Y-JobFan Posted December 7, 2019 Share Posted December 7, 2019 Does anyone know what cars the gray valve stem caps came on other than the Reatta’s? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Eaton Posted December 7, 2019 Share Posted December 7, 2019 (edited) It seems like most of the GM cars of the period had grey valve stem covers on the spare tire. On 30 year old cars the tires have probably been changed 4-5 time and usually the valve stem is replaced with the tires, so trying to find the caps on the road wheels is long gone. Several year ago I started contacting suppliers of valve caps attempting to buy grey ones. I finally found a source and purchased a box of 500 they were grey but not exactly the same shape and shade of grey. The BCA judging manual only says grey on 1991 and the ones I had were accepted. Until I ran out, I gave packages of 5 caps to people at national meets that had the wrong valve cap. Today there may be a source for grey valve caps but I am not going to do the exercise again. Edited December 10, 2019 by Barney Eaton (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y-JobFan Posted December 7, 2019 Author Share Posted December 7, 2019 Wonder why only the 91's? Having paid particular attention to sub 10K mile 1990 Reatta's with original tires over the last several years I have seen most had grey caps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dship Posted December 7, 2019 Share Posted December 7, 2019 Are points deducted for not having grey caps on a '91 Reatta at the BCA 400 point judging? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y-JobFan Posted December 8, 2019 Author Share Posted December 8, 2019 (edited) Another interesting thought, in the past at national BCA judging, it wasn't only the 91's that were checked for gray caps. Edited December 11, 2019 by Y-JobFan (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Eaton Posted December 8, 2019 Share Posted December 8, 2019 (edited) NOTE.....on 12/10 I made some changes to this post.......see my later post to explain I know the grey valve cap is addressed somewhere but just looked at the 1999 and 2005 versions of the judging manual and have not found the specifics . I joined the BCA in 1996 and at that time a car needed to be 25 years old to be judged under the 400 point system. Because there were so many Reattas showing up at national meets (2003 in Flint there were 93 Reattas) I need some help from other old members but the Reatta Div approached the BCA board about judging newer cars, don't recall the details, but Stan Leslie (an early Reatta Div director) wrote a set of Reatta judging criteria. We started judging Reattas before they were 25 years old with the approval of the BCA board and Stan's judging sheets were what created the "Modern Vehicle" judging sheets these are used for all Buicks with Front wheel drive and in my opinion should also be used on some other late Buicks like the last series of Roadmasters. I don't see the grey valve cap as a major discussion item.......they are easy to change and probably only a 1 point deduction if they are wrong. If you have white wall tires or raised white letter tires on a Reatta they are wrong and there will be a point deduction. The object is to judge the car to be like it was built. I have been on a Reatta judging team at every meet that judged under the 400 point system. Edited December 10, 2019 by Barney Eaton (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y-JobFan Posted December 8, 2019 Author Share Posted December 8, 2019 Barney, as I noted, if you pay attention to ultra low mileage 90 examples with original tires, you will see they had grey caps as well. Even doing just a bit of searching on google now shows low mileage 90's with grey. I personally have owned 3 low mileage cars and 2 of the 3 had original tires and grey caps, the 3rd had new tires but the spare wore grey. I think this needs revisited as I strongly believe that 90's had gray caps as well or maybe it was a running change during 90. This should have been a rather easy detail to document and for it to not have been overlooked over the years as there have been enough low mileage examples. I found these 4 in just a couple minutes of searching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y-JobFan Posted December 8, 2019 Author Share Posted December 8, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y-JobFan Posted December 8, 2019 Author Share Posted December 8, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Eaton Posted December 8, 2019 Share Posted December 8, 2019 (edited) The spare in all years had a grey valve cap........ I have reached out to Stan Leslie for his input. Edited December 10, 2019 by Barney Eaton (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y-JobFan Posted December 10, 2019 Author Share Posted December 10, 2019 Another low mileage 90 that just popped up for sale with gray caps - https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/detail/781986146/overview/?aff=acqmar45&bac=acqmar45&gclid=Cj0KCQiA_rfvBRCPARIsANlV66MB52VcQ9AbknR1_VhqaP1gBTgqEnRxY3q5g19Jz1lNWovtzd3V1mIaAvhjEALw_wcB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin M Posted December 10, 2019 Share Posted December 10, 2019 Are these caps metal or plastic? I have grey metal ones on my lesabre. Pretty sure my 91 has black plastic need to go check later today Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y-JobFan Posted December 10, 2019 Author Share Posted December 10, 2019 Plastic, I bought both my low mileage 90's off the original owners and both had the gray plastic and original tires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Eaton Posted December 10, 2019 Share Posted December 10, 2019 After a talk with Stan Leslie..........it appears I have the years flopped. Stan says 1988 -1990 are grey and 1991 are black. There is nothing in the BCA Judging manual about black or grey as the Modern judging form is for more than just Reattas. The black/grey valve cap thing just appeared in Stan's original "Reatta" judging sheets.....they went away when the BCA adopted the Modern judging form. I will go back to my earlier comments on this issue and either delete them or modify. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dship Posted December 10, 2019 Share Posted December 10, 2019 I bought grey on eBay yesterday just in case...they're wicked cheap! Whenever I have the '91 Reatta BCA judged, I might just put 2 black on the rear tires and 2 grey on the fronts! But, I will have to remember to remove the "Buick" mud flaps before judging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Conley Posted December 10, 2019 Share Posted December 10, 2019 Grey plastic were also used on the G-Body (Regal/T-Type/Grand National). Points have been known to be deducted if the caps were not grey while being judged, right Roberta? ;-). They are available from several G-Body parts suppliers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y-JobFan Posted December 11, 2019 Author Share Posted December 11, 2019 I know this is a little detail, but it's the little details that set a car off, and it's also the little details that get lost to history. Maybe it now needs added to the judging guidelines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 It might be a good idea to run this valve cap quandary by the Reatta Facebook group. That seems to be the Mecca of all thing Reatta now. Nothing we say here matters since all the club officers have moved to Facebook. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y-JobFan Posted December 11, 2019 Author Share Posted December 11, 2019 There is some knowledge there but a lot of newer type owners using their Reatta's as drivers and beaters, rally racers, snowmobiles, bulldozers, and skid loaders. Even the nicer Reatta's on the site seem to be fairly new purchases. Does not seem to be many that are serious collectors or know a lot of the detail stuff. Marck is probably the most knowledgeable and he is here as well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Booreatta Posted December 20, 2019 Share Posted December 20, 2019 I read this thread and have found the judging manual that was written by Stan Leslie in summer 1999 first edition and revised May 2002 which is the last update that I know of At the time that the judging manual was written the following was written about Tire Valves/Stems/Caps Points should be deducted for painted stems and weights the 1988-1990 valve stems are 1.25" in length, black rubber with gray plastic ribbed caps the 1991 valve stems are 1.25" in length black rubber with black plastic ribbed caps although not visible for judging the valve stem cap on the compact spare is a grey plastic ribbed cap for all years (88-91) that was the standards that were used for the first judging in Flint in 2003 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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