Technical What would be THE wheel covers/hub caps to get for a '60's car custom?

I know the popular picks for a 50's car, but what about a 60's car custom? Please don't suggest Supreme wheels, while I love them they are just not in the budget right now. I have steelies in 14" and 15"

 

Wire hubcaps were extremely popular back in the 60's. HRP

 

Isn't that kind of like saying, I'm ready to start dating again. What color hair should my new girl friend have? You must know there was no standard for a given year.
The Wizzard

 

Well, I don't think so, I'm just trying to find out what was popular and sought after...BTW....blonde!

 

3 Bar and 4 Bar flippers, Olds fiestas, Dodge lancers and Baby Moons. Hope that helps. I prefer Red heads.
The Wizzard

 

Baby moons, if you're looking to go on the cheap.

 

Spiders on plain painted rims.

 

Huh? Chrome smoothies with smooth caps!

 

One answer, chrome reverse! With spinners! Hubcaps/wheelcovers are passe for the 60s except for baby moons.

 

For on the cheap '60's look. Black wheels, crome lugs. If you had a little more money chrome dust cap on the front wheels. A little more money, chrome bullet centers on the 4 wheels. That whole deal might have cost you $20. When you got more money you bought chrome reverse and used the lugs and centers on them. This look came from the drag strip because you had to take the wheel covers off when you ran.

 

Absolutely! I prefer blue-eyed blondes and Fiestas.

 

I think the Fiestas and Flippers look great on a '50's mfr car but the '60's mfr car?
Were there any other full wheel covers?

 

57 Plymouth wheel covers

 

Here are a couple of sources to check out in answer to your question

http://www.rodauthority.com/feature...-wheel-an-inside-look-at-the-60s-customs-era/

https://www.google.com/search?q=lar...tIIm9oQSFtoLoAQ&ved=0CDQQsAQ&biw=1017&bih=627

Buick wires, chrome reverse (OEM-style, not the abomination known as "smoothies" which came many years later), Chrome lugs and bullets on painted wheels, spider caps, Lancer and Polara ('61) and others were common on 60s customs, along with Supremes, Radirs, etc.

This last link shows some photos of cars built in the 60s, many with actual year mentioned.

http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=1960s

 

If you are talking about what an appropriate '60s-era wheel/tire combo would be for your Olds, oldrelics, you can't go wrong with chrome reversed OEM wheels (NOT the new-made aftermarket "Smoothies" which are SO WRONG!) with baby moons and pinstripe whitewalls. Stance should be low and level - but not slammed.

Body mods should include removal of emblems and antenna only - door handle removal optional - and a good quality single color paint job with no pinstripes, flames, scallops, etc. to detract from the now-smooth lines of the body itself.

There were lots of really ugly customs built from '60s cars during the '60s (and '70s for that matter), but the ones which stand the test of time were those built with class and restraint. You just can't go wrong with smooth and low.

You've picked a really unusual car to work on, one with lots and lots of potential. Good luck!

 

I know where you are coming from, as much as I want Supremes, just not in the cards right now. I started with dog dishes, ran with them for a while, came across the later '60's Sport Fury hubcaps I have now, with the addition of paint and bullets. I'm now thinking of painted rims and spidercaps. These were all pretty cheap, cheap enough I can try out different looks.

Hope this helps.

 

How about a picture of what you are going to put the hubcaps on?

 

Spider hubcaps moon just released only in 15's though. If ya got 14' s can't go wrong with Plymouth cones. I have nos 60 dodge caps on my 61 Sunliner until I can get my chrome oe wheels and tires

 

Whooops! Sorry, I guess I misread your original post when I wrote my last response. You are looking for hubcap suggestions, not wheels, right?

From a guy who was "there" during that time period, here's the honest answer: when it comes to appropriate hubcaps for a custom, there are NO choices which will not brand you as a "wannabe" who can't afford the custom wheels which were appropriate on a '60s car custom (a customized '60s-built car during the 1960s) in that era. OUCH! But true.

The 1960s were dominated by performance cars - NASCAR and NHRA participants and, of course, factory-built muscle cars - and "new car" customs were few and far between on the street. Most of the guys who drove late models during the '60s - myself included - dipped the front end a smidge, popped off the factory hubcaps, added behind-the-front-wheel exhaust dumps (no, not "kickstand pipes" but short dumps with removable caps) and went out looking for trouble.

To be authentic to the '60s you could do the same thing with your Olds and be absolutely era-correct. Good luck with your car. It's got lots of potential!

 

I'm with Custom 57...1957 Plymouth Points or Moon Disc!

 

Mine are similar to the 57 Plymouth that was mentioned earlier. I think night prowlers has started repopping them.


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this is it, lowering the rear yet...

 

I'm sorta freakin' out there because when I was in school everyone wanted smoothies, until the rocket mags etc started getting popular. I guess in the early 60's you never saw them, but by '69 they were everywhere.

Maybe things were different where I was (little podunk Minnesota town) at the time. I totally missed the mid-to-late 60's California scene, as we were so far north we couldn't even get American TV.

But I'm really scratching my head wondering why Smoothies are considered an abomination?

That being said, my Edsel ran red deep-reverse rims with baby moons, which was a very classic look.

 

I had a set of Plymouth cones on my car in the early 60's but they fell out of favor around 62 so I popped them off and went with the black wheels no caps. Moons were out by then and baby moons weren't around yet. I went into the service and got married in 63 so the next time I had a car with money to do anything was after the mag wheels were popular.

 

that's the first thing i thought of--speedway has 'em and calls them bullet style hub covers.

 

The term "Smoothies" is a brand name for the modern-made accessory version of the old chromed and reversed OEM wheels of earlier times. Smoothies are different in that they have a noticeable "ridge" around the hubcap and take a smaller brand-specific hubcap (which fits nothing else that I know of).
There's nothing wrong with Smoothies, but it's a mistake to try to pass them off as period-correct OEM chromed and reversed wheels on a '50s or '60s style rod or custom...if you are looking for an authentic look, that is...as is often done.

 

on your car, factory full wheel covers would look just dandy

 

Out of 100,000 members on the HAMB, I am the only one I know of who called "smoothies" an abomination. I am known for my hyperbole, but no one cares what I think, anyway, so don't sweat it!

Smoothies were not made in the 60s. They came later. I ran chrome reverse on the rear of my '55 Chevy 210 2 dr, with painted wheels and dog dish hubcaps on the front. My '30 Model A coupe had chrome reverse all the way around (mid-70s), but they weren't smoothies. They had the OEM look with nubs for the hubcaps, etc.

 

Ya gotta excuse me, missysdad. Some times I forget this place is so totally pre-65.

I debuted in a well used '66 Ford myself, & it did get brand new chromed reverse 15x6.5" Kelsey Hayes rims, with tall snow tires. I had the Cal-chrome dustcovers, but lug nuts & hubs were just painted silver: appropriate to time, if you were poor. If I'd had another $60, they would have been smoothies though (which I thought were made by Kelsey-Hayes as well, but maybe they were from Mexico even then...???)

 

Why do I remember seeing smoothies in Phoenix back in '64-'66? Perhaps I am mistaken, but I do recall them being rather pase' by the time I was learning to drive (1970) at 15. Everyone wanted the chromed or grey mag style wheels. I may have just been looking at baby moons & I would have been about 10 years old.

I never owned mags myself, until I bought my current bike in '04, and my current truck in '09. Both have mags, but I never liked them because my dad didn't like them. He told me people would never clean the insides & just let them corrode & crack & thus they weren't for street cars. He also used to chuckle when people called their cast aluminum wheels "mags".