Sooo I finally got 4 rims($120cdn). They were on a 1975 442. Maybe not originally, but that where they were. They have been repainted black at some point. I had hoped to salvage the paint, but they need a redo.

Here are the numbers off the stamps.



Here's a clearer home copy



One thing I found diferent is the D shaped inner rings. The 4 other sets of SSIII rims I have have over the years ('78 Omega 14's, '84 Firenza 13's, '86 Cutlass Ceira 14"'s and "70's 15's on my '68) have had smooth D rings. These one's have a ripple in the middle that circles the hole in the rim.



Does anyone have any info on the stamping or the rippled D ring?

Thanks

Adam

 

M5/5 = Motor Wheel Corp. - plant #5 - 1975 (Plant #5 was in CANADA, anyone know where?)

I haven't looked at many mid-'70s wheels but the H 2 5 might be August 25th or 2 5 February 5th (of '75)?? Are there any stamps on the lip inside/out or by the valve stem?

The trim shown is typical of the '70s, the '80s became more squared off & smooth. I don't know the specific date changes but I think '69s are different also.

 

Those are wheel bezels and Fusick has them.
They list them for '68-'77 SSII and SSIII wheels.
According to the Sullivan book chart the '68 SSII's were painted gray and had a brighter silver paint around the holes.
They started using the 367N bezel trim in '69 and it shows the same trim number for the '75 wheels.

 

I've owned many sets of the early '70's 14" SS II rims with the bolt on center cap. Pretty much all of them have the D rings with the little groove in the center. I "think" they went with the smooth D ring sometime in the mid '70's, maybe '76 or so, but I don't know for sure. I've got more than a hundred of those D rings with the groove if you need any.

 

OK I feel really dumb. I took the D rings off my rims Dec 09 when I started the sheet metal/body/paint work. I remembered them as being flat without the groove. I checked my box of them, yup, they all have grooves.

The rims have the same M55 stamp as inside by the valve stem hole. There is a 6 or 9 stamped on each side of the valve and small HP or MP one side.

I now have about 100 (9 rims + spares) of these myself, but thanks for the offer.

Adam

 

Hey glad to see you got some 15's for your ride. You are right, they are hard to come by in the Maritimes Car looks great. Ever get to Nat'ls in Moncton ?

 

My 1976 15 x 7 SSII's are the same. The bezels have that ridge on them as well. I've often wondered what the "JJ" stood for. Although my car was built in Lansing, the wheels are Canadian made. I can't recall seeing any SSII and III wheels that were built anywhere else, but I'm sure they must have been.

 

I't hard to find anything for an old car in the Maritimes. What ever hasn't rotted awy has been crushed. I was watching Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI kijiji ads for rims. Only found 3 sets within a 500km radius. One set for $250 + 9 hrs of travel, another set turned out to be 14's because the owner didn't know how to measure them. He was an autobody guy too. The nicest set was about 4 hours away, with "new" tires (about a "year or so") rings and snap on caps for $1100.00 cdn. Ouch.

The ones I got are a bit rough, but the price and location was right. I was planing on blasting and redoing them so the paint quality was not a concern.

The bead area is rusty but solid for an east coast rim that sat on grass/mud for ???? years. The car was crawling with ants in the guys garage.

Like in other threads these rims apear to have been painted black and the the body colour sprayed over it. The factory colour was the metallic blue you can see as overspray on the inside of the rim. Previous owner had used red primer and gloss paint quite some time ago to freshen them up. You can scrape the the black paint off with you finger nail. A little better prep work may have been needed.





The backside of the rim is covered in surface rust. Nothing scary. Rust can do a good job preserving the metal behind it.



The faces are rough, but the blaster will clean them up.





I'll show the progress as I go. They should be headed to the baster's on Monday or Tuesday.

I have mot been to any meets/shows in the Maritimes recently. I just moved back here after living in Ontario and Virginia for the last ten years. I had gone to some shows and cruises aswell as cruise-ins around Halifax in the late 90's-2000 before I moved. If you know any details I would be interested. She is going to see some miles this year.

Adam

 

There are approx 1700-1850 cars that get registered for the Atlantic Natl's. There is even a few Oldsmobiles there. Lots of cars from NS there. I have been looking for 2 - 15x7 with bolt on centers. If you find that any of those rims are bent I have 2 15x7 that have the snap on center.

 

Wow, I was not familiar with this event. I moved from Halifax to Ontario in April 2001, then to Virginia and finally back to Halifax area in Dec 2010. I completely missed the first 10 years . I might able to consider this. I have some more work to do. Here is their webite....

http://www.atlanticnationals.com/Index.asp

Adam

W30442 - I will keep you in mind for the rims. I dropped them off at the blasters today. I see how well they clean up.

Adam

 

Sooooo... I dropped off my four new rims and the rim from my spare to the blaster's today. He is going to sand blast, etch, prime and paint the five gloss ebony black. He is doing it as make up work when so it will take about a week.

A few areas of the bead seat on the several rims were showing some scale and flakey rust. I did a quick exploratory grinding on them using just a drill, scaling bit and wire brush.

Before...





used these simple tools.



They cleaned up pretty well for the quick job I did on them.



I then hit them with a pressure washer (2300psi) to clea off the mud and crud. I took off a fair bit of paint too.







Three of the rims are same by their stamps. One is different. There are no stampings on the inside of the rim anywhere except right by the valve. Here is what it looks like.



Outside the rim by the valve looks like this....



The stamping reads ... 15 4 VALVE 25 MP
If you can decode this, feel free.

It looks like, under the red primer and black, this was a SSII rim with argent peeking through.

My spare was cheaply blasted and brush-on primed about 10 years ago. The only stamping I can find are outside by the valve. You ca barelt see it in the photo.



It looks like 3 VALVE 15 or 16



I will happily show how they look in about a week.


Adam

 

Let's go in reverse:

MP, if I remembe correctly, is the application code for the 15x7 SS-II/III wheel used in 1975 - 1977.

4 25 means that this wheel was manufactured on April 25.

What you describe as "15" is actually probably "M5" with another digit underneath it. M is for Motorwheel Corp, the manufacturer. I believe the 5 is the plant code, and the digit underneath should be the last digit of the year the wheel was manufactured (5 would be 1975).