Ultra RARE !...... 1957 "FOBD" .... Yes I said FOBD !

I have been exceptionally fortunate over the years finding unusual car related items,..... But this one just blue me away ! It's something I'll never part with (although I have tried for 20 years)...... This is the story.

About 20 years ago I bought a 1957 Ford Custom 300 from Mississippi,... really tight car 312, Ford-o-matic A rust free car. with a lot of extra parts in the trunk, including a unopened box from J.C. Whitney with a 1966 post mark on it.... What could it be ?????,.... Why it could be ANYTHING in that box !

My mind was racing as I carefully Cut through the nylon reinforced paper packaging tape,..... opener the box and remover the old newspaper packing to uncover what I thought was just a pair of 1957 Ford wheel covers,..... But ! something was amiss ...... But what could it be ?... As I looked at the center bullet of the cap it looked more like the shape of a "Hostess Snowball cake"......
And on even closer inspection I was totally blown away !!!!!

What I held in my trembling hands was not the mundane 1957 Ford wheel covers as I had once thought !........ They were in fact the ultra rare "1957 FOBD" wheel covers !!!!!

Now I had a friend that had once been lucky enough to have receiver a full set of hub caps for his 1941 Buick from J.C. Whitney that actually were the ultra rare 1941 "Boick" caps,.... But never dreamed in my wildest imagination that such a honor would be bestowed on me !!!!!

So.... For the last 20 years these rare FOBD wheel covers have gone with me all over the country and have never left my sight ..... Every Swap Meet.... People pick them up,.... look at them and say "Hey !,.... These here things don't say Ford !?!?!?!",... As they set them back down and walk away...... People so ignorant they had no idea they were just in the presence of greatness!......

Well once again they had made the trek with me to K-Zoo,... and once again the great unwashed fondled the caps, picked them up,... put them down and walked away.... Some laughing, some scratching there heads,... But all saying "Hey buddy,..... "these here caps dont say Ford they say......." And then they try to pronounce it,.... in the 3,587 times I have herd people try to pronounce it,.... It's never been the same twice.....

Well I thought I would share these very rare items with my pals on the Jalopy Journal,.... and seeings this is the HAMB,... And I wanted to make a good impression,... I found the cleanest rag in the back of my truck to wipe one off before I took a picture to share..... (The lengths I won't go to to impress my HAMB family)...... Well here they are in all there glory ! Just for all of youzzzzzz....

So How about it ?,... do you have any ultra rare parts that were replacements from J.C. Whitney that is spelled a little off ?..... lets see them.

As for these little boogers,... they are officially off the swap meet "for sale" list....... I finally decided after 20 years I'm gonna keep them... I really didn't need the 20 bucks I had been asking for them anyway..... I finally decided... If nobody wants to by them,... well dang it!,.. I won't sell them to em ' !!!!!

 

I don't think it's photoshop...some hubcap manufacturers actually made hubcaps that didn't use the actual manufacturer's name on them to get around the copyright (or whatever) laws back then...my friend has some hubcaps that say "Bwick" on them and I've heard stories of why they are that way...

R-

 

As diligent as Ford is in trademark enforcement, I wonder if such measures would survive a law suit today?

 

Built FOBD TQUGH!

 

Fix Or Bury Daily

 

At HRCC when I was there, we had a 41 Studebaker coupe come in with a center cap that instead of saying "Studebaker" said "Stuuuuuuu", and another that said "SSSSSSSSSSS" with the Studebaker style lettering. Cool stuff.

 

First On Birth Day

 

^ ^ ^ Bwaaaa Ha Ha Ha Ho Ho Ho He He He Ha Ha Ha ^ ^ ^

 

I've seen the Model A Ford Bool and Fool caps, must have been made by the same company. Bob

 

I would put them in a gl*** frame and hang it as wall art.

I knew this guy (cheap fkcu...) who had a new Subaru and bought some new floor mats at a local discount house. He was as proud as a pea**** of them until I pointed out they were lettered as SABURU. He was livid, lol.

Bob

 

Seems like I remember years ago that some of the early reproduction Ford stuff actually spelled out FOOL in Ford Style script. Back in the 60's and 70s used to see them all of the time particularly on J.C. Whitney stuff.

 

Man, I'd LOVE to find a set of "Fool" caps to fit '35 wires!

 

Lovin J.C.Whitney. If I sqaw those at a swap, I'd ******ed em up PDQ.
I have an affinity for slightly messed up stuff. I bought a shirt once that some one loaded the material backwards on the loom.
Bright on the inside, faded on the outside.

 

That's a lot of excitement over some JC Whitney novelty items......

 

I have a 65 Impala SS spinner cap that came on my brother's 65 Impala...instead of SS it has 88. Finally found my brother a 'real' 65 cap to match the other ones and swapped him for the JC 88 cap.

 

saw a '51-52 Buick repro upper grill bar on Ebay written Buicck

 

bought some caps for my 36' plymouth years back "new in box" and after if put them on found out they actually didn't say "plymouth" buy "you just got screwed again"!

 

what I see is the ribs in the stamping of the actual cap. looks like that inner rib runs through the bottom of the "R". either on purpose or not, the paint was removed to make it seem to make it a "B"...

 

Nowadays all you need to do is buy some cheap parts made in China, no telling what they will say. You would likely need an interpreter to read the Chinglish instruction sheet anyways.

 

Buuuk hub cap.

 

You CLEARLY missed the satire. Sad, it was SOOO well written!

Great thread, loved reading it!

 

I have afew for the Model A wheels, but have not seen them for the 32-35 wheels lately. Rod

 

Well,... I live in a very small town in northern Mi. It's kind of boring up here so when somebody is cutting there gr***,.. the entire town shows up to watch...... But this town is so boring that one day.... The tide went out,.... And never came back.

 

On one of my Ford Work vans a few years ago the hubcaps were aftermarket, looked just like originals but had 7 evenly spaced fake lug nuts instead of 8. Wouldn't notice until you really looked at them.

 

got a full set for my 1949 Chevy. in the center rather than a Chevrolet bow tie, it is just a rectangle.

seen 1940 Ford ones that say "The Deluxe"

I think they are cool. very hard to find.

 

Those are the old JC Whitney special "FOBD" caps. To get around paying for licensing, they changed a letter.

 

They also sold Dogde, DeSato, Chyrsler, Plymooth, Chebrolet, Pnotiac, Nosh, Hodsun, etc.

 

A little O/T but I bought these VW caps at swap meet years ago for $5.00 new in the box. Instead of VW they say VV.

 

Back around 1969 my dad found a complete set of "Bruick" hubcaps at a swap meet.