Steve - When I purchased my Z11 back in 82 it still had two of the original style so called "suicide rings", and two post recalled rings.
I turned the originals in for two additional replacement rings in 82 at no charge, since they looked bad in appearance (dented and pitted) and kept arriving in the driveway before the car did.
The replacement ring for the 14 x 7 back in 82 was GM part number 9796919. I think they are discontinued from GM but are on Flea-Bait all the time. They are 3 inches deep, 1 inch rim width and are 15 and 1/2 inches in diameter. There is a paper sticker with 900928-9796919 on the inside rim edge but no stampings I can see. They arrived in a standard late 70's early 80's brown GM box, each ring was sealed in a bluish poly bag with GM corp logos. As for being original design, some say yes some say no. I say it is what GM put out as a replacement so in my mind that makes it corporate correct for post recall acquirement. And in my mind I would never drive again with the suicide ones installed just to dangerous and a pain to keep running after. I don't do contours shows so I don't care cause they look damn good.
The original style clips that GM used were redesigned after the transportation safety board forced a recall because the rings would fly off the wheel, or "kill themselves" on cornering under quite normal circumstances. These flying rings had caused a great number of accidents as people tried to avoid the 80 plus mph ring flying at them. The post recall design had stronger clips all around the ring and deeper into the ring, suicide style only had four (I think) right close to the outer edge so as the wheel flexed in a turn the ring popped off.
Once you put the replacements on you won't want to remove them (and that is a difficult task anyway) but you will see what they do to the surface of the wheel as the new style clips dig in and stay.
I didn't notice any physical difference in size or ring depth between the two versions on mine when I started my restoration but then again I was new to all this and wasn't so interested documenting something like a trim ring so no photos were taken of the old rings. What type of clips do you have on your rings?
From over at Team Camaro -
Originally Posted by Mark C
There are two types of Rally wheel trim rings used in 69 according to the 1972 GM P&A 30A parts manual.
3934892 - 1969/ALL WITH 14 IN STD WHEEL /OPTION P06/1969—71/ALL WITH 14 IN RALLY WHEEL /OPTION ZJ7/ EXC 350 /300 HP/ AND 396 ENGINE
9796919 - 1969-70/ALL WITH 14 IN RALLY WHEEL /OPTION ZJ7/ WITH 350 /300 HP/ AND 396 ENGINE 1969/ALL WITH 14 IN SUPER SPORT WHEEL /OPTION N66/
So that confirms the part number is right for my 350/300 L48 so I'm ok. You should be too since it was also used on the 396
