I bought a one owner '80 RX-7 yesterday. It has wheels that look similar to waffle wheels, but are different. The seller said they were the factory option alloy wheels. I have not been able to find another picture of them.

The window sticker has a bunch of line items shown at no charge (car is a GS), but the only one related to wheels is "185/70HR-13 steel radial tires". I also have a sheet of dealer add ons and there is no mention of wheels. However as a humorous to me side note, undercoating was part of the "Decor Package".

Looking at the '79-'80 parts catalog it looks like there are 3 numbers for alloy wheels. They are broken out by VIN. It is kind of odd that the first two show qty of 5 and the third qty 1. The third number has the word gold in the description. The first number 9965-21-5530 for VIN 542637-552248 has the word "limited". By VIN and not gold color my car would fall under 531140- which is part number 9965-22-5530. However if all non gold and non limited models above VIN 531140 had the same alloy wheel it seems like I would have seen them before.

All of the period sales brochures that came with the car show either steel or standard waffle wheels from what I can see. I even got a Japanese sales brochure and they don't show up there either.

Any one seen these before or have any other info?

 

Doing some more searching I found a couple of images of this wheel.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1979-MAZDA-RX-7-LTD-ED-ALUMINUM-SET-OF-4-WHEELS-NEW-ALL-WEATHER-TIRES-W-NUBS-/200923131318?pt=Vintage_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2ec7f3adb6&vxp=mtr refers to them as '79 Limited edition wheels.

Here they show up as Almax Mazda RX7 Parts, wheels

Looking at this thread https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati...dition-629750/ they appear to be 79 Limited Edition wheels.

So either Mazda had some extra to get rid of in 80 or more likely the car was sold with steel wheels and swapped at some point.

If anyone thinks otherwise let me know.

 

I'd say swapped, with you as the beneficiary.

 

+1 LE wheels; rare to see. And they look to be in very nice shape, too. Keepers.

 

does it have a digital clock? if so it is a limited but i thought they were all black from the factory

 

The particular Limited model that used these wheels was a 79 model year only. If his car is an 80, it would not be a Limited or have the digital clock cluster. The rims were added later. Look at the spare, Is your car an "S" and did it come with the steel rims originally? Lots of these cars got their steelies replaced by subsequent owners. This pattern of waffle was also used in the JDM market on certain models.

In 79 there was the normal waffle, this Limited varient and the Keyhole type. If I remember right, the Keyhole is the only one that actually has ALMEX cast into it, this limited rim has Yokhama cast into it on the backside. All three look to made by the same manufacturer. Another little tidbit that's been reported many times before, is that the Keyholes seem to almost exclusively show up on the Spark Yellow cars, although not every single one.

 

Yep - as stated - you have one of the FOUR types of OE alloy wheels offered on various models of 79-and/or- 80 SAs. Pretty rare, esp in that condition. Enjoy.
Would also be curious if you got a matching spare??

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

 

The spare is an unused steel wheel. The PO pointed out the extra set of lugnuts with the spare and said he thought you had to use those if you put on the steel spare. He had seemed to save everything he took off the car to put it back to stock later (even headlamps). I would have guessed if he swapped wheels at some point he would have kept the steel wheels, but maybe not.

Swap seems like the most logical explanation.

 

You unknowingly touch on an important point. The lugs used on the steel wheels are slightly shorter that the ones used on the Aluminum rims, so you might want to check that out. I don't believe the shorter steel whl lugs are long enough to even have any thread engagement when used on an aluminum wheel. Conversely, I'm not sure if the longer lug would bottom out before tightening up on a steel rim or if they would protrude too far inside and potentially cause damage.

Short lugs/Steels rims, Long lugs/Aluminum rims. I'd make sure you have the right lugs mounting the wheels on the car, and carry a set of the correct lugs with the spare if you intend on using that wheel as the spare. Or you could buy one of those Limited rims from that junk yard on ebay (in the post above) and have a complete set of 5. I'ts not often you find these rims seperately and not sold as a set.

Sorry, I did not see that you listed in your first post that you had the window sticker and it listed the car as a GS. The "standard" wheel was the steel one. Waffles were an option. If equipped, the window sticker would have listed: Alum Alloy Whls as an added expense option. Most all GS's came with Waffels, most S's came with steelies, but there was exceptions, your car being one of them. BTW, that window sticker is the only way to offically confirm if your car has it's original engine. You will find the engine S/N at the top, which is also stamped on the top of the front Iron behind the water pump, under the alternator.

 

I miss being able to run stock SA wheels.

 

That's a cool find man, I would totally rock those!

 

Very Interesting!!!!!!

I learn something on this forum almost everyday!!!!

 

yea Almax!