Colour for rims

thomthom · Post by **thomthom** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 11:58 am

I think that the wheels on my 1960 Matchless 650 de Luxe are original. They are both quite heavily corroded, mostly the front. I am going to replace the rims and spokes and rebuild them. The front rim is painted red/maroon in way of the spokes but the rear is plain chrome. The tinwork of the bike was originally all black with a red plastic beading around the chrome tank cover plate. The paint on the rim appears to have been applied before the spokes so looks to be original as well.

Would my bike have come out of Plumstead with the front wheel rim only painted.

Is the Devon Rim Company Ok for supply/work

Biscuit · Post by **Biscuit** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 11:59 am

No.

Don't know about Devon's work, but their rims are good, pricy though.Edited by - Biscuit on 17 Nov 2007 12:01:40 PM

Eric · Post by **Eric** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 1:38 pm

Biscuit was a bit brief but fully informative with his reply.

Your machine would have had full chrome rims front & rear when it left the factory.

Painted centres were used in earlier years, rumour has it that the rims were pierced and raised for the spokes, then polished before plating. The pre-pierced holes ripped the polishing mops apart so they missed that part and just painted them after plating to cover up the poor finish. Thats one suggestion anyway.

Dont know what changed unless they polished before piercing and develped better tooling to pierce and raise that did mark the pre-polished finish.

That may start a talking point about various possiblities.

thomthom · Post by **thomthom** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 3:04 pm

So the wheel (rim and hub) is probably from an earlier model. Can I tell by any identification marks or construction/manufacture detail the year of manufacture of my front hub.

Biscuit · Post by **Biscuit** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 7:46 pm

I'm glad I gave a monosyllabic answer. I had no idea they discontinued painting the wheel centres. I have seen many bikes sans paint in this location and put it down to personal preference, laziness or padlocked wallets.

MikeM. · Post by **MikeM.** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 10:25 pm

I have a maroon and silver lined painted chrome rim which is mounted on a later Q/D hub (rear wheel of course), I presume that the wheel came off of a G80 of the late '50s. It came with a 1960 model 31 frame,tank,gearbox Etc. The front wheel I obtained separately and is chrome. The bike has had an AJS (All Junk and Scrap) 500 Matchless engine in it for over 25 years.
There must be someone out there who knows what period rims had painted centres.

Biscuit · Post by **Biscuit** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 10:34 pm

Well, they were painted up to and including 1956, which is where my interest evaporates.

Confusing, was the engine an AJS or Matchless?

I'm notching up into testy mode, I know now because I bothered to look (hint) The spares lists refer to painted centres up to and including 1957, after that the reference is just 'chrome' There were two colours, black for home singles, maroon for export singles, black for AJS twins and maroon for Matchless twins.

Before somebody points out that maroon is not correct, it's just a generic term, it may be called 'squashed loganberry' or something just as silly.Edited by - Biscuit on 17 Nov 2007 11:02:28 PM

Eric · Post by **Eric** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 11:04 pm

The hubs for your 1960 bike should be full width on both front & rear with several deep cast in grooves that form a slight barrel shape across the width.

Some may believe the grooves or fins were there to keep the highly efficient brakes cool but this is also pure fantasy.

thomthom · Post by **thomthom** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 11:45 pm

Well, they are full width and having given the protective "squashed loganberry " coating a good seing to with my wire brush, I can see that it has kept that area quite free from oxidation. The the rest of the dunlop rims are only covered in superficial rust. Should I have them re-chromed

TommoT · Post by **TommoT** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 6:14 am

...only re-chrome if they are in 1st class condition. Otherwise preparing them for the re-chroming process will be so labour intensive, that it'll cost the same as new ones. I did re-chrome a set of original Dunlops for my 56 G80 but the cost was marginally higher than new ones, and the Dunlop name and other designations were partially rubbed away in the process.