General Lee Charger vector wheels . What it the correct color? Black or gunmetal

[Charger-Bodie]

Which is correct for a series car? Early if that matters.

[c00nhunterjoe]

Black. Gunmetal was the color on the 1st series of the american racing rerelease after the dukes movie came out.

[Charger-Bodie]

Thank you.

[keith88]

I always thought the gunmetal was show and black is what was used in the movie. Mine are black ,not because of the movie but i like the look better.

[Mike DC]

       
AFAIK the old American Racing Vectors were painted semigloss black from the factory.  But the old rims also had a rough-cast finish between the spokes.  The newer reproduction Vectors are smoother and it changes how they look.

The TV series didn't always run AR Vectors.  They dabbled in the imitation rims by other brands too, which would have meant repainting some of them.



For TV-series accuracy I would try to make the black areas look flat & textured/hammered.

The OEM Mopar Organisol black paint (on the Charger's taillight panel) might be a decent black to use.   

[Lennard]

As far as I know the vectors came in natural aluminum finish from the factory,  no paint anywhere. I've seen n.o.s. ones in the original box and they were like that.

[Mike DC]

   
They came natural or painted from what I know.  


But that said, I'm not that into old wheels and my info on this stuff is mostly secondhand.  

[Brock Lee]

The majority of wheels used by the show were the American Racing Vectors. They came plain and the builders painted them black between the spokes.

There is another major style though on the show. They used the Carrol Shelby version of the vector. They were actually made by American Racing, but have a factory finish that looks like what you see on a Master Padlock these days. Black with silver speckles. The speckles are part of the finish, not the wheel's natural look peeking through. They used those in the first season. I believe this look is what they were aiming for with the gun metal gray. When you back away from the Shelby finished wheels, with direct light on them, the silver and black blurring together tends to come across as a sort of gray color.

Shelby only offered these wheels for a brief period of time. This forced them into using the American Racings, so they just painted them black as they looked black on screen. It just made life simpler and that was how they operated. Whatever is simple and quick that is easy to freshen up.

[Mike DC]

                   
Anybody want a technical excuse to leave their Vectors unpainted?  

Here ya go.  Season#2, the off-roader General Lee episode ("Arrest Jesse Duke").  

They hastily threw together a couple of raised-up GLs, and introduced the 15x8.5" wheels to make bigger tires fit.  The wheels showed up painted in subsequent episodes but they were unpainted the first time through:

[Charger-Bodie]

The front suspension is just begging for mercy on that episode. It makes me cringe Everytime I watch that one.

[Mike DC]

              
Yeah, those cars would not have put up with that for very long. 



The front suspensions ended up being way too soft in relation to the rearends, you can see it.   

That front/rear imbalance was pretty much the standard GL suspension tune all the time.  But the off-roader modifications exaggerated it.

[Brock Lee]

Didn't we figure out that off road closeup car was one of the jumpers in "Carnival of Thrills"?

[Mike DC]

  
Not the primary 32-car jumper, but one of the off-roaders was there.  For the scene when Luke stops Bo on his way to make the jump & discovers the ripped fuel line, you can see the cut fender plain as day.

The off-roader looks like the 2nd Charger they jumped for the landing shot of the 32-car jump.


I'm pretty sure there were two off-roaders built.  This one at Saugus was not the one that Luke pulls out of Cooter's garage.  The Saugus one took the suspension beating doing mini-jumps at Indian Dunes.  

The two off-roaders had different pushbars, and the front fenders were cut & stretched outwards more severely on the Saugus car.  The support piece at the top inside of the wheelwells might have been hacked on the fenders.  The tops of that car's fenders are pulled out pretty far, and the LF fender on the COT jump's landing shot does not crumple as if that piece is still there.  





It's hard to be sure because they swapped fenders around so often.  Those front fenders were still showing up randomly on cars a season later.  You can only be sure it's one of the off-roaders if it has both rear quarters trimmed.  

[jaak]

Maybe It is the lighting... dirt... or just my eyes, but anytime I look at a screen shot from the show, they look more gray than black to me. Like a charcoal gray. That is what I am intending on painted my spokes with, but may change my mind.

[440]

I doubt there was one color used, I think they just chucked whatever they had on the cars. Some of the upclose screen shots definately were black.

[Charger-Bodie]

I went with black.

[lukedukem]

I went with black.

That's what I'd go with. Did you find a car yet?

Luke