Rusty's not very quiet cuda progress

I've heard complaints about the aftermarket "reproduction" trim rings in the past, but I've never run into it myself. There were repros on my Challenger when I got it but they actually fit pretty well. One thing that may be an issue (and only you would know, if you even do) is the width of your wheels. I can't recall if those are 14s or 15s, but Rallyes came in four sizes of which I'm aware: 14x5.5, 14x6, 15x6.5, and 15x7. I think each had their own trim ring, but I can't swear to it on the 14" wheels. I know a 15x6.5 will not accept the trim ring from a 7" wheel.

68R/T said:
Before you go any further, paint the core support black with stone guard paint. It's what I've found to be nearest to the slop that they used when new.
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I mentioned it months ago before the front end was assembled. That being said, the blackout on both of my Valiants is just flat black paint, sloppily applied from a spray gun. It's nothing a'tall like undercoating or rock guard.

RUSTY Cuda said:
So I'm looking around at green anti freeze & they come up with for asian cars, is this the same stuff I need.
my auto zone has peak & prestone max, any preferance?
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The antifreeze you need isn't specified necessarily for any cars, other than "literally every car in the world older than 1990". Look for "conventional green" and/or "ethylene glycol" on the label. Antifreeze is antifreeze, it all comes out of the same plant so get whatever's least expensive. Either buy premix 50/50, or use distilled water with full strength.

RUSTY Cuda said:
Last but not least how do I stop this, carb is already getting puck marks from sitting out there????? View attachment 27324
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I'm not sure what the solution is, but this is exactly why I hate raw aluminum on engines. It happens every time. Maybe try wiping it down and applying some wax on it? I wouldn't suggest aluminum polish because despite usually having some protection afterward, you'll have shiny spots here and there with dull aluminum elsewhere.
 
Dr.Jass said:
That being said, the blackout on both of my Valiants is just flat black paint, sloppily applied from a spray gun.
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I've seen on-line mentions of a guy in the factory who would just spray bomb everything that got the blackout treatment. The ones I've seen looked sort of like black primer. I sprayed the Duster with satin black.
 
So I gave classic industries a call about the trim rings, not much help, when I explained what was happening he just said to send them back, he did at least look around for alternatives but came up empty.
I sent a note & a pic of the difference & problem, see what happens there?
 
So after driving the counter guy nuts I got the tranny fluid, no problem there & the antifreeze,
I had brought up 3 of the ones that came up when I searched green antifreeze, with the big list of asian vehicles on them. told him all yellow came up when I did the car on the computer, he did it on his, we brought up 3 of those, I open one & in the YELLOW bottle it looked yellow, he said it's green when you pour it out, get a water bottle & sure enough it was green, so I bought it!
Jass I bet you love guys like me when they walk in the door!
anyway, 1 1/2 gal in the tranny & it's over in the tube, hoping it will go down upon startup.
put 3 gals in the radiator & still short.
20240318_140046.jpg1st line under the box says it's good for dexron 2 & 3 20240318_140655.jpg
 
Not sure which my rims are, either 6 or 6 1/2.
I did post up the one 7 I had next to them a while back wonder if I put the # in, will hunt that post down now?
the oer's said 6 or 7 no mention of 6 1/2
 
K, had to go back to page 120, but I did wright the #'s down, Mine are the 14 x 6 1/2's.
Guess I'll search that tonight & see if anything pops up!
 
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All I did today was put on the rest of the new lug nuts, try & clean the carb up a bit, eded up trying to coat it with meguiars yellow wax??? & glazed & waxed the drivers door jamb area!
 
OK, now I'm totally cornfused!!!
started measuring everything
new OER's are 2 1/2 deep
my old ones are barely over 2" deep

In my search NO-ONE mentions 14 x 6 1/2
15 x 6 1/2 is mentioned quite a bit.

So I go measure my rims, from outside edge to edge they do measure 15, where exactly do you measure Rims from, cause my tires are P215/70R14
no way to remeasure the width with the tires on.

The old ones were off the 73, so I even tried searching that year & nothing different showed up.

I'M LOST AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!~!!!

here's that pic of them on the bench, looks like about a 1/2"
1710801044984.png
 
A lot of the places say magnum ralley wheels
I thought they were different, that mine were ralley road wheels.
found some 2" deep for the magnum but they are polished, I guess I could live with that if they fit!
 
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RUSTY Cuda said:
So I go measure my rims, from outside edge to edge they do measure 15, where exactly do you measure Rims from, cause my tires are P215/70R14
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That's the bead diameter so you'd need to measure the rim there and I'm not sure how accurate that's going to be due to possible tolerance needed to get the tire mounted.

It's hard to go wrong with finding the size that should be stamped into the rim around the center inside the tire, but your tires are mounted . I *think* the only stamping on the outside of the wheel will just ID them as Chrysler products, but could be wrong.

If the rims measure width from outside to outside you could rig up some sort of caliper to measure them.

Also, I've got a couple of rings on a SBP 14" wheels. Let me know if you find out those will work. No I've got no idea of the dimensions on those wheels.
 
I think these rings might have fit if they didn't bottom out with that extra inner lip they had.
Would it be too much to ask for a pic of the back & measure the depth, I think that's what foiled these, mine are a tad over 2" maybe a 16th so 2 1/2 is out, 2 1/4 may work?
I would hope the rims are all pretty much the same on that inner circle where they mount?
 
Crap I forgot, I think I still have the 7" out there, just for kicks & giggles I could try one of their rings on that.
 
That's not green antifreeze, it's yellow. It does look greenish to an extent coming out of the jug, but it's not the vivid green of trustly old ethylene glycol. That's why I gave the information to find on the label. I highly doubt you'll have an issue, but old-fashioned green EG does have better heat-transfer characteristics than what you bought. The transmission fluid you bought is obviously Dex/Merc; why they didn't specify that on the jug is beyond me. Again, I would've used Type F/FA but what you've got is fine.

"Magnum" wheels were referred to in factory literature as road wheels; the only company that called them Magnum 500s was Motor Wheel, the company that made them for everyone (GM, Ford, etc.). They sold them under the Magnum 500 name in the aftermarket.

Rallye wheels were called Rallye wheels, period. Nobody mentions a 14x6.5 because they never made one. In 14" sizes there were 5.5" and 6", as I stated above. No 6.5", no 7". Wheels are measured at the diameter of the bead seat, not the total outside diameter. Similarly, the width measurement is that across the base of bead seats, not the overall width. There's no accurate way to measure a wheel with a tire on it.

b-body-bob said:
I've seen on-line mentions of a guy in the factory who would just spray bomb everything that got the blackout treatment. The ones I've seen looked sort of like black primer. I sprayed the Duster with satin black.
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"Spray bomb" is a bit of a misnomer; they did use a spray gun. The guy was standing in a pit and sprayed upward as the car passed over him. If you look at a factory blackout, the upward angle is evident as there are "shadows" (unpainted areas) where paint didn't hit the core support because of a protrusion like a weld nut or bolt. There are pictures of this in @b-body-bob's thread where I posted pictures of my '69 Valiant's core support, still in its original paint.
 
When it warms up again I'll lay the 7 out there & compare those inner surfaces.

Jass, if you say no 7s what the heck is this (below on the bench) it measures 7 from bench to top & pretty sure when I had the others next to it, it was 6 1/2.
So mine are 6's on the car now?
then the rings should fit, they said for 6 & 7" rims



Me going nuts!
so I pull out the 7" rim, measure the lip over the tire bead & it's about 1/2"
I mean it was evident I had 14s
Pull out a trim ring & it went on with just my hands banging it down, PERFECT & it was in tight! 20240319_132302.jpgonly 2 tiny marks on that inner ring where it was bottoming out on the other rims? 20240319_133136.jpg
So the only real problem is the extra 1/2" in depth & the way that inner extra lip is shaped.
 
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So if you measure the width from inside that lip I guess I'd lose the extra inch & end up with 4 -5 1/2s & 1 -6
Now I'll try searching 5 1/2 doubt anything new will come up?
 
RUSTY Cuda said:
Jass, if you say no 7s what the heck is this (below on the bench) it measures 7 from bench to top & pretty sure when I had the others next to it, it was 6 1/2.
So mine are 6's on the car now?
then the rings should fit, they said for 6 & 7" rims
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Obviously you've now figured it out. A 14x6 wheel measures much closer to 15x7 on its outermost dimensions. And, as we've covered a couple times now, there were no 7" wide 14" Rallyes. If you wanted that wide a wheel you had to step up to a 15".

From 1970-'74, all 14" Rallye wheels and "Magnums" used the same trim ring: 2944424. It was used on both 5.5" and 6" wheels, with the 6"-wide Rallye wheel being introduced in 1973 as an up-option over the 5.5", which remained the "base" Rallye wheel through, I believe, 1976.

Looking at pictures in both the parts catalog, in your own post, and of a set of originals for sale on eBay (for an eye-popping $650--used!), it's blatantly obvious that your aftermarket trim rings are not reproductions. That lip at the inside edge does not exist on original trim rings, and that's what's causing you most of the grief. The retainers might be part of the problem but with that lip they're never gonna seat. They're simply too deep, plus they flare outward at the innermost diameter which will not clear the wheel's rim. The inside edge of the trim ring is not supposed to contact the wheel center. There should be a gap there, which you'll see if you reinstall one of your originals.

This doesn't surprise me, since Classic Industries does not know a thing about Chrysler products in the least. They were a Chevy repro house that decided they wanted a piece of the Mopar pie. I'm sure they sold you OER part number MW925 since OER and Classic Industries are the same company. The fact that they're listed for a wheel Chrysler never even made is good indication of their lack of R&D talent, or at least interest. Their A9590010 actually looks to be the right shape, but it's A) chrome, and B) for Chevrolet applications, so it's unlikely it would clip securely to Rallye wheels. In other words, don't order those (or any other OER/Classic Industries rings).

Looking around at some of the more Mopar-oriented vendors, as well as other manufacturers, I don't see a good solution in the aftermarket at the moment. Wheel Vintiques shows a 14x6 Rallye wheel available with 4" backspacing, but no trim ring to actually fit it.

My guess the guy with the wildly-overpriced ones for sale on eBay knows very well that there's nothing else available at the moment at any price. Nothing else for sale on eBay at the moment looks right, and anything that references GM or Ford is either blatantly wrong or just plain not going to fit.

The real bitch of it? Mopar Performance was reproducing perfect originals for several years under part number P2944424, but they've been gone for 15+ years. They were also $117 each.

If I were in your shoes, I would not purchase anything that does not directly mention the original part number. Unless the seller will guarantee that they will fit or all your money (including shipping and return shipping) will be refunded.
 
Maybe BBB can save my butt, see what his turn out to be, could I actually have some good luck!

Tried to call classic to get the RA # to return them, gave up after 2 different 20 min. holds.

So now since it just made it on to the 6" I'm thinking of throwing more money away, just grind off the extra 1/2" of inner lip & see if that fits?
 
Bob I meant the trim rings, I think after Jass finally beat it into me I realized everything was measured on the rims from the inside edged, not the outside.
So I have 5- 5 1/2" rims & the one odd 6 that the rings just made it on with a tiny rub on the inside.
I would buy the rings from you if you can part with them if they are the right depth, I need around 2" or so
2 1/2 or larger won't help.
 
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