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Features Traditional Wheels, Part 4 (Full Wheel Covers)

Discussion in 'Traditional Customs' started by 50Fraud, Jan 12, 2013.

  1. hotrd32
    Joined: May 16, 2007
    Posts: 3,560

    hotrd32
    Member
    from WA

  2. Gotgas
    Joined: Jul 22, 2004
    Posts: 7,175

    Gotgas
    Member
    from DFW USA

    I'm not saying they are great. But your thread is about traditional full wheel covers, and I think they they should at least be mentioned in the discussion. ;)

    Does anyone have more information about the cast wheelcovers that appeared on The Grecian, El Capitola, and X-Sonic at various times? I believe these were commissioned by Barris for use on customer cars but I am not sure of that.

    Tony, I know you consider these ugly, but this thread is going to be pretty stale if all we talk about is Caddy Sombreros!

    X-Sonic
    [​IMG]

    El Capitola
    [​IMG]
     
    don colaps likes this.
  3. 50Fraud
    Joined: May 6, 2001
    Posts: 10,101

    50Fraud
    Member

    Maybe I should grab onto this as a life preserver, as my boat appears to be filling with water. It IS an interesting observation, about where the little hubcaps were hottest, and I certainly agree that my perceptions were formed in SoCal and by reading the magazines. Of course, that WAS where the coolest cars were (oops, do I hear another shitstorm rising?).

    On a related topic, I spent 13 years in Minnesota in the '80s, and reconnected with hot rods and customs after having been away for a number of years. Traditional hot rods were back with a roar, and I was surprised to notice that an extremely popular fashion was to run steelies with beauty rings and STOCK FORD hubcaps 1940-48. I had seen very little of this on the West Coast -- the use of stock caps rather than beanies/buttons/baby moons -- but I thought it was a good look too.

    Agreed, that's a very good looking car. The profile picture just before it is identified as Russell Aves' car, which was one of the very best cars in my immediate area, and I wouldn't be surprised if the one with the Lancers is also Russell's car at a different point in time.
     
  4. codeblu
    Joined: May 11, 2006
    Posts: 606

    codeblu
    Member

    Sweet 58.....beautifully done. And those caps look great on there.
     
  5. waldo53
    Joined: Jan 26, 2010
    Posts: 863

    waldo53
    Member
    from ID

    Adding candy paint and a chrome bullet center to spinners was something that I, and many others did (in California) to be a little more distinctive. The bullets were available at places like Western Auto (as was the paint). Here's a picture of my car (I guess it's neither a rod or a custom, just the typical boulevard cruiser) taken in 1959 in Roseville CA, the gold paint in the center sorta matched the gold Bel Air highlights - I thought it looked pretty cool.

    Just a footnote - the Spartan trailer in the background that has the '59 Pontiac parked in front - a cute girl lived there that I started dating. Next month we celebrate our 53rd anniversary.
     

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  6. falcongeorge
    Joined: Aug 26, 2010
    Posts: 18,341

    falcongeorge
    Member
    from BC

    Too funny! While I was looking through those same seven old magazines,I spotted the SAME thing on a really nice, Seattle based, full fendered deuce roadster, and thought to myself "man thats unusual for a late fifties car"!:p
     
  7. falcongeorge
    Joined: Aug 26, 2010
    Posts: 18,341

    falcongeorge
    Member
    from BC

    Ok, sorry it took me a while to get back here, I am home with the flu, and I fell asleep on the couch all day.:eek:
    The first group will be five California cars I found by looking through 7 random back issues of Hot Rod. These werent pre-selected, they were just a random stack of old mags that happened to be laying on the coffee table, and 4 out of the seven had a cal. based car with full wheelcovers. Whats also notable about these random pics is just how often the aftermarket copies of the Plymouth cones appear. Those things were EVERYWHERE in the late fifties!
    1)San Francisco, May '62, aftermarket cones
    2)Fresno, Oct. '59, '56 Ford
    3)Eureka, Oct. '60, aftermarket cones. I like this little coupe, really tidy little car, nailhead power
    4)Los Angeles, Oct. 60, moon discs
    5)Alhambra, June '60, aftermarket cones
    The October '60 issue actually had ANOTHER California car with full hub-caps, a '39 Pontiac Sedan with aftermarket cones from Azusa, but I felt that was kind of pushing the boundaries, so to be fair I didnt post it. Maybe I will put it up later, its kind of a cool car, and pretty unusual for the time.
     

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    Last edited: Jan 14, 2013
    don colaps and AHotRod like this.
  8. falcongeorge
    Joined: Aug 26, 2010
    Posts: 18,341

    falcongeorge
    Member
    from BC

    Ok, the following grouping is from Andy Southards FANTASTIC book, Hot Rods of The Fifties, all are California based, I will follow the same pattern, city, year, hubcap.
    1)Redding, 1960, aftermarket cones. Love this car,cycle fenders, with bobbed stockers on the back, a tri-power 265, and DIG the gold T&R!
    2)San Diego on a used car lot, 1958, more of those cones
    3)Long Beach, 1958, short bar lancers, and another real stunner, imo. I have always had a fetish for cross-bar duece grill shell inserts.
    4)San Marino, 1958, Corvette
    5) Saratoga, 1956, Lancers again
    6)Car show in Monteray, 1956, Olds Fiestas
    7) Salinas drags, 1955, Lyons?? Dont think I need to id this car...:D
    8)Maywood, 1955, '54?? Olds
    9)San Jose, 1956, Olds Fiesta
    10) Richmond, 1956, '56 Ford. Someone mention taste?:rolleyes:

    At this point, I dont think anyone will disagree, in the mid/late fifties, there were a HELL of a lot of hot rods running around so-cal in the late fifties with full wheel covers. taste, well, thats a separate issue.
     

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    Last edited: Jan 14, 2013
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  9. 50Fraud
    Joined: May 6, 2001
    Posts: 10,101

    50Fraud
    Member

    My gripe is not with painting and detailing Lancers, or other changes that complete a color scheme or theme. It is with those cars (like Watson! really?) that added a bunch of spinner ears to Fiestas, so they looked more like turbines than knockoffs; or spikes added to '59 Lancers and looking like a Ben-Hur chariot. Or -- gag! -- plastic fins grafted on to some standard wheelcover, for what conceivable purpose?

    I do recall seeing these in a few magazine features, and I agree that Barris was somehow responsible for them. I'm guessing here, but they look to me more like a torque converter or aircraft surplus torus of some sort than a real wheel cover. I imagine somebody found a stash of surplus mechanical parts somewhere, and dressed them up for use as wheel covers.

    I do remember these, but I didn't realize that they were super popular. In my defense, I went away to college in the fall of '57, and wasn't paying a lot of attention to hot rods by that time.

    That IS a neat looking car. I think it's a Chevy; I don't think I've ever seen a Chev sport coupe hot rod before.
     
  10. 50Fraud
    Joined: May 6, 2001
    Posts: 10,101

    50Fraud
    Member

    George, you've made your point. I stand corrected from my position that full wheel covers were not commonly used on West Coast hot rods, as you've demonstrated otherwise.

    I will continue to assert that they were not popularly used in the LA area, specifically, in the period prior to 1958.
     
  11. falcongeorge
    Joined: Aug 26, 2010
    Posts: 18,341

    falcongeorge
    Member
    from BC

    Gotta agree on those Barris abortions with the plastic fins, Period correct I guess, but I ALWAYS HATED those!

    Re, the cones, I have posted this pic on here before. Denver based flathead powered T roadster, they looked GREAT on this little car. Theres a guy on here that has a set on a grey '40 pick-up as well, I'd like to see the aftermarket cones re-popped. If I happen to run across a decent set, all bets are off for my T.

    On the coupe, yes, chevy sport coupe. Really unusual, and really nicely executed.
     

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  12. 50Fraud
    Joined: May 6, 2001
    Posts: 10,101

    50Fraud
    Member

    Here's a trivia/coincidence/discovery item for the terminally afflicted hubcap junkie.

    I showed this cap in an earlier post. It's a '57 DeSoto 14" wheel cover.

    [​IMG]

    The coincidence shows up in that I ran these caps on my '57 Olds briefly when both cars and caps were new...

    [​IMG]

    ...and I discovered that 22 of them were for sale on eBay last night!

    I also showed this cap, a '56 Chrysler spinner, and said that they were exceptionally rare. I have only seen one set, on a '56 Chrysler, and they very seldom turn up elsewhere.

    [​IMG]

    I also discovered this cap in Hubcaps.com. It is said to be a '58 DeSoto spinner, which would be 14" again:

    [​IMG]

    I have NEVER seen this cap before last night, and I think it's neat looking; it appears that it might be the same DeSoto cap I showed at the top, with the '56 Chrysler spinner, a different plastic insert, and a painting operation added. Who knew?
     
    Last edited: May 29, 2014
  13. falcongeorge
    Joined: Aug 26, 2010
    Posts: 18,341

    falcongeorge
    Member
    from BC

    I think I am probably going to be home from work tomorrow as well, I will dig up a few more pics of hot rods with full wheelcovers, as well as a couple standouts I ran across with beanies, and post them. Think I will add a couple pics of that Pontiac as well, its actually pretty cool.
     
  14. falcongeorge
    Joined: Aug 26, 2010
    Posts: 18,341

    falcongeorge
    Member
    from BC

    You rock. And I will concede your point re: the LA area, the beanies were REALLY popular there from what I can see. The Portland thing really surprised me, in my relatively brief search this morning, I found features on four cars from Portland, 3 of the 4 had beanies! never woulda guesssed that. San Fran seems to have had a mix of both.
     
  15. I think one reason the full wheel covers were so popular at first may have been due to
    the fact that pretty much all 30s and 40s cars, and many into the early 50s had
    the small center caps, some with trim rings. (Full covers were available in early 50s, but may have
    been in the minority when economical minded buyers purchased their new car)

    I'd say they thought the full covers were much fancier and niftier and dressed up their cars better.

    (I once took a 1957 Ford full wheel cover,
    painted the white area with lettering gold, and mounted on them the
    accessory 3 bar flipper unit you could buy at your local Western Auto
    Store for a few bucks.)

    Then, in later years, other type wheels came along and became
    popular. Just my observations. Good thread.

    (I also think 1960 Buick covers are cool.}

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jan 15, 2013
  16. HatGuy
    Joined: Sep 16, 2010
    Posts: 137

    HatGuy
    Alliance Vendor
    from Arkansas

    Great Thread! We are always looking for pictures of how guys were running their cars in the past and this is great!

    Just an FYI...Cones are back! We just got our first shipment in today, and they really look great! Should be just the ticket for Traditional Rods and Kustoms. Night Prolwlers Kustom Car Parts - 855-776-9537 for info.


     
  17. If you buy a handful of those little rod and custom type magazines
    from the 50s and 60s, you'll see what was in vogue then.

    Usually some for sale on ePay......maybe some in the for sale
    section here.
     
  18. falcongeorge
    Joined: Aug 26, 2010
    Posts: 18,341

    falcongeorge
    Member
    from BC

    I dont have to. I just walk into the "reading room" open a filing cabinet, and pull out a handful. Life is good...:p
     
  19. Big T
    Joined: Aug 29, 2006
    Posts: 638

    Big T
    Member
    from Florida

    Cool pic and cooler story!
     
  20. I used the Chrysler caps on my 51 Vicky...loved 'em.
     

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  21. ........and the Lincoln caps work great on shubox fords too
     

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  22. 50Fraud
    Joined: May 6, 2001
    Posts: 10,101

    50Fraud
    Member

    Me too. I believe I have every issue of Hop Up, R&C, Honk, and Car Craft (little pages) that were ever printed.

    Of course I agree, but the shoebox on the right is wearing Chrysler caps.
     
  23. Lotsa historical reference in here - thanks guys!

    A couple I have not seen here yet...

    My Mercury runs the less commonly used '54 Caddy wheel cover with an aftermarket bullet:
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    My Fleetline is accessorized (not "customized") in the early '60s manner using '63 Vette covers:
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Dave

    p.s. Not to get anyone's goat (50Fraud) ;), but my brother is running '56 Ford wheel covers on his '32 y-block powered roadster. :D
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2013
    lbcd and straykatkustoms like this.
  24. Jay71
    Joined: Sep 15, 2007
    Posts: 857

    Jay71
    Member

    Are you telling me the full coned hub caps that I searched for, for quite some time and finally found a full set, are now being repopped!? Well thats just bitter sweet. What are they gonna go for? Great thread BTW!
     
  25. 50Fraud
    Joined: May 6, 2001
    Posts: 10,101

    50Fraud
    Member

    Yeah, well, you know those guys from Saskatoon. Buncha hooligans. :)
    Seriously, your own caps look very nice in the ways that you have "accessorized" them.
     
  26. falcongeorge
    Joined: Aug 26, 2010
    Posts: 18,341

    falcongeorge
    Member
    from BC

    Yes, I am cranked up to hear this too. Tried to find their new website and take a look, but it didnt work for me.
     
  27. falcongeorge
    Joined: Aug 26, 2010
    Posts: 18,341

    falcongeorge
    Member
    from BC

    Can I come over and hang out for a couple days??:D
     
  28. falcongeorge
    Joined: Aug 26, 2010
    Posts: 18,341

    falcongeorge
    Member
    from BC

    Always liked the lincoln caps on this car, thought they really looked good on it. You have to kind of squint and ignore the goofy square lights on the fenders.:rolleyes::D
     

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  29. atomickustom
    Joined: Aug 30, 2005
    Posts: 3,409

    atomickustom
    Member

    I'll be damned! Those caps appear to be identical in every way to the '51-53 Olds covers except that the Olds covers have an emblem stamped into the popup dome in the middle!

    I have even see what I now believe are '54 Windsor caps sold as aftermarket Olds replacement caps. I'll have to check my 1960 JC Whitney catalog when I get home!!
     

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    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 1, 2014

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