Wooden Spokes

[Rogillio]

Were wooden spokes typically painted or stained? I was planning on sanding mine a little and then staining the red oak and then putting poly eurathane on them to seal them. I've seen a lot of pictures though of spokes painted black or painted to match the body color.

[Pete K.]

Only in my opinion, most wood spokes on all cars were painted originally. many were pinstriped too. It seems to me I've seen natural wood spokes only on restored cars. "They do look nice".

[JayG]

I believe that early ones were all painted black. Early being up to 26. I have a set of 27 wheels I just listed for sale that came off an unrestored original car. They were natural finished and you can still see the pinstriping. No sign of paint on them anywhere. Jay

[27dodger0]

I have a 27 sedan that had the spokes painted a dark blue color. Having decided to finish them natural, I tried a few paint removers, but nothing touched the paint. I finally had to scrape each wheel, (40 hours) to get to wood I could stain. I used a "golden oak" stain, and then finished them with spar varnish. The final look was worth it!!

[nearchoclatetown]

The early cars were all black, and the wheels were all Dodge Brothers blue.

[RWPerry]

The early cars were all black, and the wheels were all Dodge Brothers blue.

I read somewhere, I think in the list of ongoing changes to DBs that John Bittence put together and published in the newsletter, that sometime in 1925 natural spokes were listed as an option for some models of DBs. I will have to look at my back issues to see if I can find it again. I'm thinking that he published it in 2010 or there abouts. Anyhow, after I did all of the work to clean mine up I decided to use an oak stain and spar varnish rather than painting them. There was no paint on them when I got the car so I didn't know what they were originally. I like them this way so that is what counts.

[RWPerry]

I forgot to say in my previous post that I was talking about the spokes in my 1925 coupe, not the senior in my photo.