History Opinions: Poverty Caps

I found a set of steel rims so my 55 sunliner now has the original poverty caps that it was ordered with,now I need to get off my *** and paint the doors this winter.

 

IMHO > Being a guy that pretty much always preferred "MAGS" such as 5 spokes, Halibrands, Real Wheels, Etc, Etc....I like poverty/dog dish on some cars (especially 57 chevs) as I think that is a very good looking cap)>>>I just picked up a 55 Chevy last week with stock "poverty" caps (10 inch wide rear wheels) but trying to resist the urge to put on some old early E-T 15 x 10 early straight spokes.
REALLY, TO EACH, THEIR OWN. ITS THEIR CAR.

 

Wheelguy, nice 55. We've called them dog dishes and poverty caps. Anyone else heard them called Police Caps?

Gary

 

The only police caps I know of were the flat canter caps for chevy ralleye wheels...my old 55 Pontiac wagon with 49 Pontiac caps on stock wheels..loved 'em!

 

I guess you could say I like dog dish caps

 

Gman0046 / Gary, THANKS.
Yeah, I'm almost 72 and we usually called them "dog dish", then "police caps" sometimes, and now "poverty caps" sometimes.. Any way, they are the same old caps, just NOT as CHEAP as they used to be.

 

I personally like them, but only on certain cars, with a certain look. Example: a 56 Chevrolet Bel Air 2 door hardtop-NO; a 56 Chevrolet, 150 Utility sedan, and mounted on chrome reverse wheels-100% YES! Not a fan at all of full wheel covers on anything. The more plain, the better. JMO. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

I have two outta four of the original caps for my 1948 Mercury, if anyone has one or two floating around gimme a holler! I'd like to run 'em!

 

That 55 originally a 150 model with added 210 side trim? Does the VIN start in a "A"? Nice looking car, and the color is close to my 56 Sedan Delivery. Chrome reverse wheels and the stock hub caps would really set it off, IMO.
I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

...don't care what ya call em, I've always preferred em over full wheelcovers...

 

I'll tell you about goofy, in the spring of 67 my buddy bought a brand new SS396 Chevelle. It had the cheap small hubcaps and white stripe wide ovals. He had a set of Dodge Lancer 4 bar flippers that he put on that new Chevelle! He got a load of **** from me and everyone else, finally bugged him enough that he put a set of Keystone 5 spokes on it!
P.S. I just last year asked him what ever happened to the Lancers, he said he put a heavy coat of wax on them and they went in his moms attic, he had just found them when she p***ed away . Next day he came over and handed them to me, he said I had give him such a hard time about running them on his Chevelle I should live with the curse of owning them. We sat around and shot the **** about the old days, drank some hootch and wished we were 18 again!!

 

I called 'em 'Cop Caps'. Of course, with my generous Police Humor, I also called doughnuts 'Cop Cakes'!
I had a large clientele of Police officers with Porsches, most were friends, and liked my humor...or said they did.

 

Our 1961 Chevy Biscayne was about as basic as they came. Power nothing, 235 six with no oil filter, three on the tree which would hang up between first and second gear during power shifts, no radio, black asphalt floor mats, poverty caps with genuine blackwall tires and a p***enger door that wouldn't stay closed when the temperature was below 31 degrees. The only thing it had going for it was that it was a two-door.

When we became a two car family in 1965, I was ***igned as the part time driver of the Biscayne with my mother. One of the first things I did was order a set of Portawalls from J. C Whitney, installed them and took off the poverty caps.

My father had this unreasonable opinion that cars should remain exactly the way they came from the factory and the installation of any after market parts were on par with Snake Oil and had no place on an automobile.

My father was away on a business trip and when he came home and saw that the Biscayne had some changes, he called me to come outside as he wanted to tell me something. It was never a good thing when my father wanted to "tell me something." He pointed to the wheels and the lack of what he said were properly called "hub caps." He calmly told me that the hub caps were installed for a reason and should be on the vehicle to protect the nuts.

"Oh," I said, "they protect the lug nuts?"

"Yes. And they will also protect your nuts from getting kicked by me if they aren't on there before you drive the car again."

Dads just have a way of getting their message across...

 

1955: When I built my first roadster, ('30 channeled over '32 rails) I couldn't imagine anything more 'hot rod' than reversed '48 Merc wheels and 'Baldies'. ('Baby Moons'; Hot Rod magazine feature editors coined 'em 'baldies', so that was the real deal!)
My buds were building hot rods then, (most everything we did was channeled...Ramsay, Stu, and Ronny had channeled 'A' Coupes...Ramsay and Stu had 16" steel wheels, '41 type, 4.5" wide. Ronny had reversed '50 Mercs, with '50 Merc caps ("Ash Cans"!) Lynn channeled a '34 five window, and reversed rears with 'baldies'.
Someone discovered the trailer sales over by the McDonald's, all the trailers had 'Baldies'! The real ones, on the 4 internal nubs! Hot rod caps...exclusive! They fit the Ford steelies, as the trailers had a wheel standard then. They used International pickup wheels, for the standard 4.5" pattern. International wheels have centers like early Fords, only with 4.5" pattern. Both 15" and 16".
I came into a '46 Ford Tudor, gifted to me by a friend's Dad, for doing an engine swap for his son.
When I got the '46, it was a stocker, had 16" wheels with porta-walls, no caps. In the trunk were the original 'Poverty' caps...they had faded red paint in the hashes, caps were mint. I painted the hashes and script black, reversed a set of '48 Merc 15s, in Buick outers. 8.20s rear, 6.40 fronts. Whitewalls. Those caps looked 'husky' in the deep tapered wheels, guys at school were impressed. (this was 1958)

I always used small caps and reversed wheels.
(my pal Don Serventi and I went to San Jose Tech in '57-'59, took Machine Shop, and were reversing wheels on a 'crash schedule'! Cheaper than chrome wheels, so we had a thriving biz, run out of the trunks of Don's '56 Chevy and my '46 Tudor!)
By then, Urzi's Custom Auto Supply carried "Baby Moons", so guys were using them on our "Dumped Rims"...
All thru the '60s, around Santa Clara/San Jose the 'Street Racers' (raised-up Tri-5 Chevies wore reversed, widened wheels and small caps..."Made 'em look 'businesslike'." )

 

So did some of those MacDonalds baby caps somehow end up on your and your buddies cars? You can say the statute of limitations has long since p***ed.

 

To Butch/56 sedan delivery
No, its not an original 150, actually a 210 with some trim eliminated.
Its got every outside piece replaced.> grille, emblems, handles, bumpers, etc.
Its got 10 inch wheels on the back and I've got an old pair of 15 x 10 E-T 5 spokes I'm thinking about pairing up with some old 15 x 6 five spokes for it next spring if I still have the car then.

 

The term "Poverty Caps" should be outlawed. It's dumb.

 

it is P.C.

 

luke doolin's "50".

 

We always called them "dog dishes".

 

That's it!

 

Bottle caps in the eastern side of the country.

 

I never even heard of the term "poverty caps" until I went to look for a set of "bottle caps" for my 38! Who knew...

 

Oh, yeah...I had probably 5 sets, we used to cruise 'Youth Village', and do it in 2nd gear, so it looked/sounded like we were racing. Then we'd get close, wheel-to-wheel, and bump caps. (like John Ashley did in 'Hot Rod Gang'!)
We destroyed more Baldies than we could count. I was 'bumping' with Wimpy's chopped Deuce 5 window, Ramsay's channeled 'A' Coupe, and Stu's channeled 'A' Coupe...we were the "Joey Chitwood Group" on 4 wheels.
But Wimpy got tangled up (open wheels) one night in a turn and climbed my wheels on my right side...I looked and saw Wimpy's floorboards, wheels in the air...seemed like a week.
Then he crashed down, outa shape, fishtailed a little, then we straightened out. A San Jose 'Blue-and-white' was behind us, gave chase...Wimpy turned left on Park Ave and I turned right. The cop went straight, brakes locked up.
We vanished...
Baldy caps were cool. Expendable. Replaceable. And they were CHROME!