white vs. blue wheels

[Fordfarmer]

Not an important question, just something I've been curious about for a long time. Most post-'65 Fords I've seen have white rear wheel disks, no matter if they're power adjust or manual. Every once in a while, I see some that are blue, most often on 8000 or 9000's, but also on 2000, 3000, 4000, and 5000's, including my 5200. Doesn't seem to be any corelation between color and wheel diameter, power or manual adjust, or year. Any ideas as to why the different colors? Along the same lines, my 7000 has white rear hubs, but all the others (3000, 4600, 5200, 7600) have blue hubs.

 

[3000OH]

I'd noticed the same thing but don't have any answers, either. I've saved some pix from eBay, etc. just because of this same ? Our well-used '65 3000's original (but badly rusted) power adjusts were white/lt gray when brought home but some scraping showed they were originally blue. Same question also about fenders - ours are blue but most we've seen are white/lt gray.

 

[Ultradog MN]

That's a good question.
I've also seen both blue and gray centers on tractors I believed to have original paint.
I thought it had to do with different production years.
My 65 3000 was gray. 68 2000 is blue.

 

[fortracfan]

This is really a difficult subject.

It is my belief based on research (including taking to people who write books on the subject) that a >65 2000 had white wheels and blue fenders. A 3000 had white wheels and blue fenders until mid 67 when the fenders changed to white. The rest of this range should have white wheels and white fenders.

That said i have a low hour 67 2000 that is understood to be original, and it has a set of silver grey wheels and these appear to never have been painted - I have documentation for this tractor that goes back to the day it was new including all the services, tyre changes (only one) etc and no mention of wheel changes or respray's.

The mystery lives on.

 

[Fordfarmer]

I had always assumed that all post-65 fenders were white/grey too, but I've seen some '60's-'70's vintage Ford literature showing a 2000 or 3000 with blue fenders. Now I'm gonna have to go check to see if whoever repainted my '67 3000 painted the fenders blue because that's what they were, or changed them from white/grey. Never seen anything bigger than a 3000 with blue fenders though, except for newer stuff in the 10-series.

 

[AdrianUK]

In last month's Ford and Fordson Tractor magazine there was a feature on the 8600/9600 range which was in production 1972/76. The photos were reproductions from Ford brochures and most rear wheels show blue centres with grey rims but some oversize wheels show all grey. I've just repainted my 1976 model 8600 and the rear wheels seem to have been grey from the start. Perhaps the colour changed during the production run just to encourage sales of "this year's new model"!
One more small curiosity - In all the photos the FORD letters in the upper grill are red but on my tractor they are black and the paint looks original. It may be because it was produced in the Antwerp, Belgium factory and not in the U S A.

 

[Brian in MA]

My '68 4000 has one white and one blue. No idea which is original.

 

[Ultradog MN]

My 65 3000 had an old repaint on it when I got it.
But you can always see older paint through the nicks and scratches.
I believe it had white/gray rims and centers
and blue fenders from the factory.
It had been repainted that way.

 

[Fordfarmer]

The fenders on mine were originally white. Probably just didn't want the extra work of taking them off to paint.
Just to add another ?? to the mix, I've also noticed that all power adjust rims that I know to be original color are silver, while most but not all manual adjust rims are white/grey. The color of the rims could simply be due to what the supplier used, but I'd think that the centers and fenders got sprayed at the Ford factory. Maybe just depended on if they were trying to use up a batch of blue paint?