Art & Inspiration Show me 50's and 60's(to 1964) cars with dog dish hubcaps

My '49 wearing it's stock povo caps.
I had intended to run '43/4 Olds caps but no amount of swearing would keep them on so I relented and it wore the stock caps the entire time I owned it.

 

prefer these to my full discs or wires hung them on wall

 

Not mine... ** clic pic**

 

There's just something more sinister and mysterious about a car with black walls and steel wheels with poverty caps. Makes you wonder....just what is under the hood. Is this a grocery getter or an asphalt terror?

 

...and at other times...

 

My old ‘64.

 

Beautiful. The color is great!

 

Very nice!

 

Early T birds look great when modified. They make great Hotrods, or customs.

 

My '51, my wife and my grandson Kenny Jr. Kid is a car NUT! Pic is a few years old, he is 7 now.

 

Local 1956 FJ Holden (GM). Wagon is coach built and not factory GMH only produced utes, sedan delivery (Panel van) and sedans

 

4 ladies going out for a shopping spree. Westside Long Beach 1957

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fD1VUiAjrw


Hello,

Small “dog dish” hubcaps were standard equipment on a lot of factory stock cars from the 50s and 60s. But, they weren’t called “poverty caps” or “dog dish” caps until much later. They were simply called: small center hubcaps. The term “poverty” could have come from the idea that those people could not afford the full dish hubcaps and the flashy accessories of the models above the basic cars on the dealer ordering lists.

But, as custom touches go, those choices fell by the wayside to custom chrome wheels, wire spoke wheels, and finally mag wheels. The business cars from the factory were usually the ones with small dish hubcaps as standard equipment. In 1958, one of our neighbors bought a Chevy Delray, strictly for daily driving to work. He did not need tons of chrome, big motor, or flashy hubcaps. It was a businessman’s reliable daily transportation.

“Befitting its bottom-end status, the Delray had minimal interior and exterior trim and limited options. As such, this model was popular with fleet buyers such as police departments and businesses. However, private customers could also buy a Delray if low price, economy and basic all-around transportation with the convenience of a full-size automobile were the primary goals.”

That cool businessman’s car had something that even the 58 Impala with the big 348 motor and 2 door cruising/hot rod look couldn’t match, the simplicity of a reliable driver. Not that a high end Impala was not reliable, our cars, just needed more “extras.” The Delray was a gas and go type of car. The Delray came with small center hubcaps on usually color matched wheels with blackwalls. The Impala came with huge hubcaps with the standard whitewalls.

Even our cousin had a 56 Chevy white-walled, hardtop sedan with small dish hubcaps.
58-56 Chevy sedans going to a wedding...

For us, those huge full size hubcaps were the first to go. At the drags, it was originally, “pop the hubcaps and go racing.” We skipped that step and left them at home, eventually selling them to a friend, later on in the year. Over the years of ownership, the 58 Impala took on the look of small dish hubcaps on black rims/ whitewalls, on silver rims, and black rims. The Impala took center stage with the small hubcaps, added beauty trim rings in high school, then took a break during the Buick Skylark, wire wheel stage and finally back to black on black until sold in 1965.

During high school, the minimalist look of blackwalls, black rims and small Chevy dish hubcaps took the center stage. When I was able to afford the Chevy slotted beauty trim rings, that was the final 58 Impala look in high school.


Thanks, Moose, Finally ending up with the Skylarks and the black on black look in 1964.

Jnaki

But, the topper of all time came in June of 1962. We helped our friend select his first car. It was a whopper of a car. A 1962 red Chevy Biscayne with blackwalls and small dish hubcaps from the dealer’s showroom floor.

It had the look of the era correct street race car, with a big 409 and 4 speed as part of the package. It looked like a mild, meek businessman’s sedan for daily driving. But the big 409 gave other options for daily cruising. This was the fastest car in Bixby Knolls by far. The look said it best, small hubcaps and all… This look and that small 409 emblem kept all comers at bay for several years.

 

I'll play... here is my Lark

 

My 57'

 

Hello,

So Cal has plenty of people driving their old hot rods, customs and trucks on a daily basis. This For F100 truck had just parked in a big box store parking lot and both the wife and husband were rushing off for the latest project parts inside. I had to wait until they left, so I could snoop for some quick photos. The color light baby blue is strong enough to stand our among the non-colorful cars and trucks in the big parking lot.

When we came outside, it was still there and we could see it stand out from the far away door. In a field of white and black “normal” cars, it was pretty nice to see the light blue truck. It was a reminder of parking in the lot at the old 1959 Dooley’s Hardware store parking lot and seeing all of the hot rods, trucks and station wagons. That was the only “big box” store around our extended neighborhood. No big project started without a trip to Dooley’s in North Long Beach.

Jnaki

That light blue color on the F100 truck was a stand out. Ever since we wore navy blue nylon jackets/blue Levis in 1955-65 era, the color blue is one of my favorites. A blue El Camino, a blue Harley sportster, a series of blue tinted single/twin fin/tri fin surfboards, lots of blue t shirts, and a blue Madras shirt.. There is even a light blue dress shirt gathering dust in our closet.

But, this blue Ford truck was a reminder of what the 50’s mild custom trucks looked like during our high school cruising days. They were even used as push trucks at Lions, too.
Lindley/Hampton FED

B/G red Willys :55
58 Impala NEAR light blue ford F100 of the Pittman/ Edwards B/G red Willys, on the return road.