History Opinions: Poverty Caps

Have any of you seen the recent letter in HCC regarding poverty caps? The reader goes on to say how back in the day the only reasons for having them was either the car was brand new and had just been delivered and so the poverty caps would eventually just be junked by the new owner, or that the owner couldn't afford the larger full size covers offered.. He says that poverty caps were a mark a shame and that he can't understand why many of us are running our cars with poverty caps, to the point that their demand has led to many of them being reproduced! so I apologize if this thread has already been introduced.. Persoanally I love seeing poverty caps on a 1955 Pontiac wagon, as well as on a 1962 Biscayne "sleeper" with the 409 and factory 4-speed.. what do you think?

 

I wouldn't go so far as to say they were a "mark a shame", but they were discarded as soon as possible. Most of the time, in the 60's, they were just removed and run without any hubcaps.

 

I just read that letter the other day. I'm only 25 so I wasn't there to see it myself, but of all the pics I've seen of cars back in the day the letter writer is right.

 

Reminded me of the cheap or learner's telegraph keys (back in the early 1900s) that were thrown out when the student got a job and a "real" key ... now those cheap keys are hard for collectors to find and are pricey !!

 

My dad had a 63 super sport with the spinner caps. He called them "Twine twirlers". A teen ager at the local grocery store would borrow them[with dads permission] and run on his 56 chevy on the weekend to impress the girls he said. He said he didn't like the 'poverty caps" he had.He would give them back and install after church on sunday. This happened for a couple of years. TP

 

Funny this came up, when I first bought my '54 Ford it had "poverty caps" on it. One of my neighbors down the street saw the car and laughed at me and said "Whats the matter kid, can't you afford Hubcaps". He's a real cool guy and in his 80s, he said pretty much the same thing, that when these cars were new you'd NEVER want baby moons or Poverty caps.

 

Hey Man,,How do you think the best way to tell an unmarkred police car?????? Look at the hubcaps..for sure..

 

Poverty caps became desirable in the Muscle car restoration era of the 80s-90s. It was a new look that we all fell in love with.

We wanted 5 spokes or Ansen Sprints on our street cars in the 60s.

I had baby moons and beauty rings on my 58 Plymouth before the tags came from the DMV in 1964. Poverty caps were not a hot item in my part of the country at that time.

I'm building a street racer based 56 Ford with the early 60s vibe. I have them and thought about using them but it just wasn't seen that often back then. I'll be running the much more common American 5 spoke clones.

 

They were not a mark of shame, that is just some Sosch runnin' off at the head.

Most of the time the first thing that happened to any car that I owned was that the caps came off, it is just my style. But if I was running a full on sleeper and I could land a set of poverty caps to finish it off that was what happened as well.

 

Poverty caps usually came with the base model Biscayne, Belair, Ford Custom and so on. Less metal = lower cost. Back in the day, even whitewall tires were an option.

If you wanted full size wheel covers and whitewalls, it was probably an add-on option on the lower priced series of cars. And standard on the Impalas and Galaxies.

I always liked the sleeper look they conveyed.

Bob

 

My dad bought a '69 Roadrunner brand new, came with full wheelcovers, he pried them off the first day and ran the car with no hubcaps for 2 weeks until he could get to Prange Way and buy some Mickey Thompson branded mag wheels and tires.

I like the poverty cap look, but it's been 20+ years since they've fooled anyone into thinking "stocker 6 cylinder car". It's pretty obvious now that a 60's car with pov caps on it means business. If you really want to fool anyone, you run the full wheelcovers, NOBODY seems to want those anymore. It's either dog dishes or mags.

 

In my home area poverty caps on your car usually meant that it was a company car, you were cheap and wouldn't spring for "real hubcaps" or you were cheap and weren't a car guy and buying a new car to you was done with about the same excitement as buying a washing machine. The Salesman at Williams & Swanson Oldsmobile in Renton, Wa had a hemorrhage in late 1968 when I had my dad order a 69 Cutlass S with black walls, poverty caps and no shiny trim around the wheels. The car got a new set of chrome reverse wheels the second day I had it with about 75 miles on the clock.
For a young guy poverty caps were probably more of a sign that you were driving your parent's car than anything else. Pretty much like a teenager having to drive his folks tan so it doesn't show the dirt five year old Ford Taurus four door with plastic caps today.

 

I like em.

 

I ran them in the60's, and nobody bitched about them. I prefered them to the full wheel covers as those aways seemed to fall off sooner or later, and they wrecked the paint where the tabs touched the wheels. i also ran baby moons although they seemed to get dented easily and rusted out due to the crappy chrome on them.
However a lot of people ditched the stock wheels and tires for mags or chrome reveresed wheels and bigger tires, myself included.

 

Some guys preferred them and ran them with pride, including me. This was my NEW '57 Olds with '56 Olds poverty caps. I had the rims pinstriped and ran it that way for a year or two:



I eventually tried two different kinds of full wheel covers, but returned to the poverty caps in the end.

 

I run them on my road runner. I am consistently told by old timers that it would be a nice car with some better wheels.

That is usually the time the tell me about the guy they knew in high school that had a 454 hemi with a pistol grip in 1967, so I usually take it with a grain of salt....

 

What the above says is the answer.

 

In the fifties poverty caps were out and wheel-covers were in. In the early 60's, we pulled caps and wheel-covers off for the dragstrip,(required), and left them off. That way everyone knew that you were a serious drag racer.

 

Well, I bought and used baby moons and steelies while building my T because that's all I could afford. Then, I found the HAMB and discovered they had gotten cool. So..... poverty caps? Sure. On a side note, it's also the first thing 90's street rodders put on thier cars to look nostalgic. Too bad they clash with the pastel paint jobs.

 

Back in the day we liked black wheels with no hubcaps, baby moons, or chrome reverse. Now I really like poverty caps, especially on '57 Chev or Ford two door sedans and TBird's.

 

I have small caps on everything. I used to have rallys on my GTO but I got tired of them. I figured these were a better option than Torq Thrust II's, which were popular at the time.

Dave

 

I like them on the right cars. They didn't seem desireable in the 50's 'cause we all wanted spinners or Fiestas, Lancers, or chrome reverse, maybe Caddy Sombreros, but by the time all of the Super Stock Biscaynes and Lightweight Galaxies came along, it became pretty cool to have that "sleeper" look. They just work on some cars. How would a nicely restored or all original Roadrunner look with a set of spinners, kinda weird. To me it's all about the correct time period and theme the owner is trying to achieve. When we couldn't afford anything better, baby moons and perhaps trim rings looked pretty nice on those stock wheels. At least it gave the impression you were a "car guy" not just a regular "dork". Just my opining here, but then I like bench seats.

 

My folks never had top of the line or high hp cars, but they would always upgrate to white walls and full covers. I wish I still had that set of 53 Desoto discs! I certainly cleaned them enough to earn them. The ugrade just looked classier to them.

As I recall, custom covers were only seen on mild, street customs. Anything other than stock on a custom. As for plain steel, I think that look might have gotten the big boost because you couldn't race with them, in any form of amateur or pro motorsports, whether they were full covers or just dog dishes. And mags were always cooler than anything unless you had a custom. Most everyone with dog dishes just threw them away and got something better / classier / cooler / personal. Gary

 

I've always preferred hubcaps to wheelcovers. The exception being the '57 Plymouth spun aluminum ones. Always loved those wheelcovers.

 

I like em but my neighbor says they make my car look like his Grandpa's old car.

 

SQUABLOW-- has a good point, not fooling anyone into thinking your car is a sleeper running poverty caps. run full granny caps if you really want to throw em for a loop !!

 

Black steel wheels and dog dishes (never heard them called "poverty caps" until recently) have kinda been my thing lately. They have a practical look about them that I like, and I've gotten tired of seeing mags on everything. They're kind of the anti-mag.

Warning, OT car below.

 

As I recall my brothers stone stock from the factory 1969 Formula S Barracuda had what you guys are calling poverty caps and wide beauty rings. It was my job to take them off before he went to the drags with it.

 

Poverty caps or dog dishes rule. I have ditched dresser caps on several of my O/T rides in favor of dog dishes.

 

I think my dog dishes look as natural as the front and rear bench seat on/in my 65 Biscayne as they do on many other old cars.

Not about "sleeper" looks, or poverty, or some new fad in old cars...it is partially about money though so maybe it is a poverty thing. My dog dishes were around 10 bucks apiece versus the cost of mag wheels (nothing against mags, I have a set on my 59).