I have a 1955 Pontiac Star Chief that for a while was OK. Then all of a sudden over a ten day period I lost two Hub Caps(off different wheels) one of them twice. I've purchased others and check them often. But am noticing that they are rotating and popping out here and there. I use to bend the little tabs which usually corrected the problem. But that's been so long ago I don't remember how to do it. Anyone remember or have a solution. 55 caps can be expensive and sometimes hard to find. When I get enough money saved the ole girl is getting mags.
Bending the tabs is the only way I know to help correct the problem but I suggest you bend them all outward. HRP
55chieftain is right. Running radials on stock rims is the problem. Had a 55 Ford with full covers years ago & lost more then one going down the interstate. Why do they always manage to pass you after they come off ?
Have the same problem, fronts only. Have tried the bend tab thing, only works for a while. Tried heavy coat of paint, which failed. I am going to get two more rims and weld a 1/16 wire bead for the tabs to catch on. Some cars look better with caps. Try finding 50 Packard caps if you think Pontiac are hard to find.
Had the same problem with my 50 Ford when I put radial tires on it. My 55 Olds spinners kept coming off or walking around the rims. I changed the rims to some late 80's Bronco II rims and problem solved. Find some rims that are the same bolt pattern, size and width from a later model car that uses radials.
Had same problem on our 65 chev truck.. lost 3 full disc..ended up putting a strip of duct tape around the rim,and pressing them back on..good after that. "hub cap Mike" told us to use silicone on the edges..3 or 4 small beads. Rick ============================================
I put silver duct tape around the tabs after I bent them out. Works so far but I drive more in the city then the hiway.
Why would radials make such a difference? I'd think that they'd be more prone to keeping caps on with the softer ride.
I take a small ball pean hammer and tap the tabs out before I install them. Use four or five small beads of clear sillicone on the edge of the cap - haven't had any problems using this procedure.
Radials don't matter - I used to lose one of the hubcaps off my '54 Pontiac on a regular basis and it was running bias ply tires. The left rear cap rotates on my '53 Chevy with three different caps, and that is on a '70s GM wheel.
This is what I did and they have never come off. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=396348 I have since swapped out my Olds caps for Caddy caps and they have never had a problem with them either.
It's not a radial thing! My '65 GTO would lose wheel covers too. One fell off one time a hit a "new" car in a lot at a Pontiac dealership. NO, I didn't stop to go get it! Must be a Pontiac thing!
Problem is the 55 itself, I think it would be best to sell it to me =). I have owned almost every may of car over the past 16 years and my 55 and 56 Pontiacs are the ONLY ones where a hubcap kept rolling when I came to a red light. I agree with those who say it is Pontiac or the way their caps/wheels work (dont work) together. Good luck!
The reason the caps come off when you have radial tires on a bias tire wheel. The bias wheel rim moves in and out on every rotation causing caps to walk off the rim. I've had wheels break the outside of rim bead off from radial tires on old type wheels. Trucks from the early 70's cannot run radial tires because of wheel breakage.
Are you running original '55 wheels & hubcaps, both? On atleast the '55, '56 & '57 Chevy rims, there are little 'nubs' on the outer rim edge. They help keep the wheelcovers from spinning on the rim and perhaps cutting the valve stem or flying off. Guys who have run later steel rims on their chevys, because they were wider, etc have been known to put a little bead of weld on the rim edge lip to mimick those factory 'nubs'. Maybe Pontiac wheels of the era were the same. Here is a thread about it from Chevytalk with a photo: http://www.chevytalk.org/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/186732 Scott/Gotta56forme
To Waddayacare, as a Chevrolet Ser. Mgr. for 28 years and a Pa. State Inspection Station owner for 16 years, i have seen separated pre Radial wheel split at outer rims by radial tires. Chevrolet had a bulletin out on this condition years ago. Also seen it on customers cars. I was only trying to help someone out not trying to get myself ridiculed by a fellow Hamber !
I had a set of the cheap snap on spun aluminums on a o/t car once. Went around a curve doing about 60 and the right front came off and went sailing out into the woods. My friend was following me and said it was rolling then turned on its side and looked like a frisbee. Man I was pissed I mentioned they were cheap, only in construction not price.
What you are saying may be true. But what WE are saying is that walking and/or caps that fall off is not caused by radial tires because we have enountered the same problem on cars with and without bias tires. In my case) it's a '53 Chevy with radial tires AND 'radial' wheels (late '70s GM wheels.) AND a brand-new wheels AND two different sets of hubcaps. With both sets of wheels and two different sets of radial ties and two different sets of hubcaps (new smoothies and original 1952 Olds) the left front and rear hubcaps tend to rotate on my rims. Clearly it's not the tire or the wheels or the tires. And the '54 Pontiac that used to throw hubcaps had bias-ply tires. I also had '52 Lincoln caps on the front of my current Chevy for a year or two and I don't recall them rotating on the wheel. They had a very different shape at the edge than the '52 Olds or the new smoothies and probably just clamped a little better. Now I have '51 or so Imperial caps on the front and I haven't noticed them rotating but it's only been a few hundred miles.
I use 6 inch sections of bicycle inner tubes cut lengthwise. Pinch two sections between the cap and wheel, 180 degrees across, and rubber hammer the cap on. I have been doing this with the replica moon covers on my RV and spinner caps on my 65 Mustang and it works fine. I bend the cap tabs out as well. I was running radials on the Mustang as a daily driver in the seventies and never lost a wheel cover, but in the last few decades as a weekend driver, the damn things kept loosing up. Perhaps it has something to do with metal fatigue of the caps, or even the wheels. It can't be radials if they worked back in the day, but not now.
Put wide rubber bands around the tabs. Bent the tabs out so far you couldn't get the cover on, then knocked them on with a rubber mallet.
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