[Joe's Garage]

I don't normally play with the later 70s stuff, but just picked up a pretty nice Formula wheel with good metal finish and no damage. The seller said this wheel came off a 1977-8 Trans Am that he parted out 20+ years ago.

It is currently dark blue, but some of that color is coming off and the finish underneath is kind of an olive green. I don't think I've ever seen a green wheel, but that is definitely what color it was before it became blue.

1st question: Was there an interior color combo that would have had the green wheel in that era or am I just seeing some base material color that would have been covered up when the wheel was colored originally ?

2nd question: If I wanted to take the blue 'paint' off, what would be the safest solvent to use to do that ?

Thanks all!

[Aus78Formula]

It may well have come off a TA 20 years ago, but it's not original to one. Black only, other than the tan of the Y88. The blue interior Skybird was one that did have a Formula wheel in colour. But after 40 years anything could have happened.

What's the good metal finish, blackened spokes or bare that shows worn or polished off?

[camerjeff]

I have actually had good luck using a MR Clean magic eraser pad to remove red vinyl paint off of a painted Tan Formula wheel years ago. I just followed the directions on the packaging. My wife suggested it and it worked really well. I was amased.

[unruhjonny]

Now, I will not suggest I am an expert, but I am happy to help where, or if I can.
My observations seem to be congruent with what's been posted so far.

I'll expand upon what's been posted, from my observations;

I believe the first colour matched formula wheel was for a 1977 Skybird;
These cars are curious, because the early ones had a woodgrain dash, and if a formula wheel was ordered, it seems they received black wheels (and columns) like everything else to that point), but at some point hte formula wheel became colour matched, and hte dash insert became a blue tinted aluminum turned unit.
They were again colour matched for 1978 Skybird's and 1978-1979 Redbird's.
The next application of a colour matched formula wheel was the 1978 Y88 cars.

Prior to 1980, a brushed aluminum centre was used;
The centre was painted black for 1970-1977, for all except the SE's and Y88, but I believe it was a dark tinted clear, that over time faded away to a natural aluminum finish.
For 1980 & 1981, the wheels changed to a steel core wheel with wrinkle finish paint on it.
By far the most common colour matched wheels were manufactured for 1980-1981 Firebird - I believe that starting with 1980, an optional Formula wheel was colour matched, period.

I have hanging above my head (because I've been working from home for several weeks now) a dark-red & gold wheel taken from a Redbird many moons ago... unfortunately it's not perfect, because someone picked at the rubber on the bottom spoke.

[Grand73Am]

As was said, the 79 and older wheels have brushed aluminum spokes, that were originally black, but the black often is partially worn off.

The dark blue makes me think it's an 81 wheel, since I think that's the only year with dark blue dash and interior. As was said, the 80-81 would have the steel spokes, with what I'd call a black "pebbled" finish. The black color on the spokes survived better on those wheels than older ones. You could put a magnet on it to verify the steel spokes. If it's steel spokes, it's probably an 81.

I can't say about the green. I've sometimes seen different colors under the outer color. Might have been a primer type coat. Just a guess.