Body color steel wheels

When were the wheels painted for the cars with body color steel wheels?

Hub cap cars only up to 1970. 71 and later they were black.

the change to "black" for all hub cap cars was during April of '71

The one exception is a hub cap equipped '70 Challenger T/A, the wheels are painted black not body color.

& those also had a trim ring - the combination was an option for most cars in '71 (W12)

black wheel - hub cap - trim ring

There is yet another exception.

If it is a black T/A with steelies, then body color.

When you could not afford to put a nice mag wheel on your car.

No, the opposite, when you COULD afford nice mag wheels....You buy the car with the cheap base wheels and toss them in the dumpster when your new aftermarket mags went on the car....Hence the rarity of some steel wheels.

Agreed, but $1.50 an hour at the service station after school didnt go very far...... LOL

Like the guy I tracked down many years later, who had ordered the 440-6 pack, dana 71 Challenger that I eventually bought.
He told me 'the day he ordered the car he ordered Cragar Mags and Hooker headers at the local speed shop'.
Luckily those wheels didn't go in the dumpster but were put in the old Cragar boxes.
Happy day for me when we went to the old abandoned milk house on his fathers farm and there were the basically brand new dusty 450's still in the weathered boxes.

When during the assembly process were the steel wheels painted to match body color or did they have painted wheels on standby? Were they sprayed the same time the car was with the same paint?

I can't tell you when they were painted but I have a good friend that his first job with Chrysler was putting the wheels on the cars at one of the assembly lines. He stated the worst part of the day was after lunch (fill in the blank as to what was consumed) when the mount and balance guys would send the wrong wheels down the chute and you had to put them on the car, there was no stopping the line for that kind of thing. So out the door they went where the wheels would get swapped along with blemished tires and change of wheel production dates some cars could get several different date coded wheels.

This is for the 69 body color steel wheels.

After 71 it was still an option to get body colored wheels on fleet cars. My WSP 72 Polara came with gold wheels with dog dishes.

That's how it was done in the day...

OK, In 1969, at what point in the assembly process did the wheels get painted for a car coded for body colored steel wheels ? ? ? ?

It would seem like having a bunch of wheels pre-painted for all the different sizes and colors available would take up a bunch of floor space + you would need someone to keep track of the quantity in advance so you have enough to match up with the cars being built. I bet they just grabbed them as needed and tossed them in the paint booth along with the car and then they were pulled out, had tires mounted, and then drug down the line where they were eventually installed on the car. Just guessing on my part.........