Some members are requesting pictures of the backs of the wheels. The first picture is of the wheel with the part number that needs restoring.
The second picture is of the nice wheel with no part number on the back. I hope this clarifies some of the questions. Thanks.
The backside of a assemblyline wheel will be a rough aluminum casting. The later version improved wheels sometimes did not have a engineering number and were also machined on the backside to give additional clearance to help with brake caliper interference when used on a 68 car with single piston caliper. Those later wheels were sold as a service or after market part.
Are you refering to a "reproduction wheel" as having no casting engineering number?
I've got a set here, that I bought from Jeff Burgy back in 1975 or 1976 that have no S7MS on them. They are way before any "continuation wheels" or "reproduction wheels" appeared. Those I think start to show up around 1982 and are cast at the Carroll Shelby Wheel Company. They have tappered spokes and the air stem holes are located between the spokes.
The "nameless" wheels do not have the '68 type of spacer cast into them on the bolt circle.
Jeff didn't remember where he had bought them from but thought it was in the early '70s when he got his first '66 GT350.
The speculation on that set was that the 15" 10 spokes first appeared in one of the Shelby Accessory catalogs in '66 before the 67 Shelbys were in production and possibly was the explanation for not having a Ford Engineering number. They weren't Ford wheels, they were Shelby accessory wheels.
I still have those wheels today. I will point out that Jeff got really pissed when he saw them on my car. It seems that the only reason he sold them to me was he thought that the piss yellow they had turned, and all the chips in them were in the aluminum.
I just took "aircraft paint stripper" and took off the clear coating on them, buffed them up a bit and there ya' go. His quote was "I NEVER would have sold them to YOU if I knew they were that good and even if I did, not for THAT price!". Honesty is sometimes good and satisfying but how 'bout some credit to me for "saving them?