Knock off wheels

[Rex T.]

Is there ANY difference in original knockoff wheels for a 64 and 65 Corvette, except that the 65 wheels are painted between the spokes?

Thanks,
Rex

[Donald T.]

Re: Knock off wheels

Rex,

The only difference other than paint would be the date code. 64 and early 65 had an ink stamped date code and late 65 had the date code struck into the back of the wheels. I have seen struck date codes as early as March of 65. I believe the change over ocurred sometime in February.

[Jack H.]

Re: Knock off wheels

Check Noland Adams book for KO wheels in the 1965 section. He states the PN for the wheels changed from XXXX (the 1964 PN) to YYYY (the 1965 PN) on AIM date 2/22/65. This has always left a question that Noland (with good intentions, but no follow through) has indicated he'd research for me....

If the PN for early '65 KO's was the SAME as used in '64, how did the center spokes get painted with charcoal accent color? Was this a running change to the original XXXX PN and if so, what happened to '64 owners wanting a service replacement wheel--what version did they get from across the counter sources?

Did this mean, there was a sufficient inventory of wheels left over from '64 that Chevy painted with access color at St. Louis to convert to the '65 version of the wheel? Was there a color/hue difference between Chevy 'converted' wheels and those later delivered under PN YYYY to the factory? Is this when date coding changed from rubber stamped to physically embossed?

The answer(s) are still blowing in the wind... I've yet to see a '65 wheel physicall embossed prior to 'B' of 1965....

[Wayne M.]

Whacked vs. ink stamped dates

Good summary of the outstanding questions about early '65 P48's.

But in your last paragraph, any stamped "B" would refer to shift(?) and not the month, IMO. The die-stamped dates were in the format numerical month / day / year.

Here's a stamping from a 1966 KO. All letters I've ever seen are A, B, C and D, and I'm not sure about the A. Actually this is a poor illustative example as these wheels are off VIN 13162, which is an early Feb car, so one could translate the B for a month.

[Mark P.]

Re: Whacked vs. ink stamped dates

Does anyone know if the "6 month rule" applies to dating on original knockoff wheels? I have a complete origianl 1966 set, but the dating is 10 months earlier than the date on my car.

Thanks,
Mark

[Jack H.]

Mark/Wayne

I meant 'B 65' in the generic fashion (Feb of 65) vs. what's specifically wacked as the emboss.

On the 6-month rule, unless there's a part specific exception (see the JG for the year of car involved + any advice in the NCRS Judging Reference Manual), the 6-month rule is what judges are supposed to go by. So, you'd expect to lose 20% of the originality credit on your KO wheels for those that are 10-months before your car's build date.

Still, that's a LOT less than what you'd take for a set of repro KO's AND you might be able to trade them if you went and put an ad in Restorer Magazine....

[Mark P.]

Re: Mark/Wayne

Good point on the deduct. Also, a good idea on trying the Driveline. They're really nice wheels and I need wheels for a late '66. I was just curious since I know they give you a year on the glass dating.

Thanks for the advice.
Mark