C3 Ralley Wheel Center Caps

[Roger S.]

In the attached picture are two caps from my 1973. The left cap has the correct part number per Joe L. The one on the right is made much different, has only a partial number and looks much older. Anyone have any idea if the second cap is an older unit or just a reproduction?
Roger

[Joe L.]

Re: C3 Ralley Wheel Center Caps

Roger----

The picture is so small it's hard to tell. However, I don't understand what the "serrations" are that are visible around the perimeter of the cap on the right. There should be no such "serrations" when an original cap is viewed from the rear.

[Roger S.]

Re: C3 Ralley Wheel Center Caps

This is a bigger picture with details in the inside of the cap.
Roger

[Joe L.]

Re: C3 Ralley Wheel Center Caps

Roger------

They both look to me like they're a GM cap. However, I've never seen one that had the "serrated" sort of edge crimp like the one on the right. It may be that the ones with the "serrations" were originally used on another Chevrolet model and found their way onto this car. It's also possible that there were multiple manufacturers for these caps and different manufacturers used different manufacturing methods/tooling. The visible portions of the cap may be the same since that is what GM specs would have mostly focused on. The unseen portions might have been made differently. Nevertheless, I doubt that caps of different manufacturers would have been originally used on the same car.

[Joe L.]

Addendum

Also, if the caps say "Chevrolet Motor Division" on the ornament section, then they almost have to be a GM cap. It would be illegal for an aftermarket cap to say this unless they were made under a GM Restoration Parts license. These caps look older to me than the GM Restoration Parts program so it's unlikely that they were made and sold under authority of that program. In addition, these caps are still available from GM so I don't think that they would be a licensed reproduction part anyway. I don't think that GM licenses for reproduction parts which are currently in the GMSPO system (although GMSPO does sell some GM-licensed reproduction parts after the part is GM-discontinued and licensed reproduction begins).

[Roger S.]

Re: Addendum

All four caps have Chevrolet Motor Division on the outside. Actually I have two of each type on my Corvette. The ones with the crimped edge appear to hace better chrome and less shine on the inside of the stainless ring. I was just wondering if the caps were actual GM or a cheap repo.
Thanks
Roger

[Roy B.]

Re: C3 Ralley Wheel Center Caps

Lets not for get like Joe said , there were more then one supplier to GM , and many same original parts went through design changes. (look at the various thermostat housing people ask about).
Check out my post above on C1 hub caps.