Hubcap info

[uncleaud]

In a previous post I mentioned that I had lost a hubcap on my 47 Saratoga. After searching the roadside for a spell and posting in the classifieds here ,I finally gave and turned to eBay. I found one there for a 47 Windsor that looked the same and measured 11 inches like mine. Price ws fair so I pulled the trigger and bought it. Got it this week end and tried to install it today. It doesn't fit! It appears the opening on the back is 3/8 at least smaller than the hubcap on the rear tire. I've tweaked the clips as much as I dare. Are there that many different 11 inch  hubcaps?

[soth122003]

I think it's the size of the lip on the backside that the clips lock into that might differ.  IMHO.

 

Joe Lee

[vintage6t]

6 hours ago, uncleaud said:

It doesn't fit! It appears the opening on the back is 3/8 at least smaller than the hubcap on the rear tire.

 

Smaller is better than larger. Smaller has the possibility of trimming the lip to fit the wheel.

[joecoozie]

I was looking for one for you but I could not find one.

I apologize for that.

Don't know why an 11" cap won't fit.

[uncleaud]

I will do some more investigating today. Took the cap of the rear wheel and it wouldn't snap on the front either, and the new cap didn't like the rear wheel. I'm guessing I've must have an odd ball rim that I can't see the difference in with my old eye. Maybe why I lost the other hubcap you think??

[Ivan_B]

1 hour ago, uncleaud said:

I've must have an odd ball rim that I can't see the difference in with my old eye.

Can you, maybe, post some large pictures of both caps and rims here?

[harmony]

4 hours ago, uncleaud said:

I will do some more investigating today. Took the cap of the rear wheel and it wouldn't snap on the front either, and the new cap didn't like the rear wheel. I'm guessing I've must have an odd ball rim that I can't see the difference in with my old eye. Maybe why I lost the other hubcap you think??

I have a 1948 Windsor. I have the wide version of beauty rings on the wheels.  The set of beauty rings that came with the car needed replating.  The cost was ridiculously expensive.  I found another set on line so I bought them.  Where the inside diameter of the beauty ring met the rim on my original set, it was a tight fit ( no gap).  On the newly purchased set there was about a 1/4" gap.   

I had also bought a used set of rims because I was getting new tires.  The existing tires were old and had minor sidewall cracks.  But they had great tread.  So I wanted to keep them as spares mounted on rims.  So to my surprise the second set of beauty rings fit tight on the newly purchased used rims, but now the hub caps wouldn't push on.  So even though the rims look identical, the profile is slightly different.

So with all those variables I just mentioned, I think there were at least 3 different rims available, during that time period, for the various Chrysler, Dodge, Desoto, Plymouth cars that took the 11 inch hubcap.  My discovery also indicated that various wide beauty rings were produced to fit the various shaped rims.   Beats me why different rims were made, because there is nothing on the car that even comes close to that part of the back side of the rim, so why bother making various shapes??? 

So as you mentioned, I think perhaps it's your rims that don't match your hub caps. 

Edited August 15, 2023 by harmony

[Ivan_B]

1 hour ago, harmony said:

so why bother making various shapes

They could've easily had those parts produced at a few different factories. Since back in the day the stamps were produced manually, I think you could've had some variation in shape. Or, these are simply the same size but different rims altogether.