I’m working on a 61 Falcon Sedan Delivery, I have some original dog dish hub caps I want to run, but they were normally put in 13in wheels. I want to run some OEM steel type 14inch wheels. 14 inch wheels with the right size “hub” for the original hub caps is hard to find. I have some wheels with a small hub, maybe they are from an old Dodge, I’m not sure, but I was thinking about making some small metal bosses, or “bumps” and tig wheel them to the wheel center in the right diameter for the hubcaps to hold on it. Has anyone have a better idea, or has done something like this? I was even thinking about using the old clips like some cars had to hold hold on the hubcaps. Any tips or help would be appreciated.
you can make the bumps from 1/4-28 socket head cap screws. drill and tap 3 holes into the rim in a manner that the heads of the bolts act as the bumps to hold the cap. I have seen this done on a Merc . The bolts are screwed in with about 1/4" gap between the head and the rim, The trick is picking the diameter for the inside edge of the cap to determine the circle pattern to place the bolts in the rim.
Aren't the 13" dog dish caps the same diameter as the caps for 14" wheels ? There were/are 14" 4 lug Ford wheels out there........used on later Falcons and Mustangs. Yes, you can adapt caps to wheels, as mentioned above, but if you need 14" wheels anyway, why not the correct ones? 4 lug Dodge wheels may have a different bolt circle diameter....not sure about that. Ray
Yes, the old Ford caps are the same on 13" and 14" wheels.... do don't go and reinvent the wheel. I had a '65 Falcon and '64 Galaxie at the same time and the poverty caps were the same.
Just dreamin here and it would be a real long shot but it would be cool if your 14 inch hoops had the same inside diameter as the 13s centers outside diameter and you could change and reverse em at the same time for a little more dish, (I like a little dish). I had a friend that had some wider hoops put on some factory olds cutl*** wheels once.
Falcon 4 lug wheels in both 13" and 14" have nubs for an approximate 9-1/8" inside lip diameter hubcap. 14" wheels were used on 6 cylinder Rancheros and Comets both starting in 64 at least through 65, and early 6 cylinder Mustangs, all will work with your original caps. If you have converted to 5 lug wheels you will have to go the small cap Chrysler wheels (same 5 on 4.5" pattern) and do something similar to what Davyj has suggested (one I'll remember, a really good idea) since essentially all 5 lug 14" wheels Ford made in the 50s and 60s have nubs for a 10-3/16" hubcap.
Thanks for the tip. I like the idea of using the socket head cap screws. I think I would make something like a drilling jig to center the holes on the wheels. I did convert to 5 lugs and like NMCarNut mentioned all the 14in 5lug wheels I could find are for the larger 10in hubcaps.
...didnt know you had converted to 5 lug, just curious, why did you convert to 5 lug if you were gonna run the dog dish caps? Change of heart after the fact or? Heres a neat little adverti*****t I ran across, just for inspiration. but since you already have the 5 lug, heres some inspiration for a wicked lookin style that a delivery would look good in.
off topic but nice mav by the way, Ive owned 3 in years past 2 of em grabbers heres one of em, hopefully the mods will let this one little pic slide as long as we dont get into a conversation about em.
I bought as a project car and previous owner had started the 5lug conversion and I just finished it. It has a 260 and thought the 5 lug would fit better anyways. I was thinking about putting Torque Thrust D wheels on it, but for now I'm going with the dog dishes. The picture of the white Falcon looks similar to mine.
Here is an alternative you might consider since the 5 lug Ford wheels are easy to find (around here at least) and that is using caps off a 60 full sized Ford. The appearance is pretty similar:
The Jalopy Journal
