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| My 1978 WS6 Trans Am the night I purchased it with gold snowflake wheels |
My 1978 Trans Am was Built July 7, 1978. It has the WS6 Trans Am Special Performance Package option which means it came with 15"x8" snowflake wheels. When I first purchased my Trans Am last December (2012), I did not like the way the snowflake wheels looked because they were painted all gold except for the outer lip. I did not realize that these wheels are the original wheels that came with the car. I had never seen snowflake wheels that were not all machined on the spokes. I thought they were ugly.
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| My original gold spoke snowflake 15"x8" WS6 wheels |
I thought someone had painted the snowflake wheels and was too lazy to mask off the spokes. I did not like the way the wheels looked, so I ordered new replacement wheels. It turns out I was wrong about the wheels. 1978 WS6 wheels are all painted gold except for the outer edge.
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| My OER Reproduction WS6 Machines spoke gold 15"x8" Wheels |
After installing the new wheels and researching used WS6 snowflake wheels and their market prices on eBay, I began to wonder if the old wheels that came on my car could be the original wheels that came with the car. I wrote to a 1978 Trans Am expert who claims the gold wheels were only used in early Special Edition and non-Special Edition WS6 1978 Trans Ams. He indicates on his website that these wheels were replaced by machined spoke wheels "sometime" in 1978. He told me that he did not think my old wheels were the original wheels because my car is a very late 1978 Trans Am (built July 7, 1978) just one month before the 1979 models came out. He also said I could probably sell my old wheels on eBay for at least $500.00. I now have a fortune in wheels and am not sure which ones to keep or sell.
I posted my set of old wheels on eBay for a week on an auction and had no takers. When the auction expired, I did not repost the wheels for sale, instead I decided to try to research the codes on the back of the wheels to try to determine when they were made. Many GM parts have date codes on them, I think these wheels do too. I tried searching the internet for help with the date codes and other codes. I could not find anyone with wheel date code information.
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| My Distributor Date Code 8E03 = 1978 May 03 (2 months before my car was built) |
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| My Rear Axle Date Code F298 = June 29 1978 (1 week before my car was built) |
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| Carburetor Date Code 0338 = 33rd Day of 1978 = February 2 1978 (5 months before my car was built) |
While researching the part numbers on my car to determine if it is a "Matching Numbers" Trans Am, I learned that almost every part on the car has a date code. My body tag, engine, transmission, rear axle, distributor, radiator, and carburetor all have date codes that use a letter of the alphabet to indicate the month A = January, B = February, etc. The codes also have a numerical date (day of month 1 - 31), or a Julian Date (day of the year (1-365)), or week of the month letter (A-E) , and a year number 8 = 1978. I think my wheels also have a date code. See what you think.
BWF 22 8, so BW (F=June) June 22 1978
BWF 09 8, so BW (F=June) June 09 1978
AWF 20 8, so AW (F=June) June 20 1978
AWF 23 8, so AW (F=June) June 23 1978
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| Sharp Machined Outer Edge Wheel |
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| 1/4" Spokes on my wheels |
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| 1/4" Spokes on my wheels |
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| 1/4" Spokes on my wheels |
My wheels have 1/4" spokes and a sharp machined edge on the outer rim edge AND I believe they were all made in June of 1978 and are the original wheels for my car which was manufactured July 7 1978.
Now I am thinking I will sell my new wheels and clean up and polish my old wheels for reinstallation on my car. If you know anything that could be helpful to me regarding these date codes, please let me know.
One way to find out if they are original rims, but not so helpful unless they need complete restoration, is to strip the paint. Not just to see if a previous gold under it, but to show that the spokes have never been machined, just cast. The more common snowflakes were painted first and then had the surface machined off, so would show this if then painted over at a later date.
ReplyDeleteThank you Ben, that is good to know.
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