I have nine '51-53 Oldsmobile hubcaps, because I bought a couple sets to get the nice ones. I just noticed that 5 of them have one lip style and the other 4 have another. They all say Lyons and PATENTED on them, and WHEEL COVER so they are all legit GM caps and not repro. If you look carefully at the photo you can see that the one on the right has a rolled, almost flat outer lip while the one on the left does not. All nine are otherwise identical. Anyone have any idea how or why these caps have very slightly different edges but are otherwise the same? *And yes, I know they are "wheel covers" but I grew up calling them hubcaps so as far as I'm concerned Pluto is still a planet and shiny discs for wheels are hubcaps. Sent from my SM-G981V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Being also a coin collector, I'm aware of stamping "die variations" in some series of coins...I think hubcaps may suffer the same fate. I imagine GM had several stamping machines and ordered/made several sets of dies for each machine. As production goes on, these dies wear out...the more intricate the design, the faster they wear. If they have worn out all the dies before the production run is over, they will "touch up" and re-polish the old dies to get more units out of them. Your odd cap is probably a later run on a re-worked die set Just like coins, the earliest run on a set of dies creates the "crispest" stamping.
I thought Lyons was an aftermarket supplier of wheel covers. I doubt that GM would have used their name if they were OEM.
This.... Yes, Lyons was an aftermarket supplier and a big part of their business was car lots. While we know them here mostly for their custom wheelcovers, their bread and butter was stock-style replacements for missing expensive OEM covers. They were never exact replacements because of copyright laws, just 'similar'.
@atomickustom Please post a picture of the center portion of the hubcaps. It will be interesting to se how close the center design is to "real" Olds caps.
These are not aftermarket caps, fellas: Lyons manufactured for GM and every other car company in the 1950s. Pretty much every cap I own has Lyons stamped in it somewhere! I'm sure hotrodjack33 is right: reworked stampings. The centers are all identical, it's the outer lips that are different. Sent from my SM-G981V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
You could still be looking at the difference between OEM and aftermarket. I wasn't aware that Lyons was a OEM supplier, but they also had a large aftermarket presence. Anything they would have built for the OEMs would have been exclusively for them, not something they would have been able to sell outside of the OEM parts networks. But make a few minor changes and it's no longer a 'exact replacement', only 'similar', so Lyons would be free to retail them. You would have to know the details of Lyons contracts with the OEMs as to what was allowable for aftermarket retail. Generally speaking, 'artwork' like the crest wouldn't be 'protected' (with some exceptions, the Bowtie for one), but lettering was. Put a Ford-shaped oval on a cap, no problem. But write Ford anywhere without a licensing deal and you're in trouble. There's always been a market for aftermarket replacement parts, but unless they were licensed, they weren't exact copies. If there's a GM part number on each one, that would clarify this but lacking that it's guesswork...
I just looked again and I don't see any part numbers. However, the center emblems are identical and I'm pretty sure that would be the part GM would be concerned about. However, I did realize that one says "PATENTS PENDING" and the other says "PATENDED" so I believe Olds actually made the change on purpose between 1950 and 1953. The ones with the fatter, rolled lip are a lot easier to get on without damage to the edge, so that could explain the change? I just thought it was odd that otherwise identical covers actually aren't quite identical. Now that I know what to look for I can see both styles on my wall and for sale on eBay. Sent from my SM-G981V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
If one style is easier to install without damage, it may have been a running change to address that very issue. Not unusual for any manufacturer to make a running change in a part halfway through a model year.
Read this thread with interest. I have six wheel covers from a 1957 Plymouth that I bought at a yard sale for a dollar apiece. I noticed that four of them have one style of retaining clip and the other two a different style. I will have to check them out tomorrow and take some pictures and see if they are marked.
Now that you mention it, there are at least two styles of '49-50 Lincoln caps as well. Some have a solid band and some have more typical caps. But they look identical when installed. I guess minor revisions were a common thing back then! Sent from my SM-G981V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
No sure about GM, but I did find out that Plymouth used a couple of different vendors for hubcaps in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s so there are slight differences. Took me a while to assemble a nice set that matched.
...and now that I have noticed the difference it is driving me crazy!! I look at the one on the passenger side like "why can't you be more like your twin?" I may wind up swapping out for some other caps. I don't think I'm OCD but this has triggered something in me. Sent from my SM-G981V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I have NOS hubcaps for my 46 Olds, however I noticed a slight variation between my original 46s & the spare 47s and the number of ribs on the outer circumference; 3 on one and 4 on another? Very minor however not that discernible unless it was pointed out. The NOS 46 caps are all the same match the OEM 46 caps. I'm still learning about all the little idiosyncrasies.
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