I found 4 of these in the trunk of an old 53 ford. They are in decent shape, some surface rust...they appear to be 2 piece bolted together... What are they? Are they worth anything? And how would I best go about cleanin them up for my 53 buick?
The do not look like a Chinese repop...they have bolts on the back holding the cross to the turbine I really want to clean em up and run em
You might check out www.hubcaps.org to try to identify them. They look like old aftermarket wheelcovers to me, like from late 50s, early 60s
They're pretty common aftermarkets sold by multiple companies, they're not re-popped, I had a set of tri bar ones on my 57 Chevy, I also have two sets of 13" ers but the backs are really soft aluminum and kinda flimsy, they were NOS but I thre the packaging away years ago. The four barsv are less common than the three.
I think he is onto something with the jc whitney idea... I don't have a good pic of them right now but my 53 ford has 2 similar looking caps the original owner bought from jc whitney in 58. They seem like quality material and after a pressure wash and wipe down with a rag mine were great looking.
I got some surface rust on em and I really want to run em on the 53, I just picked up Fender skirts and I dropped the rear worst case I can put the two best ones on the front and hide the others under skirts... what do you guys do for surface rust?...I really want to do it right and not mess em up....
Yes......those are aftermarket covers. As was said, came with either 3 or 4 bars. May have been made in Taiwan back then. Came from places like Whitney, Warshawsky and parts stores that sold accessories. The base cap actually resembles a full wheel cover from a 1961 Dodge. If your spinner bars are good, but cover is rusted, you might be able to mount them onto the Dodge caps. Are your wheels 14"? The Dodges used 14" wheels. Strange as it may sound, some people wad up some aluminum foil and rub over the rust.....they claim it works. I sometimes use fine guage steel wool. Or just plain ol liquid chrome polish. Whenever you get them clean as you can, give a final going over with wax to try and keep them from rusting further.
Here's a before and after of the same hubcap....you can see I washed it with dish soap and then used a claybar on it...then polished it with a turtle wax chrome polish they are comin along...I am also using elbow grease by the gallon the center is pot metal but the outer portion is stainless
Here's another old aftermarket cover......probably late 50s, early 60s. Found it lying in a junkyard......it cleand up pretty good. Wouldn't mind to have another like it, but you just don't find them. Not really valuable, just an aftermarket thing that rusted quicker and got tossed out. This type also came in various wheel sizes, and in a 4 bar as well as 3 bar style.
I figured a clay bar is good and safe on paint...so why not stainless.... But the process is SLOW, I'm still on the first cap
'61 Dodge lancer style. Use some DRY #000 steel wool on them and they will clean up nicely. SOS pads also work well. Moon still sells the spinners for them bu only the 3 bar version.
Sweet. They fit in my Buick Rims, but they are a bit shallow for the valve stems... consequently the valve stems do not fit through the holes
I have a REALLY dirty set of the cone discs as well...neighbor moved...nasty divorce and he gave em to me
Good find. In the future I'd refrain from using diswashing soap. I usually use "Simple Green" in most of these situations. And, MOTHER'S chrome polish is excellent for a semi-final step, with MOTHER'S aluminum paste to seal it up. I buff 'em out with the insides of an old sweatshirt that's been cleaned and dried. They're soft and don't leave some of the swirl marks/scratch marks that a regular bath towel can sometimes do. NOW, to confirm the Info rik has shown above: I can't scan right now, but in my late-Father's 1963 J.C. Whitney Catalog, Page 143 shows these as "1961 Lancer Type 3 & 4-Bar Wheel Covers". The 3-Bars are listed at $31.50 a set; The 4-Bars at $33.25 a set. So, Mike, can't get much closer than that ! Good luck ! Jonnie King www.legends.thewwbc.net
well, one of them has severe pitting on the cap, the cross is fine...so I will be waiting to run them til I get my fender skirts painted and installed...then you cannot see the rear ones
You used to be able to buy a thing that would extend the valve stem, it just screws on in place of the cap, my grandfather ran them on one of his cars. 47plym, your single looks to me like maybe a copy of 63-64 Chevy Impala SS caps.
47Ply, they weren't made in Taiwan, they're USA all the way. That Taiwanese junk is newer than 20 years.
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