Early69 RS SS 396 Camaro with goofy hubcaps
 

Got a low mile car that was Steve Shauger's years ago. 396-350 hp, 4 speed. I think it has about 24K miles on it. Orig. unrestored car. Built first two weeks of Camaro production. Odd part is the guy ordered it with Rally Wheels but it showed up with a goofy combo of XT wheels with a rally wheel center screwed to a poverty cap.

Very nice, congrats Charley!:biggthumpup:

HAH! That's hilarious.

Awesome Survivor, with yes goofy center caps.

That might be one-of-one, or four-of-four which equals Rare.

Neat Camaro.

PS, could we see the backside of that cap and how it’s fastened?

That is awesome-I saved a picture of those bastard dog dish/derby mashups when I saw this car online years ago. Low miles, deluxe interior, great color, cool history-what’s not to like! (Edit, no power steering-that’s one thing I’d probably the one thing I’d add.)

Way cooler with the slots and original style G/T Qualifiers.

What are the two green wires running along the heater box and passenger fender well?

I haven't followed those wires yet...

It looks like one of them goes to the battery.

All 5 XT rims are dated August 17th 68 and the car is 09B. I'm sure the rims are orig. to the car. Trying to find anyone with a YJ Rally dated early enough for my and so far none have turned up. Rally Wheels are on the window sticker.

Man, that diameter is dead nuts on at the transition from derby to poverty cap!

Cool car for sure - congratulations.

At least the screws are period correct with triangles.

Rotated, tilted, cleaned up, as my neck was hurting.

The slots are fine but that car has handmade/bespoke hubcaps. Porsche and Ferrari would charge $10k for that today. I’d make a duplicate set and run them everywhere and tell the story.

very nice.
got a question on the chambered exhaust. i was told back in the early 80's by a guy who was into collecting camaros that the ones that came with chambered exhaust didnt have a muffler is this true or was he full of it?

No muffler . The mufflers were the chambered tubes.

Super cool Camaro! Congrats

Thats a cool car with weird hubcaps :D

I can see why the guy replaced those right away.

Great looking car Charley, love those funky rally wheel caps.

Paul

Definitely interesting to say the least.

Curious if it happened with any others and the story/hubcaps were just lost in translation over the years.

Thanks for sharing!

Very cool and thanks for sharing. I love that the hubcaps and slots have been kept together with the car!

Very nice car Charlie. Nice to see that it has remained unmolested and is so original. The caps/covers are quite interesting in that the outer dimensions of the cap seems to integrate perfectly with the cover. Ingenuity did prevail back in the day, as in...find some kind of work around and get this car delivered!

Would like to see some pics of the underside when you can? Thanks

I started another thread on dry ice blasting and they should start on this car today. It had been undercoated but years ago it was partially cleaned off.

Charlie, nice car. PLEASE update these last 3 pictures after dry ice. That could be the twin to the front end of my '69 Nova SS396 L34 car. Might have to look more into that....

Thank You, John

----If I was a betting man I'd put my money on a brief shortage of Rally's. Great car, Charley! Can't wait to see the undercarriage after dry ice!.....Bill S

Guessing this has already been bounced around on CRG.

Pretty easy question: what is the earliest known YJ Rally wheel date?

Answer may not be so easy.

I asked on CRG and so far there is nobody that knows of a YJ Rally Wheel dated early enough for this car. 69 was the first need for a 14x7 Rally. All 5 XT rims are orig. paint and dated the same. If it had just come with XT's with poverty caps like a base SS or COPO the rims would have been body color.

This car absolutely came with the dated XT rims painted silver. The spare even has a job# and the silver paint is original. As Charley stated there are no earlier built cars with YJ date rims. I debated this with John Z and many others years ago. If you research, you will find threads just on the wheel /hubcap configuration.

What I am amazed at, is how the rally cap top was mounted onto the dog dish. Who the heck would have taken the time and effort to make this work. For those unaware an XT rim will not accommodate a rally cap which is why the goofy caps were configured.

Here's the original write-up I did on the car....

https://www.yenko.net/forum/showthread.php?t=80469

I also wonder what actually happened here. Was this a special cap made in the Design Center model shop or what? How was this the sanctioned workaround versus simply crediting the dealer for the rally wheel option that couldn't be fulfilled? So strange.

Awesome car, BTW.

There are 6 Camaro SS listed in the CRG db built prior to this car [Sep 23, 1968] listed as having been built with ZJ7. Sorry, no dates but one entry is noted as having its original spare. N508223 is stated as having 5 original XT paint wheels, dated 8-17-68. Hard to believe Norwood would have a 37-day supply of wheels in on-hand inventory; wheels are relatively simple to manufacture and the suppliers were close to the plant. If there truly was a stock out of 14 x 7 rally wheels, SS orders specified with that option would not have been scheduled for production. Option shortages are noted in dealer communications throughout the model year. Dealer orders specifying the option are delayed or cancelled.

So what happened?

I think N508223 was built as ordered and the wheels stolen, probably at the dealership. As the car was a customer order, a dealer stock Cortez Silver Camaro SS gave up its 5 wheels so N508223 could be delivered. Since the caps and trim rings were shipped in the trunk, it was a simple matter to get creative.

Chevrolet had nothing to do with those hub caps.

Just my 2¢.

I love it!!

William, your explanation is plausible to me. Can't imagine any possible scenario where Chevrolet would invent something like this to plug a gap...the production volumes in this era were so high that it wouldn't have made sense to rework a single vehicle unless it was something destined for press usage, shows, etc.

Except apparently we have been looking for any YJ Rally's dated early enough for the car since 2005 and so far none have shown up.

William the proof is the car and how it left with silver painted XT wheels.



All 5 XT wheels are dated 8/17
The wheels have factory silver paint not body color.
Original tires not dismounted from rim except 1.


I forget the rpo but it could have come with XT with trim rings and dogdish caps. But still wouldnt match the ordered rally wheels called on the window sticker.


I am convinced this car came with the XT wheels trim ring and dog dish. I question who would go to lengths to mount those rally tops to the dogdish caps?



Btw that picture of the original owner Gerry Nelson holding the wheel with the goofy cap was taken July 2000, and there is audio confirming he picked the car up with those wheels. He states he soon after installed the slots. In addition he removed the chambered exhaust and installed transverse system.

I'm confident they exist, since we have noted early production Camaro SS built with ZJ7.

Do you really think they all had XTs with home-made hub caps?

I do not believe N508223 was built with those wheels and hub caps. We will have to agree to disagree.

Someone took real time to mount those up and make sure they were centered, if only those caps could talk.

No, believe this car left the factory with XT wheels and trim rings. Something happened and this information / opinion was shared and obviously we agree to disagree. There is no disputing this car is as original as they come and and the facts speak for themselves.


Look 20 plus years later the mystery continues and everyones conclusions are welcome....

Beautiful survivor Charley. Are there any pictures of it out there with the rally caps on the XT wheels? Maybe it came from the factory with XT wheels for whatever reason with the rally caps in the trunk and someone at the dealership got creative and put them on before the OO picked it up since he's paid the extra $35.85 for the rally wheels? Bet whoever did it never thought we'd be debating something like this 53 years later..lol..

----I have lost my bet. Good thing nobody took me up on it!....Bill S

Somebody please correct me if I’m wrong but I vaguely remember the Lemans Blue 1969 Rally Sport ZL1 having silver-painted XT’s for many years. Am I remembering that correctly?