The purple people eater is slowly disintegrating

[thebelvedereman]

Hit a large pothole on the way home from the car show on Sunday and lost a hubcap I was in heavy traffic,  and couldn't pull over, I got home as fast as I could and grabbed my Jeep and went back,  but couldn't find it,  it's probably stuck in some ones grille or oil pan LOL !!!!!!

[thebelvedereman]

 so now I've lost a piece of cowl molding and a hubcap going to car shows

[Merle Coggins]

I lost a hub cap on I-94 in Michigan a few years ago. I was on my way to the Detroit area for a WPC meet, in a construction zone, just crossed a rumble strip due to a lane shift. I heard a noise, looked in the mirror, and saw the hub cap spinning along behind me. It eventually hit the concrete wall separating oncoming traffic, then I couldn't see it any longer. There was no place to stop in the construction zone so I had to keep going. I had to go the rest of the week at the WPC meet, and show, with a missing cap. I took the other 3 off for the drive home. Luckily I had a spare at home that I could clean up and put on once home.

[dpollo]

In 1939, the Royal tour across Canada had 3 "39 McLaughlin Buick limousines ( parade phaetons ) very heavy with truck style rims and special hub caps which looked like regular Buick Caps. Only 3 of these  cars were made and since they had side mounted spares there would have been 18 such caps in all.  One car  lost a hub cap on the cross Canada trip.  I first saw this car in 1958 when its owner brought it our for participation in another royal tour on Vancouver Island.  It was missing one cap.   Many years later (maybe 50) the missing cap turned up at a swap meet but was found to be too large for the regular Buick.  The purchaser knew what it was for, the current owner of the limo was contacted and the cap reunited. It had hung on someone's barn wall for most of the time it was missing.

So there is hope for your missing cap to be returned however, D24 caps are easy to get.  I have several sets on my wall.

[Young Ed]

I have seen advice somewhere-possibly someone on this forum to take a sharpie and write your cell # inside the hubcaps. Then you can hope the finder will give you a call. 

[busycoupe]

About 5 yrs ago my wife and I were driving with a group of 4 or 5 other couples out. For an afternoon lunch in our old cars.  Suddenly I heard an odd noise and looked in the rear view mirror in time to see a hub cap spin off into the weeds on the side of the road. I couldn’t stop quick because of our group caravan, but made careful note of where we were on the road.  When we got to our lunch stop I discovered that the steel inner hubcap was still on the car. Only the stainless steel skin had come off.  Later, after we had returned home, I went back and found the hubcap skin about 50 ft off the road in some trees.  I later epoxied the skin back in place. It has been on the car ever since.

[PT81Jan]

Ohh, this painfully remembers me to a test ride with my almost 80 year old flathead motorcycle.

I had problems to get my freshly rebuilt carburetor properly adjusted. On the felt 100th test-ride I heard a slight popp. As if by magic the engine ran perfect.

Was super glad, went home ... and saw that I had lost the cover of the air-cleaner housing (not just a cover - more a sheet metal housing with louvers and embossed maintenance inscription). Damn ...

So I quickly drove back to the place where I heard that popp. Just one Mile. And just before I arrived that place I saw the cover laying on the road, so near ...

... but I also saw a car coming from the opposite direction. Nooo, not ... I again heard a popp and another popp... The tires of the car exactly met the cover which then was flat like a tin can which got under the foot of an elephant ... I could have howled.

Today I can laugh about it ... and isn`t that and the posts above the stuff that we have forever in mind and tell each other at the campfire ?!! 

[Dan Hiebert]

We were driving along Tonawanda Creek in western NY on a sunny Sunday a few years ago and crossed a rough patch in the road.  Wife said she saw something rolling alongside the car, keeping up with us, into someone's spring thaw flooded yard.  Turned out to be our right rear hubcap.  No noise or anything, just the Missus admiring the scenery and seeing the hubcap, I would have had to retrace the whole route to find it, if it hadn't been for that.  Luckily we retrieved it with nothing but soggy shoes to show for it.  I had rotated the tires, but not the hubcaps.  For some reason, that particular hubcap would only stay on one particular rim.  Now I keep the hubcaps matched up to a rim.  I've acquired a couple of extras along the way, better to have them and not need them, than need them and not have them.  (Although they do look good hanging on the shop walls.)

[DonaldSmith]

My hubcap story, told before. 

Hubcap lost on the way to a DeSoto convention.  Passersby saw it, and called out, so I knew generally where to look.  Scoured the area several times afterwards, no luck. 

Months later, DeSoto magazine had an ad by a co-worker of the man who found the hubcap.  The co-worker was a club member.  Reconnected with the hubcap.  Happy.

After that, I marked my name and pnone number inside all my hubcaps.  

Buick limos with special hubcaps? Believable.  The long wheelbase Mopars had heavier duty running parts, including heavier hubcaps. 

[Andydodge]

I was in a line with other cars from the hotrod club I'd joined in 1972, we were driving along minding our own business when a car coming the other way started swerving, luckily missing the hotrods in front of me but as I headed for the left hand side of the road I heard an enormous bang and next thing the Dodge was "limping"..........I made it over to the roadside, parked and got out to see that not only was the drivers side(RHD remember) tyre flat, the rim was pushed back almost to the studs and no hubcap...............and  no rear FENDER either.........lol..........the bolts holding the fender were all there each fender bolt holding a 1" square piece of metal fender......but NO FENDER.........lol..............after composing myself and finding that the fender AND hubcap had sailed over the top of the following hotrod(gave that member something to talk about for many years, lol) into the bush beside the road we proceeded to search for both.........found the fender but never did find the hubcap.....all four hbcaps had just recently been rechromed and the Dodge lettering repainted so I was not impressed by this loss..........the fender was a rightoff, half its original length and shaped like a pretzel it hung on the home garage wall for many years, luckily I had a spare wheel, changed the ruined wheel and tyre and we proceeded on our way to a club BBQ...........I have a photo taken of me standing proudly with the buggered fender however its in a safe place at present...........somewhere, I know not where.............lol..............andyd     

[Dodgeb4ya]

I think I'll write my hard line phone # inside of caps.

[Jerry Roberts]

I dab a bit of clear silicone adhesive in three places around the edge of my hub caps , I haven't lost one in several years now that I use this method . 

[RNR1957NYer]

18 hours ago, Dan Hiebert said:

We were driving along Tonawanda Creek in western NY on a sunny Sunday a few years ago .....

Dan, never thought I'd read "Tonawanda Creek" (or as we used to call it "the Crick") in a post.  I grew up 50 yards from the Tonawanda, in Batavia.

[Pete]

I used to lose my right front hubcap with too much regularity when I hit a pothole. All the other caps held on fine. I tried bending the retaining clips on the wheel but it didn't seem to help. I asked my shop guy to do something about it when the car was in for other work. He bent the clips and I haven't lost one since. And that cap is not harder to get on and off than the others.

Pete

 

[Dan Hiebert]

On ‎10‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 2:29 PM, RNR1957NYer said:

Dan, never thought I'd read "Tonawanda Creek" (or as we used to call it "the Crick") in a post.  I grew up 50 yards from the Tonawanda, in Batavia.

You were way out close to where it started!  My agency did a lot of business with the Federal detention facility there.  We lived in Wheatfield, only about 1/2 mile from "the Crick".  (More of a river by the time it got to us, and part of the Erie Canal.)  I'd run along it every Sunday, and we'd take a spin in the old Dodge along it on occasion, the State tended to keep that road in pretty good shape.