History of the "Red Wheel"?

Can someone splain to me the history of the "Red Wheel". I dig it, I just wondered how it all started and what color of red is used most often or "prefered" by most. Thanks, in advace, for all info and smart**** remarks you may provide!

 

I have no idea who painted the first wheel red or why. But let's****ume that someone wanted something flashy and cheap.

Who knows what is the most used color. I think you can get flame red in Krylon and Rustolium etc. Its pretty bright and a very popular color these days.

Insignia red was popular when I was in highschool.

Anyway BTT

 

A lot of cars came with red wheels stock from the factory, my '57 Buick did for one...

 

Here's my guess.

Picture it's 1955 and you live in a town (population 350). You can drive an hour into the city to buy paint. Instead you head down to your own Main street and see what's available at the General store. Yep, they've got brushes and enamel paint in cans. The paint comes in black, red, or yellow. Yellow will be hard to get good coverage so "Red" it is.

 

When I was a teenager(mid-50's)the thing to do was paint just the rim of the wheel red and run full wheel covers.At least that was popular in the New England area.
It may have something to do with the old saying,"Paint the town red"meaning to go out and have a good time on Saturday night after a long week of work.Good question.Anyone have any other ideas on the subject?

 

Because it looked good?

 

When I was a wee lad, my ol' man restored Model As for a living, so he knows a lot of A history. The deal was that all model A wheels came from the factory in black, but there were several standard colors that dealers would paint the wheels and then up-charge accordingly. These colors included the orangey-red that many are familiar with. Other colors were apple green and "straw", which was about the color of new masking tape. This would have been the "alloy wheels" of today.

I always thought this had something to do with hot rodders' affections for red wheels. It gave your car a sporty, classy look, removing some of the "stodgey-ness". I think this same mentality led to motors painted red, and pinstriping (another Model A dealer add-on).

Having grown up in North Carolina, bootleggers there would actually paint their wheels black to make the cars more plain-looking, not to draw attention to themselves. To this day, many goldchainers there still have a major affection for a black 40 Ford Tudor with black steelies. It's what a deuce roadster is in other parts of the country.

Just my $0.02!

 

If you think about it... red wheels go with just about ANY color... black, yellow, green, white, blue, turquoise... I think it had more to do with looking good than anything.

An old guy I know has an original owner '51 Merc... his wheels are red... it had wide whites and dual glass packs too... FWIW.

Back in the Model T days... the paints were largely tinted with berry juice and colors from trees and such. So, that explains the deep maroons, reds and greens... olive, straw etc.

The Merc owner, by the way, ran his full wheel covers so just the red rim lip showed.
Sam.

 

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A lot of cars came with red wheels stock from the factory, my '57 Buick did for one...

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And don't forget the 53 Buick Skylark came with red inner wheel wells from the factory......

 

i thought it had something to do with the fact that the spare wheel was red from the factory on many cars...






tred.