1969 Hemi Charger Wheel Options

[charge69]

Agreed again !  Even with the correct F70-15 Redline Firestone Wide Oval tires it looks funky on my R6 Red Charger but that is, apparently, the way it was built! My buildsheet confirms this and that is why I will usually run slots.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Dog dishes for me please but I must admit it would be refreshing to see the full wheel covers (different) and I agree with Mark about the red or white line tire

[XS29LA47V21]

   Ok, I guess I am still confused somewhat, my car is a Sept car as I recall, mostly original paint, 15in black steel wheels are behind these covers as I bought it several yrs back which I believe have been on the car at least back to 1980ish best I can guess.  I understood the red plastic portion indicated a "performance" wheel cover (not the gray ones).  

So this would have been available or likely ordered during the availability of the recall wheel period of time?  So we car really talking about the ones with red right?

ps - I would like to find a nice set of these, mine are good not great.

[hemigeno]

 Ok, I guess I am still confused somewhat, my car is a Sept car as I recall, mostly original paint, 15in black steel wheels are behind these covers as I bought it several yrs back which I believe have been on the car at least back to 1980ish best I can guess.  I understood the red plastic portion indicated a "performance" wheel cover (not the gray ones).  

So this would have been available or likely ordered during the availability of the recall wheel period of time?  So we car really talking about the ones with red right?

ps - I would like to find a nice set of these, mine are good not great.

The red centers as shown in that photo are the version used on the Sportsman vans (and maybe A100's too), but were never installed AFAIK on a passenger car as original equipment.  They would obviously fit passenger car wheels, though.

There's no telling what happened with a car coded for the recalled W23 wheels after it was built, unless you get the story from the owner at the time or the dealership to which the car was initially delivered.  Only a small number of Charger500s were built early enough to fall into that period, and some were apparently fitted with Polara wheel covers (e.g. the press release cars).

When in September was your car scheduled to be produced?  It's a 440 car, correct?  If it's a really early September SPD, I'd be interested if it has W23 on the Broadcast Sheet.  If it's late September, those wheels were likely swapped out from 14" to 15" by a previous owner rather than by Chrysler.  The Broadcast Sheet should tell the tale though.

[moparstuart]

 Ok, I guess I am still confused somewhat, my car is a Sept car as I recall, mostly original paint, 15in black steel wheels are behind these covers as I bought it several yrs back which I believe have been on the car at least back to 1980ish best I can guess.  I understood the red plastic portion indicated a "performance" wheel cover (not the gray ones).  

So this would have been available or likely ordered during the availability of the recall wheel period of time?  So we car really talking about the ones with red right?

ps - I would like to find a nice set of these, mine are good not great.

The red centers as shown in that photo are the version used on the Sportsman vans (and maybe A100's too), but were never installed AFAIK on a passenger car as original equipment.  They would obviously fit passenger car wheels, though.

There's no telling what happened with a car coded for the recalled W23 wheels after it was built, unless you get the story from the owner at the time or the dealership to which the car was initially delivered.  Only a small number of Charger500s were built early enough to fall into that period, and some were apparently fitted with Polara wheel covers (e.g. the press release cars).

When in September was your car scheduled to be produced?  It's a 440 car, correct?  If it's a really early September SPD, I'd be interested if it has W23 on the Broadcast Sheet.  If it's late September, those wheels were likely swapped out from 14" to 15" by a previous owner rather than by Chrysler.  The Broadcast Sheet should tell the tale though.

 

[charge69]

If you are neither the first owner nor know the first owner to verify original wheels, those, likely, were put on later by someone other than the factory. If you have a bradcast sheet for the Charger and the "wheel" code is "W23" , then almost anything might be there now subject to an agreement with the original owner and the dealer.

It Being a September built car, it might be interesting to know what the broadcast sheet has to say.

P.S. The buildsheet numbers for my black 15" wheels is "W25"

[XS29LA47V21]

Great I have truck hub caps    Thank you, better now then later, need to put them on my trailer then .  It is third wk of Sept car as I recall.  I have a set of those Polara wheel somewhere, but those I just can't force myself to like.  Will not matter much for a little while as I plan on running a set of old Ansen Sprint slots on that car anyway (on the unrestored old car). 

To keep on topic, sorry derailed some, I do think many do like the correct look  which I am one of, but some items are so easy to make a small change for period of time or occasions or preference.  I put a wood grain on every car, every time, if it has that other padded one (and put the padded one back on when/if I sell it).  Lots of Daytonas have the road wheels, I guess I like them too and likely would do the same and have on many past cars, but it is nice to see them with different combo's including the hubcaps at times.  Do the hub caps

[Scaregrabber]

Jeez: That's probably the coolest looking 500 ever. I think I'd live with those "second rate" wheel covers.

Sheldon

[69CoronetRT]

If your car has disc brakes, there is yet another variant of that same wheel cover.  On those, the center bullseyes have "DISC BRAKES" text printed.

Geno, as a follow up...

Checking the '68 parts book it shows the "With Disc Brake" medallion, as pictured on the 68 Charger above, as PN 2881757 and PN 2881753 as the cover for non DB cars.
The 69 parts book only shows the 2881753 cover.

Was the "With Disc Brakes" medallion a '68 only item?

[6bblgt]

If your car has disc brakes, there is yet another variant of that same wheel cover.  On those, the center bullseyes have "DISC BRAKES" text printed.

Geno, as a follow up...

Checking the '68 parts book it shows the "With Disc Brake" medallion, as pictured on the 68 Charger above, as PN 2881757 and PN 2881753 as the cover for non DB cars.
The 69 parts book only shows the 2881753 cover.

Was the "With Disc Brakes" medallion a '68 only item?

AFAIK, the "DISC BRAKE" wheel cover was '68 ONLY & C-body ONLY. Unless someone has a '68-'69 b-body b'cast sheet with "57" on it.

[6bblgt]

Also, above in reference to '69 b-body HEMI cars - TIRES were mentioned.

U65 - F70-15 red fiberglass-belted - STANDARD
&
U64 - F70-15 white streak fiberglass-belted - OPTIONAL (no-charge)

At the beginning of the 1969 model year, the only OE fiberglass-belted tire that existed was the Goodyear Polyglas - I do not believe the Firestone "WIDE OVAL" fiberglass-belted tire existed until mid-model year 1970.

I would love to see any support for or against the use of Firestones on a '69 HEMI b-body, or the existence of a pre-'70 dated fiberglass-belted Firestone 70 series perfomance tire.

Firestone "WIDE OVAL" nylon construction tires were "Super Sports" (Goodyear's "SPEEDWAY") & their fiberglass-belted tires were "SUP-R-BELT" (Goodyear's "POLYGLAS").

[charge69]

Well, all I can tell you is the fellow I bought my car from in 1976 said that when he bought the car in early 1971 from the original owner, it had redline tires on it. No mention was made of brand.  They were not there when I bought the Charger but the wheels were black and original and all 5 were there. He had 3 beat-up wheelcovers out of 4 in the trunk of the car. Everyone said I should put some custom wheels on it and it would help the "look" of the car but, I never got around to doing that before I garaged the car and did not drive it again in 1982.

I do have the buildsheet, in fact, 2 of them were in my Charger and the T-U-W code there is "U65".

My Charger's production date on the fender tag is "314". I have no way of knowing for sure my Charger originally came with Firestone or Goodyear tires but I am going with Firestone and the Firestone Wide Oval Redline tires have already been bought so, I guess the point is moot! I came back from Vietnam in April '68 and I am pretty sure I remember Firestone Wide Oval Redline tires from that era but ... that is a long time ago and I could be wrong.

Here is a picture of my Charger as we tore it down for restoration.



P.S.  I know Coker Tire is not the "authority" on this but if you look at their Firestone Wide Oval Redline series, they claim it was used on cars from 1967 thru 1974. I certainly cannot say for sure.

[hemigeno]

If your car has disc brakes, there is yet another variant of that same wheel cover.  On those, the center bullseyes have "DISC BRAKES" text printed.

Geno, as a follow up...

Checking the '68 parts book it shows the "With Disc Brake" medallion, as pictured on the 68 Charger above, as PN 2881757 and PN 2881753 as the cover for non DB cars.
The 69 parts book only shows the 2881753 cover.

Was the "With Disc Brakes" medallion a '68 only item?

AFAIK, the "DISC BRAKE" wheel cover was '68 ONLY & C-body ONLY. Unless someone has a '68-'69 b-body b'cast sheet with "57" on it.

After digging through some paperwork, that does appear to be the case.

I can only find a reference to the 2881753 wheel cover (with no wording) in any of my 1969 stuff, even in the C-body papers.  The 753 wheel cover was added to the roster of available 1969 B-body wheel covers during the model year, probably after the W23 wheels were eliminated.  It was never added to the 1969 C-body available wheel cover lineup either before or during the model year run, and they really wouldn't have needed to do so with as many other 15" wheel cover offerings as were available that year.  The Styling Department may have felt they needed SOMETHING other than dog dish covers available on the B-body hemicars, and the previous year's offering was an easy one to dust off the shelf for re-use.  My '69 Parts Book has a wheel cover illustration page date of April 1970, and the illustration's title references the 753 wheel cover as if it were a C-body offering, although the only application listed on the chart is for B-bodies with 15" wheels - which would imply hemicars.

I can't say for sure whether they used the 2881757 (with "Disc Brake" wording) on any B-bodies in 1968 or not, but had assumed they did - primarily based on the fact that I had seen the disc brake version of that cover.  That's what I get for making assumptions!  

[69CoronetRT]

FWIW for 68 Hemi BS, I have

Two RM21J with 478 CODE (11" DRUMS) wheel cover 01
WM21J8 with  478 CODE (11" DRUMS) wheel cover 53
WM21J8 with  479 CODE (disc brakes) wheel cover 53
WS23J8 with 478 CODE (11" DRUMS) wheel cover 07
XP29J with 479 CODE (disc brakes) wheel cover 07

[hemigeno]

FWIW for 68 Hemi BS, I have

XP29J with 479 CODE (disc brakes) wheel cover 07

Do I spy a base-model '68 HemiCharger?   

[69CoronetRT]

FWIW for 68 Hemi BS, I have

XP29J with 479 CODE (disc brakes) wheel cover 07

Do I spy a base-model '68 HemiCharger?   

Fat fingered typer...should be XS. Nice catch.

[XS29LA47V21]

FWIW for 68 Hemi BS, I have

XP29J with 479 CODE (disc brakes) wheel cover 07

Do I spy a base-model '68 HemiCharger?   

Fat fingered typer...should be XS. Nice catch.

I do have memories of a 69-XP29L back in high school on east coast (circa 1986ish), I have second guessed my memories several times over the years on that friends car.   In the day it was extremely nice straight tired F3 green on green as I recall.

[hemigeno]

Fat fingered typer

Join the club, the line starts back there...     I just wanted to make sure you hadn't been holding out on a piece of Mopar history.

I do have memories of a 69-XP29L

Strange as it may sound, I'd have a harder time believing you saw a base model 440 Charger than a XP29J car.  The paperwork I have (and not just one document, but several) all points to the availability of a XP HemiCharger at least in '69... not that they made very many of them, of course.  I have not seen any documents that allow for a XP29L car, but I'll stop just short of saying they absolutely positively never made one.  It's MUCH more likely that another fat-fingered typist made an error on the VIN tag back in '69.

[Dragon Slayer]

Can some one tell me what an Early 69 Hemi Charger (Sept 68) would have for Steel Wheels.  Would they have been 1968 15"x 6" Wheels with NO H.  Thank you,

[hemi68charger]

FWIW for 68 Hemi BS, I have

XP29J with 479 CODE (disc brakes) wheel cover 07

Do I spy a base-model '68 HemiCharger?  

That would be a '69 Hemi Charger R/T.. Lives not that far from me... Love the 6 max capacity...... Like someone's going to really be comfortable on that center buddy seat.... non-applicable to center console cars I would say...