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

I can see these hub caps on stripper or sleeper cars- it matches. But when did it become cool to put dog dishes on say a 1965 Olds Starfire or Pontiac GrandPrix? Or even worse the newer completely loaded cars like 442 Convertibles ,or a Galaxie XL? I also don't understand so many people putting wide white on a 50's work truck. But to each their own I guess.....

 

Poverty caps: something to put lug nuts in when swapping tires!....

 

My 66 Suburban had S-10 caps on it when I bought it in the early 90's, Nay Nay said I.
Sorry, no photos, they only stayed on their for a few hours.
The first order of business was picking the four best 67 Chevy dog dish caps from the dozen or so I had collected.



The second thing was to whack about six inches out of the ride height.

So yeh, I've been a fan of the lowly dog dish hubcaps for many years.

 

Any full hubs for a 64 bel air ? Driver to poverty condition ?... thanks ,Dan

 

More Full Moons on a tub.

 

I like the look on that era automobile. As stated, it screams sleeper for those in the know.

 

I believe I do.

 

When I was a kid, I couldn't understand why anyone would want those plain jane things over a set of Cragars or Ansons, but now I think they have an understated swaggering cool that nothing else quite matches. Steelies and doggies for life.

 

So why did they put trim rings on cars and call them a luxury item with a poverty cap. Like the Corvette Rallies. My avatar is a highly optioned car that came with rallies and trim rings. Just like the Vette. The poverty cap became likeable so they made it fancy? Every time I see poverty caps on a car, I think to myself where`s the trim ring.

 

Similar to the Corvette, the top of the line 1967 Oldsmobile Ninety-eight had small hubcaps with vintage looking trim rings. I know because I ordered a set of trim rings way back when.

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I don’t know where the “poverty cap” name came from. I have always liked the small hubcaps and the only poverty I can relate to them is how much it sets me back to find nice ones. Certainly not what everyone wants, at one event an acquaintance asked me why I put “cheap” hubcaps on my Cad.

 

We used to call them "Cheapie Hubcaps", like you would see on a government vehicle.

 

As I'm sure you know, disc brakes were introduced as an option in 1967 on Chevys and the slots were for disc brake cooling.
Pardon the two year OT car, 67 police cars, taxis/fleet were fitted with 15x5 inch rally wheels with these center caps and no trim rings.
I had a pair of these wheels years ago and they are one of the hardest ones to find.
Most of these cars were Biscaynes and BelAirs, here is a rare Impala bodied police package, note the 396 emblem.

 

great

 

The ones that cover most of the wheel are called wheel covers, not hubcaps.

"Poverty caps" is some slang magazine expression coined in the past 20 or so years for small base model caps. Gray Baskerville was good at coining words, but I don't know if can blame him for this one.

Other than that, it's not rocket science or worth tying yourself in knots over.

(edit: guys, this post was in response to Nobby's post above...which he has edited down to one word, so it throws the context out. I guess I should have quoted him.)

 

Sleeper style..plain Jane, Z28 302" motor...runs in the passing lane...

 

I love sleepers.....

 

Finally. I was wondering if anyone was going to mention that they were standard issue on Police Vehicles because most municipalities and most states use the 'lowest bid' formula in purchasing their rolling stock. Hence, the cars that end up grinding out the miles doing duty to Protect and Serve are the cheapest ones that passed the 'big brakes, big radiator, big engine, etc. specifications' when the bidding was held. Doesn't it make a Police Officer feel the feel to know he's riding in what came in as the 'lowest bid'? And, yep, in order to accomplish the miracle of making it cheap without the boilerplate that goes with 'providing our Law Enforcement Officers with the tools they need' and still making a buck, these miracles of deception are equipped with the smallest lug nut covers money can buy. And, when you say Gray Baskerville, sucka, smile.

 

Those rims are probably the same ones used on the '67 Z/28.....

 

A little off the thread track tidbit.
To my knowledge, all the production rally wheels had two letter codes next to the valve stem hole that was applied to specific applications, can't say positively about warehouse replacements. Also, as far as I know, the 67 Z/28 rallys were 15x6 inch.
Those 15x5 inchers were peculiar to the police/taxi applications, also heard they were also connected to some Canadian built cars, the guy that bought mine was from B.C.

 

Jeez

 

Ok, back to caps!...

 

YOU'RE ALL WRONG! JEEZUZ H. CHRISTMAS, DON'T YOU KNOW?

Ok done yelling. Why poverty caps? It's a social construct. Ya see, us hot rod hoodlum no good terrorizers are the scourge of any civilized society. Even our fearless leader mentions hoodlums in our gospel. Society has waged a war on poverty, and for time on hot rodders too as if we were the spawn of demons from down below (we are but that's another subject ). So with the newer description of a favored hubcap being the standard issue some deep secret society coined the term poverty cap so the public knew who to be at war with. Who this awful evil element is and established a secret code to out us to the rest of the world. So, if you continue the use of the term "poverty caps" in reference to standard issue hubcaps YOU are GUILTY of emminent death and destruction of hot rodders and their beloved machinery the world over. DON'T DO IT! SAVE YOURSELVES! STOP CALLING THEM POVERTY CAPS! You aid them in the war against hot rods and hoodlums worldwide.

Or, it's actually just some stupid shit some asshole came up with and it stuck. I like standard or dog dish myself. Taxi caps was another aternative.

 

When we first moved here (Dec. of '89) my 'less-than-obedient' son Jim remarked that "There sure are some 'Felony Cars' driving by..." (one color Fords, standard 'Police' caps, oversize tires)
We had come from San Jose, where I had a few policemen as Porsche customers. Jim LOVED the 'cop jargon'.
Our huge picture window faced the canal out front, which separated us from the road, a long 2-laner out into the country.
Sure enough, another late Ford sedan passed by, but with discernable German occupants...a large part of the populace between Atwater and Livingston is of the Mehnonite faith, mostly farmers.
Like their Amish brethren, Mehnonites drive standard automobiles, no radios, not many have TVs.
"Sure looked like 'Felony Cars..." Jim was right. They really did.
Felony caps. Better.

 

A lot of damned arguing over hubcaps that were "no extra cost standard equipment" rather than costing extra as full hubcaps or extra cost option wheels did.
Most of the guys on here are way too young to remember the lost leader bare bones cars that dealers would advertise for low prices in the 50's, 60's and early 70's.
Bare bones base model 2 door with the small base engine, 3 speed, plain interior with no radio and only a base heater or in earlier days no heater. rubber floor mats and skinny blackwalls with the small caps. Those cars were almost always painted white and always were parked way around back in the lot so you had to walk past every other car in the lot to get to them. It was usually someone who was beyond frugal that bought them as cheap and new were their only objectives when buying a car.

 

Seeing this post from @Atwater Mike really made me smile, as I was born and raised there in the Winton/Atwater/Merced area. He is correct, you could spot those no frills cars the Mennonites drove, and if you didn't know the culture or the area, you would easily mistake those cars for unmarked police cars !

 

Around here we always called them dog dish, they make great bowls for dry dog food and water, especially the Chevy truck caps. HRP

 

That is what we called them around here. Dog dish caps. I never knew the phrase poverty cap until it showed up on the net.
When I ordered my 69 Cutlass S from Vietnam in late 1968 it had 4 items on the option list. Probably the least optioned car that Williams and Swanson in Renton ever sold that wasn't a lost leader. It had the dog dish caps and I put Chrome reverse wheels on it the second day I had it and put the caps back on. Made for a great look at the time.

 

Is it because now that they are so popular and becoming scarce, after you find and buy a nice set you will find out what poverty is?

 

Why not call 'em 'Cop Caps'???
A detective friend laughing told me they had a nickname for donuts. "Cop Cakes"!