Features Hot Rod Hubcaps

C-9 did an awesome write-up that I found recently. The info and pics were great. I'll try to find it.





BloodyKnuckles

 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=314742&highlight=bloodyknuckles



Here you go.

By request . . . from a few years back....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hot Rod Hubcaps


And maybe a little on custom hubcaps as well.

Hubcaps, at least to me, being an all inclusive term for wheel covers as well as ....... hubcaps.

Hubcaps and the lack thereof were almost always one of the first styling changes to be made on what car owners - usually young ones with their first car - did to differentiate their car from the general public.

In the early days, most times, better handling wasn’t particularly sought after.
First up was change and next was - my favorite Toolman comment - "More Power."

We didn’t know we were "Toolmen" at the time and we didn’t sing out the praises of "More Power like the Toolman does, but we knew that "More Power" was what it was all about.

Making us and our fathers before us Toolmen.

Did I make that clear?
Hope so.
If I didn’t, don’t really care....

So what the heck did a guy do once he had his first car?
Or even the second or third?

A hubcap swap was, as stated, one of the first things done.
Even if it was no more than popping the caps off and running with bare wheels.
More than a few guys did this one and it did set the car off from the stockers running the streets.
It helped to run big & little’s in the rubber dept.
Stock sized tires run with bare wheels just didn’t look right.
Especially so to me, but a lot of guys ran them.

The bare wheels were usually painted with a non-stock color and not always red.
Other favored colors were white as well as black with an occasional blue one showing up now and then.

Some of the very best of these had a pinstripe laid on the outer bead flange.
The pinstripe not as hard to apply as you would imagine.

Most times done by simply jacking up the car, loading up a pinstripe brush, holding the brush in your hand, lay your hand on a convenient brace - most times a jackstand - apply the brush and slowly spin the wheel with your free hand.
It didn’t take long and most times it laid out a pretty nice line.
Best way to hold the brush was sometimes argued, but if it was stiff enough and the flat handled Grumbacher black brushes usually were, it would allow it to be held with the brush up or cocked off at a very slight angle to the right.
Paint consistency made a big difference too.
Not too thin was the key here.
At least a little thicker than you’d normally use on pinstriping body panels.

This particular touch - the contrasting color pinstripe - on the wheel made for a very nice look when combined with a small hubcap.

Beauty rings were a nice touch, but in most cases were not run.
The painted wheel, small cap, a pinstriped wheel and that was about it.

All of which is funny in a small way.
The 50 Fords, and I owned several of them, had one of the nicest beauty rings around.
The beauty rings - several sets - ended up hanging in dad’s garage and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that they were still there.

The early Fords, for the most part ran the small caps that came with them.
At least the 40-48 Ford guys did.
And those only until 15" wheels were on the car and the larger wheel covers installed.
Sometimes a different year Ford cap was run, but most times it was the original one.

Going to the muchly desired 15" wheel for both the 40's era Fords and the Chevy’s was one of the first conversions done.

Some of the aftermarket wheel covers that were available came in both 15" and 16" sizes, but once Detroit started making interesting wheel covers, 15" wheels were what you needed.
There was a lot of crossover between customs and hot rods as far as wheel covers went.

The 55-56 Buicks with their simple and clean wheel cover with red plastic center insert were popular as well.
I ran a set of these on both the 50 Ford sedan and one of the 50 Ford coupes.
They looked good and if I ever did another 50 Ford, the Buick caps would be the first choice.

Two of the most popular aftermarket covers, these seen in the early 50's for the most part were the full coverage moons and the later flipper model moons.
These moon covers were not like the Moon discs of the latter 50's.
The moon wheel covers were simply a nice looking cover, chrome plated, very rounded and a nice finishing touch on customs and mild customs.
With only two required as most of the mild and full customs ran skirts and the rear wheels were completely hidden.
Especially so when the ‘Bubble Skirts’ came in during the mid-late 50's.

Skirts weren’t found on too many hot rods in the mid-late 50's, in fact, virtually none in California. They were pretty much the province of the customs.
And the customs, being a fairly individualistic endeavor were many times seen without skirts.
Said skirts being a bit of a holdover from the 40's, but they did have a degree of popularity in the 50's.

Skirts were useful on hot rods though.
Especially if you running one in ‘sleeper’ mode.
I did this little trick when I got one of my 50 Ford coupes running with a built Olds engine, 41 Caddy side shift trans, Hurst shifter and 4.27 geared Mercury wagon rear end.

I’d just moved to Newhall, California to a new job and found a set of 49-51 Ford skirts hanging in the garage of the little country home we were renting.

The coupe was running as a sleeper, quiet mufflers, one tailpipe showing, the other hidden, 6.70 x 15 whitewalls all round with the small stock 50 Ford caps and sitting at stock height.
Somewhere along the line I got the bright idea to pop the skirts on before my first trip to town on a Saturday night to check out the local hot rod population.

The only things that gave away the game as far as sleeper mode went were the tach on the steering column and the easily hidden Hurst shifter on the floor.
Easily hidden by virtue of a casual move by the drivers leg pretty much hid the shifter from view.
The little fact that the shifter laid up against and to an extent on the seat when in low or high made it hard to see when you looked inside the drivers window from the outside.
Provided the driver was in the car.
I was most times, I didn’t leave the car alone the first few weeks it was running.
Virtually no one noticed the removed column shift lever.

The skirts worked out well for the first couple of weekends.
Most guys figured an out of town car wearing skirts couldn’t be very fast.
A couple of Chevy runners paid the price though.

After that, there weren’t any more locals to fool and I pulled the skirts.
It was fun while it lasted.

Eventually somebody got the bright idea to put a 1/4" thick or so single blade across the moon wheel covers.
I don’t remember for sure what these covers were called, Ripple Bar hubcaps rings a bell.
As does flipper hubcaps.

In any event, they looked great and were very eye catching when rolling down the street at typical 25-30 mph in town speeds.
Highway speeds, another story. The blades just disappeared from view.

A few hot rod guys ran these, but they never got real popular with the thin fender crowd.
Thin fenders being defined as 28-34 Fords.

There were a few T’s built and running around, but only one that I can remember that was of any real consequence.
This one, a 27 T roadster pickup - very low for the time - with all the fenders, chopped windshield, top and a built flathead that eventually segued into a Chevy engine - an SBC to be exact, but with no BBC’s around at the time, we just called em Chevy’s.
The Chevy’s chosen more for their performance value than for ease of installation.

The thin fendered cars back then usually ran the smaller Ford caps, probably due to their ready availability and the small fact that they fit right on if you had the right wheels and most times they did.

Eventually, the 55 Olds Fiesta wheel covers with their three small blades came into being.
The first set of these that I ever saw was in late 1955 and they were running on a metallic green torpedo back 50 Olds with built engine, 37 Cad-LaSalle floor shift and white T&R.
The T&R from TJ of course.

The Olds Fiesta’s were stunningly eye catching and caught on like wildfire.
It wasn’t long until darned near everybody ran em and those that didn’t lusted after them.

‘Course, the guy with the torpedo back Olds had a leg up on everybody as he worked the Chevy-Oldsmobile parts counter downtown.
For a while there, he was the guy to see where the Fiesta’s were concerned.
Seems like prices were right around $25. - $30. a set.
I couldn’t swing it at the time, but the parts guy gave me a set of the little 56 Chevy hubcaps that were dealer take-offs.
He had two 4' tall stacks of these things sitting in the back room and they were forever getting in the way.
He was supposed to sell them, but nobody wanted them.
He stuck four of them in my hands, pointed me at the back door and said, "So long."
I could take a hint....

They worked for me, I popped em on the 50 Ford sedan which was my first car and along with a nicely painted set of black wheels, duals and a dropped front end on a black car things were looking good.
And if not good, at least better.

Once the dust settled out from the influx of 55 Olds Fiesta’s, the 56 Oldsmobiles came out with their larger tri-bladed wheel cover, again, called the Fiesta. These even more eye catching than the 55 Fiesta’s and once again the rush was on.
For a while there, every car that could fit them ran the fat bladed Fiesta’s.

The Fiesta’s always run with whitewalls.
In fact, most hot rod/custom cars ran whitewalls.
They were the ‘hot set-up’ and most desired.
And the thinner the better, although the thinner WW’s didn’t really come in until the late 50's.
When I say thin, I mean real thin.
Perhaps 2" wide or so with narrower ones coming on line a short way down the road.

Next up to hit the hit parade on the hubcap/wheel cover bit were the fabled Moon discs.
The first set of these to show up in town were on a fire engine red - the good fire engine red and not the orangey red that became popular later on - 5 window Deuce coupe running a built Desoto engine with four 2 bbl’s inline, Herbert roller and all the good stuff including a black and white TJ T&R job.
He had a set of the screw-on Moon discs along with a set of big & little blackwalls.
It made for a standout car as whitewalls were what most ran at the time.
A bit retrograde a few thought, but I really liked the look.
The little Deuce coupe was fast, looked fast, sat right with it’s dropped axle front end and had that serious no-nonsense hot rod look about it.

The screw-on Moon discs was the only way they came.
At least from Moon.
Later on, Pep Boys et al carried snap-on discs, but they weren’t such a great product and to my eye not too good looking either.
They didn’t look quite right compared to gennie Moon discs.
They had their flaws too.
The biggest one being their simple inability to remain on the car.

My friend was forever bombing around corners and losing the front disc.
Best one was when it rolled into a TV store on the S/E corner of Seaward and Main in Ventura.
Customers and salesmen were so stunned that they didn’t say a word when I walked in, picked it up and walked out to the fire engine red 49 Ford coupe sitting at the curb.

The Deuce coupe was a standout car all by itself.
It was when it ran black primer and little Merc caps.
The red paint, Moon discs and blackwalls made for a standout little car.

It had stock bumpers at first and then a nicely made set of tubular bumpers or nerf bars if you want to call em that were made and installed front and rear.
Said bumper/nerfs running the width of the car

I liked the look of the Moon discs as did most guys, but for most the problem was, where the heck do you get em?
A small problem that had a few wondering for a while.

I took the direct approach as I knew the Deuce owner casually and simply asked him where he got his.
He told me to call Moon in Santa Fe Springs, get a price, send em a money order and wait by the mailbox.
Which I did posthaste.
I shipped off the $33. money order and waited - a bit impatiently - for the Moon discs.
After a week and a half or so they came.
Nicely packed in a thin cardboard box and once opened it was easy to see that they were a thing of mechanical beauty.
Even better up close than as viewed on the little Deuce Coupe.

A thing of beauty with no holes whatsoever.
Not a problem for dad, he took em to work, clamped em together, laid em out and drilled em all at the same time which was a nice touch.
It gave me a disc that would fit any wheel as vs. some of the guys that drilled the discs individually and somewhere along the line gave themselves fits when they lost track about which disc went where.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, I sprung for a new set of tires, blackwalls, 5.50 x 15's in front.
The 5.50's made for Volkswagons.
And a pair of 8.20 x 15's in back, this size geared toward the Caddy’s.

With one coil out of the front springs, bumper guards removed front and rear, pipes, fairly new Titian red paint job, nosed and partially decked with the plastic shield gone from the trunk lid, but the trunk handle remaining, fully pinstriped as well as a small set of flames emanating from the front wheel wells, a white naugahyde TJ tarp over the back seat with white naugahyde package shelf, good shape original gray cloth seats and side panels as well as a mild flathead, the Moon discs were the finishing touch.
They were the second set in town and me & the Deuce coupe owner enjoyed our one of a kind look for a while.
A short while as it turned out, in a couple of months a whole lot of guys were running the Moon discs.
A lot of em got swiped as all it took was a screwdriver to get em off.

I did ok there as dad brought me a full set of 8-32 Allens, drill, tap and wrench when he brought the discs home from the oil patch garage where he worked and I never got hit where the Moon discs were concerned.
As cheap as they were, hardly anyone carried a set of Allen wrenches.

A little while after the Moon discs got popular, the first version of the four bladed Dodge Lancers came into being.
These got fairly popular, but they were still outnumbered by the 56 Olds Fiesta’s.

For a while there, the town was awash in hot rods and customs as well as a few stocker’s running some kind of flipper style wheel cover.
The were hard to ignore when you saw them coming down the street.
They grabbed your attention like nobody’s business.

Eventually the Desoto powered 5 window Deuce coupe went on to be a dedicated drag race car.
A larger Desoto engine with six two bbl’s. Packard trans, Halibrand quick change and Vertex magneto were installed.
The tubular front bumper was removed to allow use of a tow bar, but the rest of the car remained as it was.
Full upholstery and all.
Eventually the owner built a Jimmy blown Desoto, installed that in a Deuce roadster along with the quick change and the 5 window was sold as an engineless car for $400.
All this taking place around 58-59 or so.

The owner of the Deuce coupe, being a bit of a forward thinking guy and one who always had a good eye for how a car should be built and set up bought a brand new black 57 Plymouth two door as a tow car.
A little cranking on the torsion bars got this one down in front, a set of the stock pointed Plymouth wheel covers along with a dual exhaust made for one simple, clean looking, good stance car that was the tow car for the Deuce coupe as well as his every day car.

Once again, the Deuce coupe owner had set a new fad in motion and the pointed Plymouth wheel covers got very popular.

Not too much longer and wheel covers as well as hubcaps were passe’ for most.
Chrome wheels entered the scene and if you thought the Fiesta’s had taken over fast, the chrome wheels were everywhere on everything.
In a matter of a couple of months it seemed.

The chrome wheels combined with a baby moon hubcap made for a great looking wheel.
Only trouble was, they cost right around a hundred bucks a set which put them out of reach for most of us.
It did me.

Not too much longer, in the very early 60's, American I think it was, introduced their 5 spoke ‘mag’ wheel and the market pretty much dropped out of sight for the chromie’s.

The 5 slot mags came in shortly after that and it was all over but the shouting.

The spinner/flipper style of wheel covers along with the little hubcaps fell out of favor and you only saw them on a few cars now and then.

The little caps remained on a few thin fendered die-hard serious hot rod runners and the flipper wheel covers remained on a few customs.

Said customs at times, painting the inside section behind the flippers with gold metal flake, sometimes adding a set of blades to the earlier Fiesta’s making for a six bladed spinner.
Even so, then the mags came in, that was pretty much the death knell for caps and covers.

All of which brings to mind a comment I keep seeing.
That of building a car to a theme.

My question being, what theme and when?

Hot rods and customs were always in a state of flux and changes went on constantly.
Monthly if not weekly.

Mix and match was the name of the game and whatever fit - even it you had to massage it a little bit - was fair game.
Like always, you had to remain within the bounds of good taste, but with all the great cars running the streets in the 50's and 60's it wasn’t hard to do.

The rules - of which there were really none - were simple.
Your car, your way, fast, done right and done safe.
Not too hard to remember and not too hard to do.....

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Girls - not mentioned as car owners as they didn’t run hot rods or customs.
Not like they do nowadays.

Granted, there were a few forward thinking women that found out how much fun the hot rod game was and they were there at the start.

Even so, these were rare women and seldom found.

The girls in my era sometimes ran a restored car, but most times a stocker.

Girls viewed the cars for what they were worth.
Not worth in the monetary sense, but worth as an actual transportation device to take them to their chosen destinations.

We in turn viewed the girls for what they were worth.

Again, not worth in the monetary sense, but as beautiful and desirable young women.

We weren’t building hot rods and customs to impress the guys.......
__________________
Sailing the turquoise canyons of the Arizona desert.

C9

I wish you would see more hot rods with hubcaps!



C-9 is missed.




BloodyKnuckles

 

Here's a couple I like...
Tom's roadster


Bob Atol's ride (my old dentist)

 

The Olds caps ar my favorites on Hot Rods. 31Whitey's Ford pickup runs them (where is he lately?).

Here are some cool ones...




Not a custom cap but...






Whitey!









Dr.Wetzel's...










AND Probably the best example of the correct way to use hubcaps on a Hot Rod...

 

The Tom Branch Roadster is the first hot rod that came to mind for me.

EDIT: Bested by Jeffrey James and HotRD32

 

Boobie, the link would have sufficed. You're such thread buzz killer Hahaha!!!

 

Awesome JJ!!!





BloodyKnuckles

 

I take back my compliment to you.





BloodyKnuckles

 

Hub caps are not something that you'll ever see me put on any of my Hot Rods with the exception of "moon caps" and when running wide five wheels but damn do I appreciate those that do. It's like a well done east coast style car. I personally would never build one but when someone else does it stops me dead in my tracks. It's cool and the hub caps are a nice touch and really sets the car apart in a sea of others.

 

I for the life of me cannot think why you Boobie do not build your car in that manner. It's seems right up your ally and the fenders, hub caps and stance screams your style. Shitz-burg style....minus the mullets, bull's horn/tooth necklace and prince's purple rain. Wait!! You should call the car Purple rain and paint it a dark purple with a gold interior....and yes I'm being serious.

 

I used these on my '40. I believe they are Hollywood's, copies of '57 Plymouth only 15" instead of original 14" $35.00 at the swapmeet.

 

I've been a fan of these for years and I don't mind that they aren't more popular today. Funny how many were used on the " Most Significant 75". I like to think they set my roadster apart from others. These Merc caps look completely different in my opinion depending on which trim ring is used as well as when used on a chrome wheel.

 

Damn I forgot about this one. I love this flipping coupe!!!

 

Thanks for re-posting that, Bloodyknuckles, I hadn’t read it in quite a while. C9 was a great writer, you always felt like he was sitting right there, telling you his story. He really is missed.

I totally agree with his premise that most of us with “keeper” cars are constantly tweaking them. I’m on my third set of hubcaps in just over a year, but I think I’ve reached stasis where that is concerned.

-Dave

 

My first 40 Std Ford coupe came to me with these hubcaps on them complete with port-a-walls - they looked fantastic. The car is long gone but I still have the hubcaps .... they really look good on a 40 ....

 

Not a huge fan of hubcaps, but I surely miss C9.

 

My fave:

 

Kurt McCormick roadster from Pat's "Lost Hot Rods" book is really nice...already posted but I still like it..

 

Here's the only pic of my car I could find on my work computer. I've played around with two different style of caps, I like 'em.

 

Hahahaha!!!!! Purple Sack!!!!

 

Mark will be happy to see that!

Here is my favorite, a very rarely seen local roadster.

 

Well, one can't go wrong with Dodge "Lancers!" These are the '55-'56 version, but the '57-'58 variant is great too. Coolest "cap" ever on perhaps the coolest 'rod ever...

 

As a vicarious trad-rodder, building my models, perhaps my favorite part is picking wheels and tires (Just like in "1/1 scale" getting that right. Here's the same model (the good old circa 1959 AMT Deuce kit) without and with '57 Olds 98 caps. Which is better? I don't know, I kinda like 'em both, for different reasons...

 

George Poteet's gold '40 pick up with Fiestas nails the hot rod hub cap look, for me.

 

Its kinda funny that this topic comes up. We will be standing around the shop talking about something and theres always that guy....you know that guy .... that wants to argue about history. We hear alot of "hot rods dont have white walls" and "hot rods never had full caps".

Excellent topic and lots of cool pictures, too.