This may or may not be something the resto guys might find interesting.
I've got a '62 Suburban that has a light silver/champaign painted interior from the factory. The whole thing--walls, ceiling, door panels, and dash, all the same color.
The steering column and steering wheel, however, are white. The truck's exterior was light green originally.
The truck was originally bought by the State of California Parks and Services division.
Was it normal for the steering wheels to be a different color than the interior and exterior on early '60s trucks?
The reason I'm wondering is because I know that the California Highway Patrol specified a white steering wheel for all their highway patrol cars back then--the reasoning was that as the sun beat down through the windshield, a black or dark colored steering wheel would absorb heat and be too hot to hold. A white wheel didn't absorb the heat--or at least not as much.
Wonder if California did that for all their fleet vehicles, or was it common to have a white steering wheel on a green truck with silver interior?
-Brad
