When I bought my 1956 Merc Monterey Station Wagon, it came to me with 4 Merc Man hub caps. There were three different styles 2 of one style and 2 separate styles. To the best of my knowledge the Monterey Wagons came with the one year only 4 bar spinner caps. I am curious what years and what different styles the Mercury Man caps were issued. The first and last images are different styles. The ring around Merc man is a distinctly different size
The one with no ring around the Mercury Man is '54. The two caps with the ring around the Mercury Man are '55's.
The two with rings are different from each other. The rings do not share the same dimensions. The ring on the "red" one is wider. ( I checked it with a caliper )
The mystery deepens ! I remembered that I have a 1956 Mercury Wagon sales brochure. Mercury offered 2 models of their stationwagon in 1956. Both the Custom and the Monterey are depicted with the hubcap shown below. The 4 bar spinner cap apparently was an option. I apologise for the lack of clarity of the image. My scanner is down so I had to take a picture. However the image is clear enough to see the concentric rings that surround the the Mercury Man. That makes a total of four iterations of this cap. Perhaps there were two manufactures. That could explain the minor difference that I noted in my previous post.
I have never really studied which ones were on what, but do have a set that appear to be like your top photo on my sons Edsel.
Cool Guthriesmith ! Interesting back story on my "collection"....... I chased my 56 Monterey wagon for 13 years. Don, the PO lives near Winnipeg Manitoba. I first saw the car at back to the 50's . It was completely stock. Dennis Gage of My Cl***ic car autographed the fire wall. Don and his brother pulle the 312 in order to "detail " the engine compartment. During the process, the engine somehow dropped to the floor. The vibration damper was destroyed. At that point the car underwent a rest-mod . 351M/C6, leather interior, Cragar Mags. Don sold the one year only 4 bar spinners . I bought the car in 2021. I told Don that I would much rather have the 4-bars than the Cragars. This was the height of Covid. I live 700 miles south in Wisconsin. The deal was consummated on the phone. The car showed up with the 3 different style Mercury Man caps ( two of the caps were the same style) . The 4 bar spinners are reproduced and the car now wears a set. My curiosity is still on fire. The white Mercury Man caps were worn by the '56 Mercs. One of the caps that I have had some patches of white . The red caps have a coating that appears to be anodizing or some other type of plating. My guess would be that that cap might be 57 ?
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