Awesome car and thread. I wonder about the owner paying 35.00 which today is 265.00 in today's dollars and knowing what Ralley wheels look like and getting those wheels. Wheels and tire always are the most important asset that either makes or breaks a car's visual impact.

No.

There were 12 Le Mans blue ZL-1s built, none having silver XT wheels.

XT wheels were painted to match the car if wheel covers were not ordered, black if they were. It is noted on both BCs. Camaros built with the P06 trim ring option had body color wheels. The paint used was enamel, not lacquer as used on the body.

The 5 rims are orig. paint silver. So It seems to me in William’s train of thought there must have been a Silver SS on the lot that had these on it but the buyer wanted the Rally’s that were on this car so they swapped them and then went thru the work to add trim rings and modify the center caps perfectly just to make the silver car buyer happy. Why not just cobble the wheels that were already on the silver car ?

This was the car I’m thinking of I just forgot to mention RS. It even looks to have trim rings.

That’s not how I interpreted what he wrote…I gathered from his remarks that he thinks the Rallies that were originally on the Blue car were stolen and the XTs from a Silver stock unit were taken off the Silver car and then installed on the Blue car and made to look like the Rally wheels that were missing from the Blue car.

Your right. I forgot about the stolen theory.

To add to the mystery, Gerry's (OO) father inlaw was a salesman/manager at the dealership. Gerry was in Vietnam when the car was ordered. He was a tech controller and had the ability to communicate with his father inlaw directly. What he said was upon the cars arrival the car was placed indoors and covered in a building at the dealership. Anything is possible, but how plausible???

This was a small dealership not known as a high-performance dealer and someone went to great lengths to somewhat convert the XT's to Rallys.

As noted when I originally posted this anomaly, Gerry was not pleased and switched to the slots.

The mystery continues....

I think it's neat. If it were mine I'd put the original wheels back on the car and let the people talk :grin:

I have 14x7 rallys stored in the shed. Now you have me curious, I'll have to dig them out and check dates.

I was gonna put them on but they just look too stupid so I will just keep a hubcap in the trunk.

lol

Great fun to try and put the pieces of the puzzle together, Here is my shot. No way it left GM that way. Dealership had this Camaro and one other silver Camaro. Customer comes in and wants silver car but wants rally's off of the blue car. Billy Bob from the service dpt swaps them out. Now its time to deliver blue car, no replacement rally's available yet from GM. Billy bob to sales manger, "Hold my beer, I got this boss."

I'd love to see a car with YJ coded rally wheels dated 8/17 or earlier. That would be a great piece to the puzzle. With out any examples supporting that then the swapping wheel scenario is not plausible.

His father in law had those made, he was at the dealer.

I think they look okay actually.

Would it not had been easier for his father in law to order these rims in the pic below, they would look identical to the yj wheel. Just slap the cap on & bobs your uncle.Hell a war vetern deserves better than that. Dealerships are more professional than that. The wheels look like they came off of ben hurs chariot.Vary nice early camaro non the less.

As I commented on CRG. The earliest I have seen of YJ's is 10/19/68. This would have been a good question for Phil to ask the Norwood dinner to see if any of them remembered doing this at the plant.

I don't know what happened, but the theft theory would not explain the matching spare, with the same date, and also with same original silver paint, the same type tire, and a factory job number on it.

More likely scenario, IMO, is it was delivered with silver XT's, trim rings, and dog dishes, and the dealer added the rally centers to the dog dishes. Just a guess, but works with the spare tire better than the theft theory.

I was around back in the day, had friends that worked at dealerships. Swapping wheels & tires was common. They knew enough to also swap out the spare.

If Steve or Charley want me to chime in I will be happy to help.

Most likely done at dealer to fancy up the hubcaps.

Just my thoughts having worked for a couple of GM and 1 Ford dealer in the early 1990's in retail sales, fleet sales and retail/fleet management

I have seen all sorts of mix ups... options listed and never added to the vehicle at the plant, options added at the plant which were never ordered, trucks with both GMC and Chevrolet badging, Camaros and Corvettes with obvious body damage repaired BEFORE the cars hit the lot...and countless other issues..

When it comes to customer ordered cars dealers will "do what it takes" to facilitate a delivery...after all the customer has been waiting for their car and no dealer wants to lose a sale on a special ordered unit. and be stuck with it...where it hits your floorplan. I personally have pulled grilles and badges off one car to go on another, changed wheels and tire combinations, added options which should have been there from the factory, etc...all in the interest of saving a sale.

My guess is the car was ordered with Rally's, but a supply chain issue prevented the option from being added to the car...in their place XT wheels were added.. the wheels could have been added due to theft and the need to put wheels and tires on the car for a sale...

As far as the rally caps being on the XT center...that SCREAMS dealership ingenuity to facilitate a sale...a GM or sales manager will again "do what it takes," and some quick thinking...and smooth talking..."hey it will be unique and 1 of 1 (used it before) goes a long ways...

No dealer wants to lose margin and often will find the cheapest and quickest way to get a sale over the curb....much less expensive to use XT wheels and add a rally center...than order new wheels and trim...not to mention having the Service Dept hit your deal for labor...lol

I'd bet that was the case here...

Was 1969 rally wheel silver paint the same color mix as 1969 Cortez Silver wheel paint? I know 1967 rally wheel paint is a very different hue (darker and lower gloss) than Cortez Silver. Don't know if that was still true in 69 though.

If they were two different color mixes, then if the paint on these wheels is Cortez Silver that would support the theory they left the factory on a Cortez Silver dog-dish car. But if they are 69 rally wheel silver, that would support a factory substitution for unavailable rallies.

^. Just what I was scrolling through to see if it was asked! I’m curious too.

Argent or Cortez silver?

Theres a 6-19 xj rally in the for sale section.

???

Would need to be 6-8 to predate this car.

What is a XJ ?

Charley......did you ever figure out the great mystery to this question?

Paul

Waiting to hear from Gary...

John,

The original owner installed gauges aftermarket tach and gauges and bet those wires are for the amp gauge. I owned the car 16 years but not 100% sure... about 95% :grin:

Steve, not to digress, but do you still own that Cortez Silver 69 at this time?

No that was part of the deal to buy this site. Charley owns that car. I don't know what was I thinking :)

That was a YJ 14x7 ralley wheel and it was dated 6-19-1969

I'm looking for a YJ made August 68 or close. None found yet.

Probably weren't any 14x7 rally wheels available yet, (which is why you can't find any dated that early) so any SS cars that had rally wheels ordered instead got silver painted 14x7 XT's with dog dish caps and trim rings...which was the closest the factory could provide for a 'rally" type wheel treatment without actually having the 14x7 rally wheels available, and to keep production moving. The dealer knew the guy wanted rallys and added the derby tops to the dog dish caps before delivery hoping the buyer wouldn't notice they weren't the rally wheels he ordered.

I believe the silver wheels, trim rings, and dog dish caps all are original to this blue car, nothing was stolen, and no "Cortez Silver SS car with XT wheels" was part of the mix...but there is no way they screwed those derby tops to the hubcaps on the assembly line. You're kidding yourself if you think they had someone at the factory taking rally wheel center cap parts and screwing them to dog dish hubcaps. That was done at the dealership. That's also why no other cars with this setup have ever been found, photographed, or heard about.

Not if trim rings were used, the wheels would be painted silver, just as the ones on this car are.

I agree it most likely came with the trim rings and dog dish caps. But owner states it came new with the goofy caps. The goofy caps are mounted perfectly with no extra holes drilled where they messed up etc. We will never know for sure what happened.

There are several living production superintendents who can shed light on the idea of this hub cap mod being a factory activity.

If you like I can get you as close to the truth as one can get.

Just to add, the wheels were definitely painted argent silver, NOT cortez silver. I've always believed it came as pictured below and think it looks better than with rallys!

I also like the added trim ring with poverty cap look.
What determine if you got the trim ring or not? style trim?

3934892 would be the correct trim ring for the XT wheel with poverty cap.

Pretty sure trim rings were a separate option. if you ordered them without any other wheel option, you got silver painted wheels and dog dish caps. Had nothing to do with style trim, those cars still got body colored wheels and no rings unless rings were ordered.