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My friend recently bought a 73 454 T top car that has those wheels on it. I told him I thought the car was supposed to have rallye wheels on it,I had no idea that those wheels came on 73 Corvettes. Are there date codes or anything to prove they are 73 wheels?
I also am new to corvette after being a muscle car guy for over 35years .. there is a reason why corvette’s are not even close in price to the muscle cars of the 60’s and 70’s . The reason is not to many mechanics want to work on them is because of there terrible design. The 350 Chevy engine is solid , but everything after that is horrible to work on . I bought a 70 project and I can’t believe the build quality and lack of planning that went into these cars.. simple things are always a problem!! Can’t wait to finish this build and get it sold . I wanted a challenge and didn’t know is was going to be this bad … when I am done with this build I will have practically re built 90% of this car and I’ll be happy to get 25k out of it . Not even close to what I have spent in man hours . 70 4 speed 350/350 corvette bronze. Back to the muscle cars for me were life is simple and repairs are far and few in between
2025 c3 ('74-'82) of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2023 C3 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2022 C3 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2020 C3 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
Originally Posted by 72 Steel Cities 454
My friend recently bought a 73 454 T top car that has those wheels on it. I told him I thought the car was supposed to have rallye wheels on it,I had no idea that those wheels came on 73 Corvettes. Are there date codes or anything to prove they are 73 wheels?
Supposedly only four '73s came with YJ8's....lot's of mystery on this though.
I'm not sure if they have a date stamp or not. There where only 4 cars that where ordered in 1973 that had the YJ8 wheels. GM pulled them because of porosity issues in the metal. The ones that came with mine I believe were off of a 1980 car. They have subtle differences in appearance between the years.
This is what's stamped on the YJ8 rims that came with my 73. One picture is a duplicate, sorry. Like I said, i believe these are from a corvette closer to 1980 year is my guess.
They are not easy to work on that's for sure. I'm contemplating doing the same, pick up an old Chevelle or something. I used to have a 67 Chevelle and a 64 SS Malibu. The one thing that made this 1973 C3 build easier was pulling the body and building the entire chasis at work on my spare time. I completely stripped the frame had it bead blasted, painted and then reassembled everything with new rubber, front end and rear end components, brake and fuel lines etc. I dropped the Muncie and engine in it and replaced all the u joints, dropped the radiator in it, pointed a shop fan at it and broke the new cam in with the body off. Once that body is back on it's a pain in the butt to work on.
This is what's stamped on the YJ8 rims that came with my 73. One picture is a duplicate, sorry. Like I said, i believe these are from a corvette closer to 1980 year is my guess.
Show us the other side.
There were no YJ8 wheels in 1980. The option code changed to N90, and the center was no longer black.
If they look good on your car, and hold air, run 'em!
Here's a related thread with that 14018395 part number.