Correct Police

[Dusty B]

The '60 cub I just got from LA has red rear rims! Appear to be original, did some cubs come w/red instead of the silver (galvanized) color?? Thanks, Dusty B

[staninlowerAL]

This does not answer your question but I've never seen other than silver/galvanized. Anything is possible.

[Matt Kirsch]

Can't say as I've ever heard of one coming with red rims on the rear. Fronts are always red, but the rears came galvanized originally. Some legends have it that they came panted silver as well, but I expect galvanizing was most common, if not the exclusive finish due to the widespread use of calcium chloride as ballast, and galvanizing's corrosion resistance.

The paint technology of the time wouldn't stick to galvanizing, so painting them red at the factory would've been wasted time. Of course galvanizing isn't forever, so it's likely that someone just blew red paint on the whole thing at some point 30, 40, 50 years ago. Any evidence of overspray on the rear tires would have disappeared if the tires were changed.

[Peter Person]

Can't say as I've ever heard of one coming with red rims on the rear. Fronts are always red, but the rears came galvanized originally. Some legends have it that they came panted silver as well, but I expect galvanizing was most common, if not the exclusive finish due to the widespread use of calcium chloride as ballast, and galvanizing's corrosion resistance.

The paint technology of the time wouldn't stick to galvanizing, so painting them red at the factory would've been wasted time. Of course galvanizing isn't forever, so it's likely that someone just blew red paint on the whole thing at some point 30, 40, 50 years ago. Any evidence of overspray on the rear tires would have disappeared if the tires were changed.

The wheels for my 57 Farmall Cub were stamped "Firestone" and were clearly a factory paint on the inside of the rims when I took off what were probably the original tires in 2006. Tubes had been filled with calcium chloride solution and had started leaking - eating up the rims. I washed them real good and took some polishing compound to an area of gray paint that was left on the inside of the rim. Shined up real nice. Sent them out to be powder coated silver.


With new sneakers!


No sign of galvanizing on them, so at some point IH got away from that finish.

Peter

[Puffie40]

Can't say as I've ever heard of one coming with red rims on the rear. Fronts are always red, but the rears came galvanized originally. Some legends have it that they came panted silver as well, but I expect galvanizing was most common, if not the exclusive finish due to the widespread use of calcium chloride as ballast, and galvanizing's corrosion resistance.

Galvanizing is also cheaper than enamel paints and faster to apply because zinc will electrochemically bond to steel with minimal surface preparation. It is comparable to metal plating in some ways.

[gitractorman]

No, they were not painted. Matter of fact, they came to the factory with the tires on them already. If yours are painted, especially if they're painted inside of the rim (where the tire mounts) they are either replacement rims, or they were taken apart and painted in the past.

The rims were supplied to IH, to the factory, by the tire suppliers. I've seen the insides of them stamped Goodyear, Firestone, and Bridgestone, from all ages of Cubs, and they were all galvanized. The tires were already mounted to the rims, and shipped to the factory that way so all they had to do was bolt them to the centers after the tractor was painted and ready to drive off of the assembly line.

Bill

[Dusty B]

The '60 cub I just got from LA has red rear rims! Appear to be original, did some cubs come w/red instead of the silver (galvanized) color?? Thanks, Dusty B

. As you can see if it were repainted it was stripped and apparently NO primer was used?? Tube does show some color on from previous paint but hood and other places show none?!? Have not pulled tires yet (probably will as I think these were the ones that were filled w/water!?). We'll see what that shows!! VERY interesting!! Paint appears to be a heavy, hard finish enamel? Dusty B

[Jim Becker]

I thought from your original question that you were saying the rims looked original. The painted valve stem makes that pretty clearly not so.

It is possible to paint the rims without repainting the whole tractor. They may have even been on a different tractor when they were painted.