My 89 T/A had two of these gray caps on it. I recently saw a few pictures of low mileage 89 TTA's that also had gray caps. Are these originals? If so, any idea where I could get a few of them? I looked on ebay & found some that claim to be oem for buick GN's they look a lot different from these.

Any thoughts?

 

As close as I can come, can't seem to find the pictured ones exactly.

 

I did find this image on this forum. Pretty good shot of the stem. No doubt these got tossed every time our cars got fresh rubber with new stems. Funny how things like this can make a small difference now, but when the cars were new they would just get discarded.
Heck , I am sure I would have put black ones on back then for a better appearance. Now I am looking for some.

 

Yes, the sticker on the wheel and the caps came on the car as original. My TTA has the gray caps. Stickers are long gone. Yeah, It'll be hard finding "real originals."

 

those are actually silver in color, but close

 

Look in the trunks at the spares from the same yrs GM cars in junk yards.
When I go, I get piles of these.

 

Would have never thought of that. Do you know if they were used on a lot of GM cars in the era? I wonder if my own spare has one.

Speaking of spares, I was surprised to find this 89 has a steel spare. Everything intact & unused, but I thought it should have had an aluminum spare. My Iroc does & I thought I read all 16" wheeled cars had them?

 

It might be painted aluminum. At least that is what my TTA has. Check with a magnet.

 

My TA has 16's and the spare is Steel RPO N65

 

I think I have the 1LE spare in my TTA, which is painted aluminum. Not sure if all cars got it for 89.

 

I'll look for the RPO

 

Yup, original gray valve stem caps.

 

[QUOTE=F-body-fan;5975527]My 89 T/A had two of these gray caps on it. I recently saw a few pictures of low mileage 89 TTA's that also had gray caps. Are these originals? If so, any idea where I could get a few of them? I looked on ebay & found some that claim to be oem for buick GN's they look a lot different from these.

Yes They Were Original,My Car Came With These From The Factory.

 

ImageShack no longer allows some accounts to link to images from other sites. I attached it.

 

Thanks!

 

RPO N64 So either someone at GM didn't follow the sheet, or somebody swapped it at some point. I can find out easy enough from the 2 previous owners, but I don't think either of them touched it. Is there any identifications on the spares/tires that indicate the year? Not a big deal, just curious now.

 

is this just for 89 or would 88 GTAs have them? as well? was this an all GM car thing?
I guess we will be going to some junk yards this year

 

My friend has an all original, 2000 mile, '82 Indy Pace Car ad his has the gray caps.

 

I'm not 100% positive if my 86 had the Gray Caps, but I kinda think they were,not sure.
,if they were their long gone now.I did check my spare (never been used) and it has a metal cap on it.

 

Didn't you need those to remove the check deflate many of the space saver spares? I recall some of the wheels having a built in (air release) check valve in the rim however. No clue what cars had them though.

 

Check it with a magnet.

Yes the stamp codes next to the valve stem will tell you the year, MFG, month & date of manufacture.

Here's an N64 Aluminum spare.

 

Cool, I knew our old Pontiac's had codes, I didn't realize the 80's spares did too.
Do you know the decode for those?

 

Success! I found a bunch of original caps. I got in touch with a guy who used to work at a GM dealer in the 80s. For some reason he started throwing some of the gray caps he would end up with in his tool box. He still had these caps in his tool box today & was kind enough to sell them to me. Interestingly, only 7 of the caps are the same as whats on my 89. All of the other ones he said are from GM cars of the era, but it would seem the smooth top style was not the common ones used. Based on this collection anyway.....

 

I found these at Summit.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/smp-tpm630n/overview/
Those 7 look to be the correct caps for the Firebirds.

 

I have enough of the smooth top ones now to put them on my 87 iRoc as well, maybe that's not the style the camaro's had?

 

Those 7 are them....

 

So Firebird & Camaro both used this style? I noticed GT4373 posted a picture of his that looked similar to the rest of them in the picture.

 

Built on the same line at the same time - I would expect they got the same valve stem caps.

 

GM May Have Used Different Vendors Over The Years,So The Styles May Have Changed Slightly.

 

Yup, that's what my '89 GTA had too. I only have 3 of them

 

hey can I buy 4 off you? I can pay

 

can I buy some off you please?

 

Now I can't say for 100% sure but my car when I bought it was basically original equipment and had a different looking valve cap on it. Maybe it was because of the stainless steel wheel rings.
These were the original tires.

Not a bad looking for a 36 year old tire. They are now running on a hay wagon. Apparently 15 inch tires are getting harder to find.