[RA1John]

Did the JA Rally II wheel have date coding on the outer rim near valve stem hole or only on the inner rim?

Was JA used on other years besides '67-'68?

Thanks!

[Chief of the 60's]

Is it getting a trim ring?

['ol Pinion head]

Originally Posted by Chief of the 60's

Is it getting a trim ring?

With big letter JC's, one can spot the letters through the valve stem cutout on original trim rings.
All '68 Birds factory optioned with Rally II wheels received the JC's.

[RA1John]

Only concern is if JA or JC codes were used in later years. Obviously, date codes won't be visible with trim rings installed. Pretty sure judges don't pull trim rings off.

With JA being a unique wheel for a '67/'68 disc brake application, I'd like to be sure these aren't from the '70s.

[PurelyGTO68]

Originally Posted by RA1John

Did the JA Rally II wheel have date coding on the outer rim near valve stem hole or only on the inner rim?

Was JA used on other years besides '67-'68?

Thanks!

The JA wheels for my 68 disk brake car has large font JA only.....no date code on the outer rim. There are some stampings on the inner filler ring but I didn't look at those too closely. I have yet to mount the tire on my spare wheel so I will take a look at it this weekend.

[RA1John]

Understand the usage of JA & JC for '67-'68 disc brake applications, was just wondering if date codes were also on outer rim or did that start in '69-'70?

I have the set of JC wheels that came with my '68 DB Firebird. No other marks on outer rim.

Pix from my friend shows JC code along with a couple of separate numbers.

[PurelyGTO68]

Originally Posted by RA1John

Only concern is if JA or JC codes were used in later years. Obviously, date codes won't be visible with trim rings installed. Pretty sure judges don't pull trim rings off.

With JA being a unique wheel for a '67/'68 disc brake application, I'd like to be sure these aren't from the '70s.

I believe JA code wheels were used in 69-70 as well. Those would be small font with date code on the outer ring. As far as I know.....large font JA or JC with no date code is 67-68 and small font with date codes are 69 or later.
I am not super positive about this though....would like to learn more about this myself. My car had 14"x6" rally II wheels with large font JA in all four corners when I bought it in '87. It is a factory disk brake car. A friend of mine has a '68 drum brake car with large font JC (no date codes) and he had to source JA wheels when he converted to disk brakes.

[Chief of the 60's]

Originally Posted by 'ol Pinion head

With big letter JC's, one can spot the letters through the valve stem cutout on original trim rings.
All '68 Birds factory optioned with Rally II wheels received the JC's.

Then the date doesn't matter. Who is going to pull a trim ring off? That is like looking for date coded cam bearings. People waste time looking for the most rediculous things. Time that could be spent driving the car. I can bet that I have built and owned more "correct" vehicles than it takes some people to build just 1.

[RA1John]

Chief...

I'm not hung up on date codes here; Just trying to understand IF the JA and/or JC wheels dimensionally differed from '67-'68 (large letter codes) from later versions with the same code.
Congrats on all of those correct cars you've owned.

[Chief of the 60's]

3 identical threads about wheels and 2 identical threads about chrome sounds like a hang up to me and I'm not going out of my way to look for them. There's probably more. Stop sweating the minor things in life. Someday you'll be gone and they will still be there. If you will lose sleep over a date no one can see, finish the car, enjoy it and look for that unicorn later.

And stop listening to those damn Corvette people. They'll turn your brain to mush.

[RA1John]

You're obviously bored Chief.
If my posts inquiring about details annoys you, why bother replying?

Not everyone here knows everything and has had all of the "correct" cars you've had.

Some know things and and are happy to share their knowledge with others.

Others know things and remind everyone else how much they know and how annoying it is that they don't know as much.

Appreciate your wisdom.
Not so much the criticism and sarcasm.

Life IS short Chief. Leave a positive impression for the next generation. Just sayin'

[Chief of the 60's]

That is the problem The next generation has a very short attention span. The next generation needs to be able to restore and drive these cars, not make careers out of them.

You would have gone nuts blowing up forums across the internet if you owned my original 40,000 mile early build '65 with its original early '64 plug wires on it.

I'm willing to help those that need help. Unfortunately I cannot help the closed minded nor the ones that only want to hear what they want to hear.

Remember, GM built mass produced motor vehicles..... not unicorns.

[PurelyGTO68]

I have always wondered if 67-68 large font JA were exactly the same dimensions as the later small font JA wheels. Might seem like an insignificant detail to some, but if they are slightly different then it could be a big deal to those with the early style disk brake calipers. If I am not mistaken, didn't the 69 and later cars use the single large piston calipers? If so, then the small font JA wheels might not fit the 4 piston calipers used in the 67-68 cars.

Back when we first purchased the 68 in 1987 one of the very first things I did was swap the 14" wheels for a set of 15" rally II wheels because I needed/wanted more meat on the ground. Much to my surprise the 15" Rally II wheels did not clear the calipers on the 68. I tried a set from our '73 LeMans which I believe were 15"x7" wheels and a set from a '76 Firebird (don't remember the width...). Neither wheel would fit and both came from disk brake cars. The 4 piston calipers are much thicker on the outboard surface and has clearance issues with the wheel. That same conflict isn't there on 69 and later calipers so those might be different. If you compare large font JA and JC wheels, you can see the stamped portion for the wheel stud holes is drawn deeper on the JA wheels. I never had a set of small font JA wheels so I don't know what those are like.

['ol Pinion head]

It's just the style of stamping Motor Wheel used. Have had literally hundreds of JC & JA rally II's. Put up a link to an earlier post in John's '67-69 Firebird forum post. The changeover date of the size of stamping & going to external dates was in late May of '68,

Early Firebirds used different 4 piston calipers than did the '67 & '68 A-body's, thus the '68 Birds continued to use the JC coded rally II wheel when 4piston caliper discs were ordered.

[PurelyGTO68]

Originally Posted by 'ol Pinion head

It's just the style of stamping Motor Wheel used. Have had literally hundreds of JC & JA rally II's. Put up a link to an earlier post in John's '67-69 Firebird forum post. The changeover date of the size of stamping & going to external dates was in late May of '68,

Early Firebirds used different 4 piston calipers than did the '67 & '68 A-body's, thus the '68 Birds continued to use the JC coded rally II wheel when 4piston caliper discs were ordered.

Very interesting. Did not know the F body 4 piston calipers were different. That may explain why I have seen what looks like two different castings for the outboard half of the caliper bodies.

So JC wheels work on 4 piston F body cars but not on 4 piston A body models.....learn something new every day.



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[squidtone]

Hi,
I have big letter (67 or 68) 14 x 6 JC wheels and they DO fit 67 A body 4 piston factory disc brakes.
1969 JA wheels also fit fine around the 67 A body 4 piston caliper. I like the JA's because they have about the shallowest outer rim (most offset) which I think is a great factory look for that era car.
JC's have 3/8" or so less offset than a JA, so there is more "dish" showing when looking at the wheel.
I can confirm what PurelyGTO68 says...the Rally II center section lug hole pockets were "drawn" deeper in both the JC and JA wheels compared to later 14 x 6 Rally II wheels. Something approaching 1/4". This gives more clearance for fat calipers.
I run 1969 JA wheels on my 67 disc brake GTO because 1967 wheels are just too hard too find!

['ol Pinion head]

Have been putting date matching sets of JA, JL, & JT wheels together since the late 80's. Putting together externally date matching sets of these early 14x6'e has been MUCH tougher for me, than gathering up big letter JA & JC wheels & making a set of 4 or 5. Appreciate the help from the network of like minded restorers & collectors who have helped out through trades, & who also contribute on this board.

[johnta1]

squidtone, does the JA wheels have external date codes on them?

[CGus]

Hello John.
Great discussion on Rally 2 wheels.
Carl.

[squidtone]

johnta1,
Yes, attached is a picture of two of them.
The other is them on the car, wheels freshly painted.