
with steel wheels painted lake blue to match. Late in the SII production
they quit painting them body color and went to white, sometime shortly
before they went to the wheels with the larger holes ( I can provide
Serial Number if you want it). GT's didn't appear until Series 3 and bu
that time they had gone to white wheels on both GT and ST. - Ian
CMeinel464@aol.com wrote:
>
> Tom,
>
> I have about 25 wheels sitting around and all of them are the off (foam)
> white. Bought my Alpine V new, black car, wheels were white under the nave
> plates and hubcaps.
>
> I just took a look a some of my collection of factory brochures and saw a
> couple of early cars, Series II red with red wheels! Also a Series II white
> with white wheels. Of course a lot of things shown in the airbrushed
factory
> literature is not true. But, one might assume from these sales flyers that
> early cars may have come with matching body color wheels and it seems that
> all my flyers for the Series IV-V only show the off white.
>
> Also a GT might have come with matching wheels as they did on thier
hardtops,
> whereas the roadster hardtops were either black or white unless you ordered
> it in a matching color from the factory.
>
> Hope this helps,
> Curt
> Classic Sunbeam
--
Ian Spencer <www.sunbeamalpine.org>
'61 Series II Alpine B9104704 LRX
'61 Harrington Alpine B9104782 OD HRO
'62 Harrington Le Mans BH9115930 OD LRX
'62 Harrington Le Mans BH9116754 OD LRX
'62 Harrington Le Mans BH9117497 OD LRX
'64 Series IV Automatic B9401426 BW LRX
'67 Series V Alpine B395016967 LRX
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