Hot Rods why are they called ' poverty ' hub caps?

Yep!... Gotta save them "jewels"..

 

I had a couple of early Camaros with the poverty caps.... And also a '70 Nova SS that had those also...

 

As they say "an ass for every seat".
At one time I thought the biggest effort spent on hubcaps was to take them off and replace them with mags of some sort.
Over the years I became enamored with 63 Chevy Biscaynes and the whole "look" they presented.


I've never owned one but always thought it would be cool to at least have a couple of beater caps hanging on the shop wall.
In the 90's I had been looking for some for awhile, but soon found out how expensive they had become so kind of gave up, then one day I went out for breakfast and sitting in the parking lot was a newer Ford pickup (of all things) with a set of these caps on it, they were a bit dirty but I could tell they were in really nice shape.
I waited there a bit and an older fellow came out and got in the truck so I asked him if he wanted to sell them, he surprisingly said sure, twenty bucks, neither of us had a way to pop them off but I paid him on the spot to seal the deal and got his address and drove over an hour later to find them already off and sitting on his porch all cleaned up, they looked like new, nearly like these NOS ones on "that auction site".



I wrapped them each in bubble wrap and put them away, some years later I decided to take some stuff to the Portland Swap Meet to sell so researched the value of the caps and almost fell over, about $500 for NOS set/4, mine were not perfect so put a price of $350 on them.
Lots of early offers but decided to see how much interest they generated, one guy came back a few times with progressively higher offers but not enough, then as I was boxing up to leave he came by with the $350 and bought them, I bet they had a hundred different fingerprints on them.
The auction ad for those pictured NOS caps had $800 on them.
CRAZY!

 

Well, they were USED for dog dishes earlier. Much earlier. Dads uncle had coon hounds when I first became old enough to know what a hound was. And had had them before that. All fed and watered in hubcaps . This was about 1943.

Ben

 

ala the "cheap chuck caps " lol

 

I had a dog that was part pit bull and got the biggest kick out of playing with the small caps. The 50's ones would last quite a while but the later ones got destroyed quick.

 

They came on low end cheaper cars is originally how they got the name, but lately the prices of them are outta sight. So.... the are now called poverty caps because after you purchase a set, your wallet is at poverty level.

 

Actually the term hub cap is the term used in parts and accessory catalogs to describe the small cap that covered only the hub area of the wheel which included the the lug nuts,wheel cover was the term used when describing the wheel cover that covered the whole outer surface of the rim except for the outer lip.There were typically 2 different diameters of small hub caps for domestic pass cars aprox. 9.5" for small cars such as falcon chevy II corvair and valiant that sometimes used 13" wheels,aprox. 10.5" for cars that used 14&15" wheels and sometimes used the same styling so you have to make sure and measure them to make sure they are the right ones for your wheels.Also while some pickups with 15" wheels used the same size caps as cars that is not always the case,there was also deviation with some wheels that used an internal snap type small cap such as Ford GT wheels and some mopar and GM rally wheels

 

They must be called poverty caps 'cause I can only afford this many....

 

Here's mine ! For sale in the classified .$350.00 not perfect but very nice !

 

I think like someone else said it was just a name that some magazine guy put on them in the 80s or 90s. I grew up in L.A. in the 50s and 60s and I never read or heard the term back then. Maybe it was a regional term.

 

They look familiar are they for a 65 Chevy bel air ?

 

I think everyone is either overthinking this, or not looking at the obvious. These were on the cheap models with the largest engines for a simple thought. The manufacturers were realizing that drag racing was driving sales, so they wanted to pair their cheapest, LIGHTEST, car with their best engine. To get them classed as best as possible in racing, and to perform the best.
They all knew if a 409/406/413 was the top dog on Sunday, sales were coming Monday. And if they pushed these out, there would be a buyer who "got it".

 

Basically as the off topic years came - most guys would get the cheapest caps/wheels knowing they would be adding their choice of the latest mags to their ride.

 

Still cheap looking to me.

 

Could get bumped due to the 65 cutoff here so I won't post a photo but for anyone who cares, those 63 Biscayne caps were used again on the 66 Chevy II.

 

To each his own...Randy


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It's always bugged me when I see a high end restoration on a loaded muscle car, usually a convertible, and they put poverty caps on it. It probably came with full wheel covers new and a lot of times with the faux wire wheel look.

Do like a dog dish on a big engined Biscayne tho.

 

Use them all the time...

 

No such term existed in the 50's there was full moons and baby moons.
Full Moon


Baby Moons

 

Does everybody remember the full wheel covers of the 70's that had become so elaborate and heavy that they were like weapons,if one were to come off which they did with alarming frequency,and hit a car in the oncoming lane it would total it out.

 

I have a bunch of those, too....

 

Not from the 70's, but just pulled these off of a barely on-topic car to put on a set of poverty caps and they fit your description of heavy for sure. I figure on a car with so little hp, they had to slow it down some. Oh, and I typically prefer the poverty caps on most stuff...seems a little more sinister or something...

 

You did the right thing.

 

You don’t happen to have any Pontiac poverty caps in that pile do you? Since we’re on the subject...Randy


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Now that's my kind of retirement plan.....

 

I bought these instead
for innie caps?
not outy caps
innie 9.5'' - more domed variety early?
outie 10.5'' - normally a little flatter?
don't understand as these are 15'' wheels and came off a 65 f100...........
are they 56 oldsmobile wheels?

 

Cheaper to replace when they fall off or tire guy forgets to put them back on.