(first posted 3/9/2016) Following up on our road wheel discussion, let’s consider the wheel cover. Practically extinct today, wheel covers were just as distinct as the cars they adorned throughout the CC era. A step up from the lowly hubcap, they provided a combination of style and branding that reinforced the signals car manufacturers wanted to send about the cars themselves.
Once again, it was Cadillac that got the ball rolling, introducing steel wheels and full wheel covers on their 1938 models. And once again, it took some time for the rest of the industry to catch up, but by the 1950s full wheel covers graced all but the lowest of low-priced cars.
Some were so good, they were arguably better than the cars themselves. One of my favorites, on the 1961 Imperial displays a cool elegance sadly missing in Virgil Exner’s freestanding headlights and compound shark fins.
Others, not so much. Was there ever a meaner wheelcover than the ones introduced on the 1962 Plymouth? It’s as if the designers, having been forced to hack together the disastrous downsized B-body, just gave up. There’s a reason virtually every 62 Fury you see today is wearing dog dishes instead of these.
OK, so my interests, both hot and cold, seem stuck in early 60s Mopars. I’m sure you’ll have many, many more candidates to add, both good and bad.
The aluminum crap covers that came on my ’75 Ford Granada might just rank right up there. Ford was just starting to play with aluminum on mainstream production vehicles. Worked fine as a air filter housing, not so fine as a wheel cover. Pulled over many times to recover one that just flew off.
The “standard” wheel covers used on 1971 Plymouth Satellites, Dusters and Valiants. They look like much cheaper, less attractive versions of the 1962-63 Plymouth wheel covers.
My all time favorite wheel cover is from the 65-66 Impala SS (and would be again used on the 67 Nova SS). Could there be a more fitting cover for such a beautiful car? Notice though in this photo, the forward two have center areas slightly deeper than the ones in the rear? The fronts are 65’s, the rears are 66’s. Most people do not realize there is a difference!
I think GM wheel covers in the 70s looked the classiest.
I also liked the Benz color coordinated covers.
But my favorite was the 1978-83 Fairmont “turbine wheel cover”. They were plastic-but unless I touched them, they looked like alloy wheels!
I believe those were the first “alloy wheel look-alike” wheel covers that did not look cheap or tacky (though it was a cheaper solution than styled alloy wheels).
I always thought the 1957 Plymouth ones were among the best looking.
I always loved the Sport Wheel Covers that Chevy offered on the downsized ’77 Caprice and Impala. My Dad ordered his ’77 Caprice Estate Wagon with them. Unfortunately they liked to fall off, and he ended up with only one left on the car (which I kept hung up in my parent’s garage to this day as a remembrance of that car!) He replaced them with the base wheel covers which didn’t look as nice but never fell off.
These are quite familiar, the ’78 Caprice sedan that graced our family for 15 years wore these. Initially I was not a fan as I never liked covers that tried to look like road wheels. Eventually, I was won over. It helped that the standard Caprice cover in this era wasn’t particularly appealing.
We also has some trouble with flying covers. I lost the two rear covers gunning the car up an ice covered hill behind my high school. My driving notwithstanding, it turns out the wheels we bought to mount snow tires on were not compatible with the somewhat deep dish styling of the covers. My folks obtained a couple of OEM style steelies and all was well.
My personal favorite cover would be hard to pick, there were a lot of great ones. I’ll go with the author on some of the Imperial covers of the ’60s as that had occurred to me before I saw his pick.
These are one of my fav’s also. My aunt had a 1977 Monte Carlo with this style wheel cover, although in the place of the fleur-dis-lis, there was the knight’s crest. And, inevitably, she lost one in the early 80’s. It was replaced with a Caprice version, with the fleur-dis-lis…
Totally forgot they were available on the Monte for one year! Must have been hard to find a replacement if one was lost!
Pontiac’s Custom Finned Wheel Cover was always a great looking cap, too. I loved them on the full-sized cars, especially the Bonneville Brougham of the late 70’s.
Yes, but you had to look quickly before all the plastic fins broke off.
Then they weren’t so great looking..
LOL! I do remember many like that too!
Those fins were actually individual thin painted metal (aluminum?) fins that were each held into the main disc by bent tabs. Those things rattled like nobody’s business, until the vanes got loose and flew off after one too many carwashes. But when they were fresh, they gave off a really cool illusion as they turned.
Makes me wonder if these were pontiac covers on my grandmothers Olds.. I had never seen them listed as an option in the Olds brochures.
That’s a good one!
A good friend’s mom had a ’74 Grand Ville with those covers and I thought they looked pretty cool.
Yes! The earlier versions had a one-piece black PLASTIC “cage” that was melted to the stainless steel cover. Hitting one vane with the pressure washer too hard and the whole cover is junk. But they are beautiful.
’63-’64 Cadillac wheel covers are among my favorites.
You made me think of one of my favorites, the ’62 Cadillac. They did color keyed covers, perhaps the only ones Cadillac did in the ’60s.
Does this put Cadillac ahead of MB for early use of color keyed covers?
No, MB had been doing it at least since 1954.
I think those may be getting down to just “hub-cap”.
I’ve long wondered how those were painted. It’s amazing the paint stayed on, too, because I can’t believe anyone repainted them.
For a nominal fee – and on some models like Fleetwood Brougham and Seville no extra charge – Cadillac offered these beautiful Turbine Vaned Wheel Discs. They really dressed up your Caddy for not much extra over the base hubcaps (which I never was a fan of on late 70’s – early 80’s Caddys, especially the deVilles). And surprisingly they didn’t seem to be ordered that much as I never really saw them too often. When you did, it made that car seem so much classier than one with the base wheel covers. Should have been the standard wheel cover on deVilles as well IMO.
sad that real wheels weren’t an option
And the mid to late 70’s Datsun wheel covers must be the ugliest…
I had the same in mind!
I’m kinda thinking the same about those as the early saab turbo wheels posted in the road wheels topic last week – they match the car perfectly, therefore I’m not that horrified by them
Speaking as a former B-210 owner, I’ll second a “worst” vote on those.
Is the black paint highlighting *gone* or did this year/trim level never have it? Either way, that car’s crying out for some Wats or the classic ’70s five-slots or white wagon wheels.
+1
Those Datsun caps dented easily which made them look even worse.
These always reminded me of honeycombs….. And if a rock flew up and dinged one, who would ever notice? There were so many awkward lines and creases in the design.. Yeah.. terrible.. but highly recognizable…
Agreed. I’d forgotten all about them until you brought it up.
The B-210 ones are copies of the wheels on some supercar I think, but I can’t figure out which one.
Best
+1
+1. Like an alternate version of half moon smoothies. But they HAVE to have the trim rings, or theyre just dogpans on steelies.
Yes, I like this look, but not true wheel covers. The deep wheel offset makes it work. This is almost as good as Chevy “Rally” wheels.
worst. This applies to all wire wheel covers as far as I’m concerned.
Yep! Those aren’t the worst Ive seen, but pretty much all wire wheelcovers scream ‘cheap and no taste’. Real wires on the right car are classy, but hubcap wires reek of 80s era midwest GM cars owned byJerry Lundegaard types.
They can be OK when done right, this was my 87 Olds
But….but….Smithsonian!
What year did Ford finally stop offering wire wheel covers on the Mustang? I know they offered both the wires and the Fairmont turbines after the ’87 facelift. They also offered a rather hideous wire wheel cover on the early MN-12’s that looked even more out of place (especially on the T-Bird)
I think the option was dropped in 1990 or 1991, they’re in the 89 brochure: http://www.lov2xlr8.no/brochures/ford/89m_8.html But not in the 92 Brochure: http://www.lov2xlr8.no/brochures/ford/92mustang.html
They never looked right on the full blown composite jellybean designs especially, that’s for sure.
Mom’s ’72 Skylark had the factory fake wires. They always made noise.
With the advent of plastic wheel covers, most of them looked a bit crap, but Peugeot had several on the 405 & 406 which managed to look as good or better than many manufacturers’ alloy wheels.
I have strong recollections from childhood of Datsun being the kings of the awful wheel cover, especially those ones which looked as if they had taken a good wheel cover and fitted it by bashing it repeatedly with a hammer until it stuck.
Edited to say MG beat me to it on the Datsuns.
I never liked these Ford hubcaps. There was no rhyme or reason to the vehicles they chose to put them on. They came on late 70’s / early 80’s Fiestas, Mustangs, and LTD’s (with a lesser amount of fake lug nuts). Yet they were also used on Ford trucks until the late 90’s. I might have disliked them less if they were limited to certain vehicles.
Here’s the Mustang…
Then late 90’s F-250. Not much had changed to the hubcap.
By the way, not easy to find a pic of an F- 250 with the original hub caps.
I thought those were pretty homely. But then, Ford brought out THIS cheap garbage, making those vaned hubcaps look decent by comparison:
Those aren’t wheel covers on that Mustang (and possibly the Fiesta). Ford made alloy wheels and wheel covers with the same basic design, but IIRC, only the real alloy wheels were used on the cars, and the trucks got the wheel cover version.
I happen to think that the (real) wheels of this design were quite nice too.
Those are known as Ghia wheels in europe. I believe they are alloy wheels, atleast the Taunus and euro Granada had alloy wheels that looked like that.
The “Ghia wheels” were alloys. The Fiesta, Taunus and Granada Ghia models had them in the late seventies. Never saw an Escort or Capri with those rims though, although they were both available as Ghia IIRC.
Not sure if the offset allows the Ghia wheels to fit on Escorts, as the Mk III-V Cortina/Taunus Rostyle wheels wouldn’t fit on my old Mk I Escort without spacers. Turns out Escort Rostyles have a different offset, and yes I found out the hard way…
Back in the 90s I fitted a set of the Ghia wheels to my ’86 Sierra and they looked great, but the offset was such that they only fitted over the calipers if the disc pads were half worn and yes I found out the hard way again…
Now one of my worst. The 1977 Cadillac base wheel cover. Simply looks too cheap for a Caddy. Sorry!
For some reason the Lincoln Mark IV and V base hubcaps looked nice. Maybe it was because they weren’t made of a very thin, cheap material like the Cadillac ones.
One of the best – the optional “Sport” wheelcover on the 1966 big Plymouth. The hub with the fake lugnuts and the vanes were seperate diecastings that bolted onto the stainless disc. These were on the 20K mile 66 Fury III sedan I bought in the 80s. I took them off, cleaned and waxed them and still have them in the garage. They were too nice to go back onto a daily driver.
And was there ever a less inspired design than that on the 1960 Chrysler?
I totally agree!
My dad saved the hubcaps from his 57 Plymouth, they hung in the garage for 20 years after it got scrapped and I always liked them. Here’s Mom and Dad with the Plymouth in 63.
Very cool question! Just off the top of my head, the 1990-1991 Plymouth Laser hubcaps were pretty cool! They always reminded me of a CD.
Conversely, these circa 1991-1993 Dodge Caravan wheel covers always looked horrible to me. Too much solid section without holes.
These Caravan wheel covers were worse. One of the worst ever.
But these from around the same time are very interesting fake alloy wheels, but I don’t think based on any real alloy wheel.
I like the Laser hubcaps as well. I can’t remember if they had a tendency to fly off like those on other Mitsubishi products, though…
This 1990-1993 LeBaron sedan wheel cover
Always liked these on the early Chevy Monza, especially when color-keyed to the car. They’re plastic, but they were a pretty high quality piece, with good detail work. As mentioned earlier about the Caprice/Impala plastic covers, they had a tendency to eject themselves from the vehicle.
Always liked these on the Monza. Especially the color keyed ones.
Some of the best hubcaps were the final spinner caps in ’66 and ’67 before the feds took all the fun away in ’68. My favorites are the spinner caps on the ’67 Chrysler 300, ’67 Thunderbird, and the full size Dodge. Favorite non-spinner cap is the ’67 Fury turbine cap with that intricate 2-piece casting.
But my favorite of the entire CC era is the aforementioned ’61 Imperial Le Baron cap. 3 dimensional, impeccably crafted, a perfect blend of futuristic and formal. Extraordinary.
I really like these!
Is that a 70s Buick? Those were nice. They had some heft, and an unfortunate tendency to fly off in pothole country as I can personally attest.
The photo looks like a ’77-’79 Buick Electra/Park Avenue.
I do believe that is a 75-76 park ave or lesabre
The picture above is from my 1975 Electra but the same wheel covers were available on the 1974 Estate Wagon and standard on the 1974-76 Electra as well as on the on the 1974-76 Riviera (with a different emblem).
There was also a version with the Buick Tri-Shield emblem available on the LeSabre and Estate Wagon in 1977-79 (a fairly rare option). I have one of those with the Tri-Shield emblem too.
Here’s a 1979 LeSabre Limited equipped with these wheel covers, after 1976, they were not available on the Electra or Riviera.
These have always been my favorite, whether they are on a Mustang, Torino, or a F100.
Yep, always liked these. Not garish in the least, unlike many.
I have always thought that early Maverick hubcaps were ugly.
I liked these. But I didn’t like the rest of the car much!
Australian 72-73 XA Fairmont
I’ve always thought the ’65 Ford covers were awful…
Agreed. Plus these things tried running away their car at every opportunity.
These were just about everywhere when I was a little kid and they were so distinctive that it helped make the ’65 Ford one of the first cars I could identify. Perhaps this is why I love this cover.
My love is just a bit odd, I simply hated just about everything that Ford did in the late ’70s and early ’80s that involved 4 lug styling. Dividing a cover into quarters vs. fifths in the ’60s was generally not something a polite designer did, so I can understand your dislike for these.
I have to agree with you. I have always liked these. In fact, when the ’65 Ford was new and I was in high school I considered buying a new set from the Ford dealer for my ’55 Ford. I decided I couldn’t afford them so I settled for Baby Moons.
I can also see why others don’t like them.
These always remind me of the old tv test pattern.
ITT: The most intricately detailed, highest-quality pieces were the most eager to part ways with the car.
Too heavy? Details catch the air? Too much cost put into the design so they cheap out on mounting hardware?
These aren’t half-bad, either:
I always thought the hubcaps on our ’68 F-100 looked classy, but somewhat out-of-place on a pickup truck (pic is not of our truck).
Those look very similar to the ones that were on my Dad’s ’66 Galaxie. I wonder if they are the same cap. The car also had 15 inch wheels.
That out-of-place nature made the flossy Ford pick-ups of the late ’60s really stand out for their car like looks. I loved the Ford time warp with their use of older full-size car covers on later trucks. I believe those are ’66 Ford car covers.
The ’71-’72 car covers took on a life of their own on Ford trucks through the ’70s.
Absolute all-time worst? They were ugly, heavy, expensive, and prone to fly off.
No redeeming qualities at all, unless you liked the look. The first facelift of this ST141 Corona ditched them.
Worst? Easy: the early BMW E34 M5’s “turbine” wheel covers. (There are actually black 5-spoke wheels underneath, much like some 2000s Ford and GM sedans.) Sure, they were supposed to cool the brakes, but holy moly, they look cheap and hideous! Needless to say, they switched to a more attractive design.
(Dis)honorable mentions: wire wheel covers on 1980s compact cars – even Mustangs (who were they fooling?) and any wheel cover that falls off if you look at it the wrong way (1990s Mitsubishi and Nissan products come to mind).
Edit again: maybe the Mustang covers were supposed to be a throwback to the 1960s, but they still looked cheesy and out of place on the Fox.
It sure didn’t help that it made it look like the car had tall whitewalls instead of squat speed-rated tires. I remember seeing b&w shots of prototypes with these on and literally thought that they were base-model steelies with whitewalls to camouflage M5 prototypes.
I didn’t even realize these were hubcaps. I also thought it looked like the car had whitewalls.
Ive never liked hubcaps/wheelcovers by and large. For one thing, mag wheels are SO much better. And its the whole tall and skinny look with no offset or depth that I cant get behind. I always liked the design of these Mustang covers though. They look like theyre aping some kind of actual wheel.
I like those too. My dad bought a ’70 Mach 1 with these back in 1980. He quickly swapped them out for a set of Magnums, however. I remember that all the “lug nuts” on these caps had lug wrench marks on them. These were standard on the ’70 Mach 1 but you don’t see many with these anymore.
Those were my second most favorite, I thought for a very long time those were actual road wheels
In their heyday there were no alloy wheels, then aftermarket ones came out and certain cars like Pontiac Gran Prix’s started getting them. Pretty soon all wheel covers were fake alloys.
I always thought the dog dishes on cheap models in the 50’s-60’s looked awful, and still don’t get it when someone has a collector car with them. Full wheel covers were always far better and made the car look like it wasn’t some horrible stripper.
Mopar salt shakers never did it for me. They had a pretty ugly cap on the Duster around 72-73 too.
These?
I actually like those! Of course I’ve seen dual 1,000 times so of course I would haha
Or these? Both are horrible on the Duster/Demon especially. Too much fender, not enough to fill them out. Either would make nice wall art for the garage though….
Those are them. Thanks.
Look like they came off a Datsun!
I love those! Pure nostalgia for me, perfect for a slant 6 green Scamp or Valiant,
I kinda dig the look of base Chrysler 300s wearing these. Its simple, but dosnt look cheap. These actually have a bit of style going on.
A bit of ironic product (mis)placement going on there!
My grammas ’71 Coronet had these ‘ufo’ looking caps so while they aren’t stylish or pretty…I have a soft spot. Id like to have at least one as garage deco
The ‘Volcano’ cap! My parent’s 1970 Coronet wagon had ’em!
There are at least a dozen very nice wheel covers that I have always liked. Most are “Disk” like in design. Simple and nice reflection of light. I will post one at a time.
1956-7 Lincoln Premier
It’s awesome to go with the interior door handles.
I have never lost a wheel cover in 45 years of some pretty bad cars
and pretty bad driving!
1953-4 Studebaker
The beauty of these caps is that they are so plain that they don’t compete with the perfect lines of the Studebaker coupes. The perfect cap for such a car.
Buddy, you’ve nailed it! Just enough detail with the three short spokes and “gold” center that it has some interest, but not detract from the car.
Weren’t these reused on the Avanti, painted with a mag-wheel-like pattern?
Sort of. They did reuse the basic dies, but added another strike or more to indent the “starfish” pattern into the wheelcovers for the Avanti.
Bingo! Look great on just about anything. I think the ones on the Avanti were modified versions.
1957 Plymouth
’57 Plymouth — spectacular!
That reminds me, I always liked the ’62-63 Plymouth ones the author hates, but I liked the ones on my Sport Fury even better.
Liked the styled steel wheels of the 1970s Buicks!
1958 Dodge
Also looks better on a car.
These were often included as “custom” wheel covers on 1950’s AMT 1/25 scale model kits.
1953 Cadillac
Looks better on a car with wide white walls
53s are good, but I was always partial to the 52 sombreros
1961 Imperial
1975 Ford Elite
1964 Chevy Impala SS
1967 Buick Electra
1961 Cadillac
Especially beautiful with the body-color accent. I’m a sucker for color-keyed covers, which is why the classic Mercedes design in the lead photo also is appealing, but these are fantastic.
1957 Thunderbird
1952 Buick
Wheel cover on car
these are great, I have a set on my 58 buick.
1959 Oldsmobile
These are some of the cleanest design wheel covers ever. There are more, but these are the ones that come to mind.
I agree. The ’59s are really nice. Another one of my favorites, also from Olds, are those found on the ’63 Starfire and ’98s.
Great selections, Bill.
When I die I want to go to Hubcap Heaven!
Truly works of art. Today, ALL cars and trucks have spoked wheels. There is only so much you can do with spokes to make one wheel different in appearance from another. Like all cars being silver, another same ole same ole sameness – so boring.
Worst: The painted wheel covers on my 72 Maverick LDO. They only looked good when new. These covers were fragile and protruded too far; they quickly got scratched and pushed in by car wash rails and curbs. Every example I saw at the time around SoCal was damaged. The car was new in this photo and only days later I drove it cross country to move to LA, where the first trip through an automatic car wash damaged the covers. Not one of Ford’s better ideas.
The coolest ones that immediately come to mind are these that Chrysler used to mimic the Magnum 500s
And one of the all-time ugliest has to be the Oldsmobile flat-caps from the 80s. Way to ruin an otherwise great-looking car
+1000! Not only were they boring as sin, they were as rigid as foil. Any normal force to remove them would bend them so that they would then fly off at the slightest provocation.
Those were horrible. I think Olds knew their cars would sell regardless and didn’t care that those base hubcaps were cheap and ugly. Plus it forced you to pay for an upgrade! My best friend’s Dad bought a two year old Delta 88 Royale Brougham that was loaded to the max but had those hubcaps. He quickly got a set of the wires and it totally changed that car!
The number plate says it all.
Australian 69-70 Fairmont
Maybe not be a popular ‘worst’, but these which came on 4/5 80’s Caprices have always bothered me-
That is about as generic as you can get.
Those were bad!!
Not much to look at, but certainly better than the plastic cap that briefly replaced them. The plastic base hubcap on the ’91 Caprice (an optional upgrade on the 9C1) flew off with such regularity that GM gave free replacement sets of the old style metal caps to the PDs that ordered the plastic ones. The ’80s style cap also became the “dress-up” option for new 9C1s and would remain so (with a different center emblem) until the end in ’96.
Yup. The ’77-’79 Caprice wheel cover was a whole hell of a lot classier.
Not really in keeping with the theme, but after finding the wire hubcaps on my 79 Lincoln unpalatable, I found some (somewhat battered) replacements. I think that basic design is evocative of the turbine design that really smartened up the Continentals of the era.
Then wouldn’t you know it, I go and buy another car with fake wires, this time a ’92 Roadmaster. But the ones on this car actually suit it and they’ve grown on me.
I owned an ’89 Park Avenue with similar wire wheel covers as those above from your Roadmaster. However, the Buick wire wheel covers from 80-85 have pretty much been my all time favorite. I’ve owned 2 B-body Buicks (’82 and ’84 models) that had those. When those things were cleaned up and polished, they gleamed in the light as they rolled down the highway. Loved…
Those were Cadillac’s wire wheelcovers from the 80s with a Buick badge in the center.
Bingo – probably why I like ’em.
Lincoln Mark III hubcaps
Might be the same as what went downunder for the 1973 LTD and Landau hardtop, they stuck out a mile and were a very heavy hubcap
My 67 Mercury has the standard set of hub caps on it but there was a second option with a spinner. Took me a few years but I managed to collect four NOS hub caps without a scratch.
I have a 1966 Mercury Parklane Breezeway with those hubcaps (or very close), which look a lot like my 1967 Thunderbird spinner hubcaps. I like the recessed spinner on both.
Both 66 and 67 had them with one difference. The vanes on the 66 are argent in color while the 67 they are black.
Actually, the 1967’s vanes were argent and the 1968’s vanes were dark charcoal.
The 1964 through 1966 are similar to each other.
But, good catch.
No, the 67 were in black or dark charcoal as you call it. My 1967 Mercury brochure, right beside me, shows that cover. So that would mean two years black and a couple of years argent.
I was referring to the 1967 and 1968 Thunderbird wheel covers.
Yes, the 1966 Mercury was argent (or maybe with slight blue tint), and the 1968 was dark charcoal.
Dodge truck UFO’s.
It’s hard to go wrong with this for Worst, though like many things I detested back then it is oddly charming now.
The best is in your lead photo. A close 2nd would be the late 70s wire wheel cover from Cadillac, it looked so much more real than what had come before.
Datsun B210? I was just thinking of that one.
Someone else posted about these above! My grade 2 teacher had a B-210 with these wheelcovers and I thought they were ugly!
Being shorter, I remember how wheel cover styling was an important thing for me back then as I had a different point of view of cars! Family members thought it was funny when I was 3 years old and naming car brands by their wheel covers and their logos (when they had one!).
Although mine is considerably more dented, a DeSoto hubcap like this one is the pride and joy of my meager collection, more for its age and rarity than for any favorable aesthetics:
DERP! Almost forgot to snap a shot of the Plymouth cap i scored at the Portland swap meet for like $15. Goof garage swag.
Way cool!
One of the worst. It looks dented when motionless, and looks wobbly when in motion. 1964 Studebaker Gran Turismo prototype.
The 1964 Ford Galaxie wheel cover is nice (XL has tri-spinner) – has turbine vains similar to the 1957 Thunderbird.
1978 Cordoba is not bad (accept for the center) – looks good on the car.
One of my favorites too. This one better? (Dodge Palomino)
And rarely seen on a 1970-2 Barracuda these days.
We got these in Australia on the 1975 Valiants with a small centre cap held with 2 studs to cover the Plymouth Division lettering.
Swartz, you’re on glue; the ’62 Plymouth full wheel cover was very appropriate to the vehicles it came on. So was its immediate predecessor on the ’61, and its direct descendant on the ’63. It’s easy to rehash the perpetual haw-haw-haw-those-cars-are-stoopid-ugly-losers-hurr-hurr-hurr trope; it’s harder but a more worthwhile use of words to look at a design and evaluate its elements in their context. That aside, the ’61-2-3 Plymouth wheel covers are three of my favourites. I can think of many wheel covers a great deal less thoughtfully designed.
Another good one from that maker and era: the 1960-’62 Valiant “flying saucer” hubcap:
The 1962-3 Plymouth dish wheel covers are very nice and cleanly styled.
I’d also give a shout out to the ’60s-’70s Volvo hubcap. Stainless steel, gasketed(!) to the wheel, and affixed(!) with a bolt(!). Nicely designed, but extra-beautiful for its exceptional functionality. The lug nuts on an equipped Volvo never got rusty or grotty, no matter how ugly the weather or how salty the roads.
I think they originated on a Mercury Comet (?) but were used on the first Falcon GT in 1967, later part of the GS option pack.
Those look like model car wheels, cut neatly from the chrome sprue but not yet detailed out.
1965 Thunderbird standard wheel cover. I like these better than the ‘deluxe’ spinner style.
Always loved these lancer spinner hubcaps from 1959 Dodges.
As a follow up, I think it would be cool to do a QOTD on favorite steering wheel designs…. I’ve included 3 of my fav’s in color of choice….
1984/85 Buick Leasbre (also shared with Park Avenue)
How about we save these for when that question comes up? Can you wait?
have that same wheel on my 86 LeSabre Estate Wagon.
Yes, very attractive and it was always easy to see the instruments. Liked the hard smooth plastic Cracked.slightly after 10 years.
Some of the worst I’ve seen come from the Beretta and Corsica. They would’ve worked better on something like the Geo Storm, but not so well on the Corsica for some reason.
One of the best I’ve seen (because they work perfectly with the car and surprisingly blend well with many others) are the generation one Dodge Neon hubcaps. Specifically the “bubble buddy” ones.
White on a white car (iirc some red ones too), “wheel silver” with any other color.
I’ll nominate these for best and worst. Used on the early ’70s Cougar and Maverick. Best because they were pretty unique in the industry. Worst because the center cups inevitably looked like crap after a few years, and eventually fell out.
I have always loved the early closed Citroen XM wheel covers , just flat and closed with 5 faux lugs
These were cool. I remember dis assembling a set and cleaning the wires with SOS pads. They really looked great clean and installed on my 1970 Dodge Challenger back in 1975.
European readers surely remember Fiat Panda´s “Italia ´90 World Cup special edition” wheel covers. Hideous or genius?
Ack! They might make my eyes bleed less if they were on a (much) less boxy car.
I’m surprised nobody mentioned these. Sure, they are truck caps, far from rare, and the trucks themselves can get pretty rusty, but I’m still fond of them.
Here are the rare Chevy truck full covers from the late 1960’s. I cant find a picture, but 1990’s GM trucks also had a rare full cover option, in addition to alloys and trim rings with chrome caps on steelies.
The plain Jane, boring-look dishes on the left came factory on my Plymouth. Then I found a cool set of mid to late 60’s Barracuda wheel covers on Craigslist and put those on. I think these, with the slots and raised center cap, are some of the best-looking from that era. However, if I could have found some Fury wheel covers with the spinners (like the Impala SS), I would have bought those.
Holden “GTS” wheel trim, introduced in 1968. Australia’s first home grown trim.
Holden used rings under the hubcaps before, and Ford Australia went ( as usual then) to Daddy in Dearborn for their wheel trims and a whole lot more.
These wheel covers taught me as a kid that not everything is as it seems. I loved Monaros and I thought they were the actual wheels, I got to examine one close up when I was about 7 or 8, I still remember the disappointment when I felt the thin fakeness of them.
Easily Australia’s best wheel cover though.
I like the many variations of this design. Buick offered a Skylark spinner version in the late 60’s along with a trishield and a Regal variant in the early seventies. Turbine designs always look good to me.
This is the style that Buick introduced on the 1966 Riviera with spinners and on the 1967 without. The Corvette and Caprice later had the exact same wheel covers with different emblems. Chevy also used regular 1967 Buick LeSabre/Wildcat/Riviera wheelcovers on the 1969 models.
I can’t help but like the simple design of the 1973 Chevrolet Impala cover.
I absolutely hate this design…along with the 15″ base wheel cover of the 1975-1977 Cutlasses.
The color-matched painted MB covers still win. A friend has a ’77 SL in Maple Yellow with the original wheel covers. Classy.
1960 Continental nominated for “biggest emblem ever”.
What about some Oldsmobile Fiesta hup caps for the best ones? Especially the ones with the Saturns on them
My personal favourites of the disc type covers were the ones found on the 71-73 Electras and Rivieras. Simple, no rattles, they stay on, and they always shine up well.
I have general disdain for most, if not all, wire hubcaps because I have personally never owned, or knew anyone who owned, a set that did not squeak or rattle. That and they were basically impossible to keep clean.
I agree with you about the wire wheel covers! Noisy and hard to clean!
The simple, almost spherically round wheel covers/hubcaps on VWs up through about 1965 before they became flatter. Looked perfect on bugs and buses alike, and as iconic as the rest of the car.
Not the CC era, but I happen to love the charcoal-hued wheel covers on the Tesla Model 3 and Y, even though the first thing many owners do is pull them off to reveal the attractive alloy wheel hidden behind them (which costs them about 10 miles of range due to worse aerodynamics). I’m surprised this look hasn’t become a popular generic style for replacement wheel covers for other cars.
82-85 Cimarron alloys. See photo from Car and Driver review. Posted in CC Vintage Review on 12/30/20.
Among my favorites are these very rare optional wheel covers available on the ’80-’81 Chevy Caprice.
Even when new they weren’t seen very often.
1975-79 base Chevy Nova dog dishes, literally looked like cheap pie tins. I saw an old Nova today with them, and had usual dents. Not as nice as older Chevy dog dish caps.
As someone posted above, liked the ’73 Impala covers. Also like the ’71-’76 Caprice’s, usually differs each year. My dad had a ”67 Chevy pickup [in the ’80s] with ’77 Caprice covers, btw.
I will say one thing for the Mercedes-Benz full wheel-covers: They stayed on when you drove like Rudolf Uhlenhaut. I had a decade-newer VW with full wheel-covers that flew off on entrance ramps, just like the Detroit cars I started out in. The Mercedes could be cornered at any speed it could achieve without the wheel covers sailing off, even though the tires were only 185/70HR14 Dunlops with casings that moved around far more than the tires on the Jetta.
I wonder what the secret was to MB’s wheelcover attachment that held them on so firmly. Most Detroit wheelcovers had flimsy tension clips around the rim that, as stated, didn’t do too good a job of keeping them on for long.
This was famously highlighted on the classic Bullitt Dodge Charger that seemed to lose its wheelcovers around every corner, then they’d magically reappear back on the car in the next shot.
Did anyone else grow up with a local “hubcap place”? As in, a local garage that had a fence covered with a vast array of single wheel covers and hubcaps? There were two in Beaver County, PA where I grew up in the 1970s. You knew that when the inevitable happened and you lost a wheel cover without knowing it, you had to go over to the “hubcap place,” as everyone called it, and hope they had a match. Of course, my dad always owned Chevrolets with “Rally Wheels” (the universal term for GM road wheels) so it wasn’t an issue for us.
I’ve always hated the ones that came on my ’67 Impala. Especially once the centers inevitably go missing.
I’ve long hated the covers on the ’67-8 Eldorado–they ruin a beautiful car–but the ’69-70 are really boring. At least they don’t distract and detract from the car.
These 3 hubcaps posing as flying saucers in “Plan 9 from Outer Space” get my vote as the ugliest.
Rumor has it there was a Roadmaster on the studio lot missing 3 hubcaps.
True? False?
Worst: all full wheel covers
Best (non-alloy/styled wheel): center caps + trim rings on painted steel.
The 1938 Cadillacs might have been the first major American brand to have full wheel covers, but the ’36-’37 Cords beat them by two years if minor makes are allowed in the count.
https://classiccarcatalogue.com/CADILLAC_1938.html
Cord:
The 71-8 Datsun Z series simulation of a mag wheel was pretty bad. Worse though, was how it ended up on so many domestic cars with 14” wheels as an alternative to what they came with originally. This travesty was hugely popular in Los Angeles in the 1970’s.
A very corny looking wheel cover, in my opinion.