From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Costs and difficulties of painting various types of wheels and discs.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 160\1\ scan0048 | |
| Date | 6th December 1938 | |
| 1001 aled 375 To Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Gry.{Shadwell Grylls}.. from Da{Bernard Day - Chassis Design}/Ev.{Ivan Evernden - coachwork} PLEASE DISCUSS R.M. c. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} c. By c. De Da{Bernard Day - Chassis Design}/Ev.{Ivan Evernden - coachwork}19/N.6.12.38. Re: Wheels and Discs. When the double Cornercroft wheel discs are fitted to our standard wire wheels, the wheels themselves are left in their original condition i.e. finished in black stove enamel, and only the edge of the inner and outer rims are hand painted to match the car. The discs are painted to match the car, and we understood the coachbuilders to say that they found it necessary to use stove enamel. The cost of painting these dual discs and hand painting the edge of the rims is £1. 5. 0d. per wheel. The cost of completely painting a set of five wheels is £5. 0. 0d. and this is only done when discs are not used. It has been found essential to use stove enamel as even synthetic enamel is not satisfactory. When we come to the single disc on the outside of a wire wheel, it would appear to be necessary only to paint the wheel as for the present Cornercroft disc, and since the amount of painting of the discs to our design is very much less than with the Cornercroft, a charge of something considerably less than £1. 5. 0d. per wheel can be anticipated, although it is thought that the price of eight shillings per wheel, quoted by a firm in Derby is too low. The pressed steel wheel with an external disc seems to offer some considerable difficulty on the score of cost, the disc as proposed does not extend beyond the well of the rim, and therefore a large portion of the wheel rim is exposed. It might therefore be found necessary, to obtain our class of durability, to stove enamel the wheel as well as paint the disc to the colour of the car. This would possibly make the steel wheel in the end more expensive than the wire. To some extent it seems to indicate that we should take the disc of the steel wheel right out to the edge of the rim as we did on the wire wheel, so avoiding anything but brush painting of the wheel. The troubles we encounter are those of the valve, and the closing of the proposed ventilating slots for cooling the brake drums, and attaching snow chains, However, these difficulties do not appear to amount to a great deal, in as much as a wire wheel with discs has similar defects. Our remarks in this memo were derived after discussing the question of painting with Messrs.Park Ward & Co. Ev.{Ivan Evernden - coachwork} | ||