Hi All, Can anyone tell me of a way to lock hub caps on to prevent them from coming off on the highway? Thanks, Steve
I have baby moons on my A. 1st time out with them on, one goes frisbee on me. Luckily I seen it fly and picked it up. I realized the nubs on the rim weren’t big enough, so I grabbed my mig and added to the nubs size. Did a little light grinding to get them right and......viola, no more missing caps.
Only because paint doesn't like silicone and if for whatever reason you need to touch up paint etc. I just don't see the need to ask for trouble. It's not the end of the world. Silicone will do the job.
Knew of a 1970 LTD that lost 3 hubcaps on the right front wheel Was the wheel.. Are ya losin them on the same wheel or ?? Ricky.
Friend with '51 Ford PU that had a front hub cap come off at the same turn in the road ended up calling his regular cruises that he put on " The Flying Hub Cap Cruises"
5 on 5 on the Cad. I've taken and put a tad more angle on the teeth that grip the rim on a lot of hubcaps over the years, quite often on customers OT caps that were just a bit too easy to take off. I was driving down a road Thursday passing the spot where I lost one of my 57 Cad caps off My 51 Merc in the early 80's and never did find it, It came off the wheel and I watched it go into the weeds but spent an hour looking for it and couldn't find it. It had GM wheels on it rather than Merc wheels.
Get some channel locks and bend the backside lip all the way around, your cap should fit snugly then use a rubber mallet to tap them on. Should do the trick
I lost a custom Lancer cap a year ago. Looked up and down the field but with no success. Fortunately II had extra caps. I bent the prongs on the inside of the cap. Still the cap gets loose so I make sure they are tight each time I am going out. Maybe I should try some try some type of sealer.
Full wheel covers with the retaining prongs will stay put if you add a few strips of duct tape to the mating surface on the wheel. Won't do any harm to the paint and can be removed easily for a re-paint.
1951 Oldsmobile two door sedan Hello, When this color and style of sedan rolled into our driveway, it was a monumental moment. My brother had saved his money and had enough to buy this pale yellow 51 Oldsmobile sedan at age 15. Most of his teenage friends were 16, in the same high school grade and class. He was one of the only 15 year old kids during the time when most were driving their moms cars or had one of their own. Our dad and mom thought it was a bad idea, but our dad cosigned the registration. He did not contribute to the cost of the purchase. My brother had saved enough to buy it out right. Now, he could not drive it until age 16, but he could move it around our yard and neighborhood roadways. It was not far, but to the local auto parts store 2 blocks, the grocery store with our mom 6-7 blocks and and work 3 miles away. By the time he was a fully experienced driver, he had taught me as much about maintaining “his” car. I needed to get to a friend’s house, a basketball game across town and movies downtown in Long Beach. The 51 Oldsmobile was my ride if I helped maintain it with oil changes, tire rotating, changing spark plugs and being the “kid” who was responsible to change the hubcaps of those teenage hot rods and sedans to other cars that came over to our house weekly. The thing was to see those teenage cars with a variety of hubcap choices as they were less expensive than chrome reversed rims. So, I was getting good at not scratching them when one Oldsmobile flipper hubcap set went on a 56 Chevy or the 34 Ford 5 window coupe. Their hubcaps, whatever it was were also moved around on various rims on different cars. Jnaki When my brother finally bought a set of Oldsmobile three prong flippers, it looked great. Rolling down the street made the commotion on all sides of the Oldsmobile sedan. so, we drove around with those flippers. But, sometimes, the one hubcap would go rolling down the street and hop up on the curb. We tried all sorts of ways to keep them in place. Bending the flanges, tape to make them a tighter fit, etc. We even tried the advertised wheel cover locks as advertised in the J.C. Whitney catalog. They were also sold at custom chrome shops and Pep Boys. So, they worked as advertised for many road miles. But, for some reason, when I was in the passenger seat, one hubcap seem to come off while turning a corner. They did not roll away, they were wired to the lug nuts and kept the hubcap on the rolling wheel. It made for some hilarious adventures as an instant curb pull over was necessary. At least we knew where the hubcap was and most of the time the hubcap was undamaged. But other times when access to the curb was not readily available due to lane choices, the attached hubcap got damaged as it was wired and flopped over and dragged on the street. Some folks still used the newer designs to do the same thing from the 50s. So, what was the answer for my brother and his multiple flipper hubcap adventures? He bought some screw in Moon Spun Aluminum Discs, that I had to install with a drill and screwdriver. Now, those are not going to come off or get lost rolling down the highway. YRMV It was the Pale Yellow for a year or so. Then prior to selling it to a friend, he had painted it Lime Green. The same screw-in Moon Spun Aluminum Discs. an alternate choice…
A lot of the time the caps come off because of wheel flex, caused by radial tires on a wheel designed for bias ply tires. There are work arounds as mentioned above, but the best fix is new wheels.
This same subject has been discussed on the Studebaker Drivers Club and is in perfect alignment with @BJR's post. Wheel flex could be a killer.
I have seen a lot of old movies made prior to those horrid radial things, and all of the cars loose hubcaps during a police chase. You can try, but you can't argue with TV or the Internet.
Only car I ever lost one on was the '71 LTD I had in high school, of course I drove it like I was Gator McClusky.
In the old days dad would take the caps off at the drag strip. The 59 olds was often used as a push car and follow the rail down the strip at a good clip. You can see it in the background. I would ride with him no seat belt standing on the front seat floor chin on the dash. That olds could fly.
This started from finding a few of others lost hub caps/ wheel covers. The pics are a couple of years old. It’s even worse now!
I gave up trying to keep hubcaps on the Wheel Vintiqes steelies on the front of the roadster and put Spiders on it. The little nubs on the center evidently aren't quite pronounced enough to hold the dog dish style caps I have. The original Ford wheels on the rear have much more defined hold down lugs. It's not from cornering, because they'd fly off going absolutely straight down the road.
That's interesting. I had my caps on my GMC modified by wheelsmith to have the correct ring on them. My wheels are wheel vintiques and have big bumps on them and the caps are extremely secure. My wheels were built in 2012. I wonder if the bump size was changed over time or it was something else?
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