MGB GT LE Wheels
Date stamped!! I did not know that. Where's Karen's car???
All laquered alloy except the recessed bits on the spoles. When mine were refurbished the guy who was doing it couldn't polish all the bits that were normally polished so this was his solution. The colour is a funny metallic grey - almost an element of brown to it. I suppose that way it matched both GT and roadster?
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I got karens car out last night to go and meet Michelle & Steve. I remembered to look at the wheels and they were stamped J 79. Looks if my new hobby is looking at L.E's wheels
Hi
That one has been up for sale for a long time now and will probably remain so at that price when car's like Tim's (with only 2,500 miles) have sold in auction for a fraction of the price.
If you were to get a close up photo of the wheels you would find that they are dark grey rather than black-honest;)
Just had a hunt and I have some photos of the spare from that car, not very clear I'm afraid (due to enlarging) but I think it clearly shows that they are grey against the black of the tyre.
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Hi Grant
I think that your car must have had a set of stag wheels (the part no. on the wheel would confirm this but obviously that's not available anymore) fitted to it, probably when new but who knows. We all know that weird and wonderful things went on during the good old days of BL and that garages would often fit parts from other cars to aid a sale.
I personally much prefer the polished alloy but I guess that from a warrantee point of view they were a nightmare plus would have cost BL more in the first place-something they wouldn't have liked.
Colin
Well I know the history of my car personally and am 100% sure the wheels were not black on delivery. I agree with Colin - wierd things did happen around that time and perhaps the compromise is to agree that the MAJORITY of LE wheels on UK cars were a funny sort of grey colour! 🙂
Jubilee-Man wrote:
Just got hold of a copy of Clausager's book (for those who know of it will know it as the bible regards the MGB over the years od its production.Anyway on page 96 it states the following-
"The design of the wheel was based on that of the Triumph Stag. The rim was 5Jx14 and had the normal mgb four-stud fixing. These wheels were given an epoxy finish to overcome corrosion.The inset areas of the spokes and recessed wheel centre were painted dark metallic grey, with rims, raised spoke edges and the raised circle around the centre in a lighter alloy colour.The small centre hubcaps carried the MG logo,which was silver and black on the north American and non-LE home market models, but silver and red on the home market L.E. cars.
There is a photo of an L.E. wheel and I guess that as the metallic grey was so dark it could easily be confused as being black-especially as the stag's were black.
Your comments please?
Just checked Nell again and her wheels are painted as per the quote above.
Col
Hi Grant....
I have to say the new wheel really does catch the light well/looks fantastic on your L.E -not trying to run salt into the wound.
Clausager worked at the Heritage centre for many years as head archivist and that was where he amassed the info for the books and shows a close up of the wheels from the final GT and they are dark grey (unfortunately I have no way of scanning/uploading it) but maybe others can.
You are quite right in saying that it is important to find out/maintain what was/is original and factual info. as it is all too often lost.
Out of curiosity are your black wheels marked up as BHH2258 and are the B Hives the same?
Dont apologise - it was fun!
Unfortunately the vehicle is not on display at the moment, so I'm unable to check if the rims are painted or not.
Hi
Did Richard stste when the cars would be returning to the colection as they have been gone for a while now?