'69/'70 Wheels

[TLea]

I think we've moved off extremely unlikely based on several first hand examples

[Bob Gaines]

There have been several known original cars with glued and riveted on same car. Certainly not common

+1. I had an one (original) owner 69 500 convertible in my shop last summer. It had a mix of glued and riveted wheels. He has all the paper work on the car. No warranty work as per Vinny. I think it has 2 of each type if I remember correctly.

Rodney

So no recorded warranty work and yet a mixer of wheels . That doesn't make sense that Ford would mix the two inferior recalled glue in and superseded riveted.  If you are implying that was the way they were from the assemblyline.

Bob
That is what I am implying. I have seen plenty of miss matched parts on vehicles right off the assembly line. Just came across one yesterday. Nobody can prove it one way or the other, but a one owner fairly low mile no accident car with lots of paper work and no warranty work shown. I am thinking that the chances of it being an assembly line miss matched are pretty high. Why would a car be recalled without all the parts to do the job? Makes no sense to me to only have two wheels replaced and not all four. Strange things happen.

Rodney ,we don't live in a perfect world and auto recalls happen all of the time without having enough parts on hand to fulfill the recall service. A recent example that happen to me was waiting over 1 year for air bag replacement on a late model GT500 Shelby Mustang that I own. Ford had the driver side air bag which got replaced but I had to come back to get the passenger side done when they had it in stock. . It sounds exactly like the scenario I purposed on the wheel recall. I agree it makes no sense but as someone we both know has a fondness of saying "that's just the way it is".

[Bob Gaines]

The red mark was the mark of a rejected wheel (post recall) if I recall correctly.

Since the rivets started fairly early, I am sure many of those wheels were also recalled.

I have always considered the pressed fit wheels to be a early used wheel obsoleted by the better designed riveted wheel. Interesting in that I had not previously thought the pressed fit wheels were used as fairly late as the post April build date of Eds purple car . I figured by then only the riveted wheels would have been used. Always something new to learn.

[5566]

Something to consider regarding recalls: many more recalls are done today than in the past.  IMO that is because the legal consequences of not addressing a problem are greater than they used to be.  If a manufacturer has information that would result in a recall, and doesn't do anything about it, that is a bigger problem for them than issuing a recall for which repair parts aren't currently available.  One of the largest recalls has been the Takata air bag inflator module recall.  Approx. 67 million vehicles, going back at least 20 years, from 19 manufacturers.  Most of the vehicles will most likely never have a problem.  But you can't tell for sure, so they need to be repaired.  It will take a long time until the issue is resolved.

[TLea]

Here is evidence glue in wheels were produced later than even April. This one dated July 69.  History of this wheel is it was installed to replace one damaged by accident shortly after new so obviously service part. Note several things, first glue in style, second ink stamping on inside of rim (not done on assembly line) 

[TLea]

Here's another detail not typically found, stamping on outer part of rim

[Special Ed]

I am cleaning  all my 69 shelby wheels now soaking entire wheel in gallons of evaporust in a round cattle feeder bucket that the wheel fits perfectly inside of so it can be done with 4 gallons evaporust. Its best to clean them by hand first before evaporust bath but this soaking gets into all the hard to reach areas to really clean good but it dont help much on the centers mainly the steel rim.  I have 2 glue in wheels now cleaned with the 7-Lx15  3.5t  stamped on rear outside of rim visable when tire is mounted and no stamped TOPY  5 68  inside top of rim not seen when tire is mounted.  So there are 2 versions of the rims on how they were id stamped and i dont  see any differences in the rims so i am thinking the later 7-Lx15 3.5t stamped rims were a later service replacements and they were ink stamped dated inside rim and may have showed up on very late 69 shelbys but not sure probly a service replacement wheel. I havent seen a TOPY stamped rim with a 69 stamped date yet only 68 dates. So has anybody seen a 69 dated TOPY rim.

[69 GT350 Vert]

I would be interested in seeing before and after pictures Ed.  I'm still running on 4 glued original rims. 

[tgilliam]

The four(4) wheels I believe to be the originals for my 69 Shelby GT 350, #480202, January 13, 1969 build date, have recently been cleaned and inspected for markings and condition. With the tires removed all four have date codes, size and manufacturer's name stamped into the rims. All four of these wheels have the TOBY manufacturer's name. All have 7-L X 15 stamped in for the size. Three(3) wheels have a clear date stamp of 2 - 68, one wheel has a date stamp that looks like 2 - 67 (very clear) but with very close examination I believe to be 12 - 67. Of the four wheels, two are glued-in centers and two have the rivets holding the centers. The stampings are all together in one area on the rim. The format is: top line - Mfg's name, second line - wheel date code, third line - wheel size. Thought this might bring some more information to discussion about the 69 Shelby wheels. I did not buy the car new so cannot say for sure the wheels are original to the car. I bought the car in 1980 in a run-down condition, not appearing to have any updating or restoration work done on it since new. FYI

Tom Gilliam
tom@jtgil.com