I bought a set of restored 49/50 Plymouth wheel covers from hubcaps.com for my coupe. They look great and seem to fit very tight but keep popping off on the freeway, they actually spin on the wheel and bend the valve stem over. I have them on after market steel wheels (early wheel co) and running radial tires. Are there any retainer clips available or any tricks to keeping them on? 41plym
Try running a line of duct tape around your wheel where the hubcap needs to grip. It gives them a little something extra to grip to and you won't see it. It worked for me in the past.
Hotdamn hates dice valve stem caps, but he swears by them for the sole purpose of helping keep the hubcap on. It may give you a dent or ding on the cap or wheel, but you won't lose the cover! Others pop them off for extended travel and remount them when they get to the destination.
What you described aren't actually "hub caps", but wheel covers. It makes a difference in how to keep 'em on. Wheel covers (there are several threads on the HAMB if you do a search) are easy to retain with the use of a few dabs of well-placed silicone.
Ed, you're absolutely right! I have a learned bad habit of mis-identifying wheel covers as hubcaps. I know better, but I just can't help myself!
When ever I have a hub cap wheel cover or any other item on the exterior come off over and over again, I take some silicone and put a dime sized portion on a concealed part that is supposed to make contact. I let it dry before I go for a drive again..... Normally over night. A hubcap will need at least 4 dabs equally spaced. If you have a question regarding if its dry, put an extra dab on a piece of cardboard. The next morning you can check the dab on the card board instead of messin with the other loose item or wheel cover.....
I welded a nut to my dust cap, measured what length stud I need and welded it in the nut, drilled a hole in the center of my 52 hub cap and used a chrome dome cover with a nut on the inside to hold it all together. works great, haven't had a hub cap fly off since!
I recently bought a '53 Ford Victoria..went to remove the wheelcovers and it was a real struggle...seems the p.o. heard about silicone and he put the nasty stuff all the way around the cover..."if a little is good, more is better"
Run a little less pressure in the tires if you can get away with it. Radials don't flex at the sidewall as much as bias-ply tires, so some of that flex gets transferred to the rim itself. That's what moves the cap and eventually pops it off. You can also try bending the tabs out a little more to help keep them in place.
2 months ago, 06:00 in morning i loose 57' Chev LF w/Spinner. WTF, never heard it come off ? I will be doing Silicone or Tape. Thank You
Sixteen years with snap on moon discs on my 36, two weeks ago one decided to cut its own path, now they come off till I get where I'm going, then back on.
The Jalopy Journal
