Hubcaps or Hub Caps?
Wikipedia says a hubcap is a decorative disk on an automobile wheel. True, but that’s starting the story in the middle. Long before hubcaps (one word, emphasis on the first syllable), there were hub caps (two words, emphasis on the second syllable), one of those terms that describes itself.
A hub cap is a small metal cup that covers the center portion of a vehicle’s wheel, the hub
The hub is the place where your wheels connect to your car’s axles, the long shafts around which wheels revolve. Hubs have always needed greasing to keep turning freely and with the least amount of wear. If you didn’t put a cap on the hub, some of the grease would be lost and what remained would be contaminated by dirt, debris, and moisture.
StreetMusclemag.com says the first hub caps were used on the wooden spoke wheels of early autos
Wooden spokes gave way to wire spokes that in turn were replaced by stamped steel wheels. Many hub caps snapped on with a reassuring click. Others were threaded to screwed on by hand or were bolted on with a wrench. All were easily removable for regularly removing old grease and replacing it with new.
It was a short step from there to incorporating designs into the hub caps
A few manufacturers saw an automobile’s wheels as a place to make their cars stand out from the competitors. Some added the car’s name or logo to the cap for all to see, at least when the car wasn’t moving.
And then someone got the bright idea of covering not just the hub, but the entire wheel
Marketers called them wheel covers, but most regular people continued to call them hubcaps. Designs were simple at first, especially the ones that came standard on lower-priced models. Wheel covers were made in so many varieties that only hubcap experts could keep up.
For a long time, Cadillac hubcaps were “the Cadillac of hubcaps*
The 1934 Cadillac is considered by experts to be the first car equipped with full wheel covers. They were made of stainless steel and held in place by a screw-on hubcap that fit over the wheel cover. Most credible sources agree that Cadillac was the car that established full wheel covers as works of art and symbols of luxury, immediately identifying the car as top-of-the-line.
Once hubcaps became elegant, they became valuable
And that’s when people started stealing hubcaps to dress up their own car and/or to sell. There was always a market for hubcaps because they had a tendency to come off regular production cars on sharp turns and when they hit potholes. Everyone who’s seen Bullitt knows the chase scene where the black Dodge’s hubcaps came flying off just before the villains’ car hit the gas pumps and exploded.
Moon Discs went viral in the late 1940s
Millions of young men came home from the war and the hot rod was born. Hot rods were usually cheap and lightweight older cars with newer and more powerful engines and some custom touches. High speed racers on the Bonneville Salt Flats used full, round, flat wheel covers made of lightweight spun aluminum to reduce turbulence so their vehicles could go faster. The most popular of these were Moon Discs, made and sold by a company still in business today.
Baby Moons were also popular
They were inspired by the cheap hubcaps that were standard on bottom-of-the-line new cars, but chrome-plated. The Baby Moon hubcaps were smooth, shiny, and smaller than Moon Discs. Hot-rodders called them dog-dishes because of their size and shape.
Hot-rodding came along and hot-rodders started racing against each other
Their hubcaps began to accidentally fly off the cars at racing speeds. When enough things had been broken and enough spectators injured, new rules mandated that racers must remove their hubcaps before racing. Rather than put them on and take them off over and over again, many racers began leaving their hubcaps at home.
Along came mag wheels
Made of magnesium, they were stronger and lighter than standard stamped steel wheels. Magnesium is a costly element, so most of the real mag wheels are used only on racing cars. Today’s “mag” wheels are more properly called aluminum alloy wheels.
The first mag wheels had “spokes” that radiated from the center hub to the outer wheel rim
There were five spokes, each of which lined up with the customary five lug nuts that secured the wheel and tire to the vehicle. The mag wheel/alloy wheel aftermarket got so big that the auto manufacturers took over, nearly abandoning the hubcap altogether. Alloy wheels were better-looking than hubcaps and dealers could charge more for them, too. Alloy wheels were so attractive and so closely associated with performance that the wheel itself became a thing of beauty and hubcaps started their slow slide. Below is a Cragar SS Wheel, about $1,200 for a set of four.
The last hubcap gasp came when manufacturers built and sold molded plastic hubcaps that were supposed to look like real mag wheels
The idea was to look great on the cheap. All that happened was that these ersatz “alloy wheels” didn’t look great at all. They looked cheap, because you could always see the real wheel through the “spokes” of the pretend wheel.
Try this
Next time you’re walking through a parking lot or around a community, amuse yourself and the kids by seeing how many cars with hubcaps you can find. Another thing to look for is the number of spokes on each wheel. You’ll probably see more cars with five spokes, followed by seven, six, and Bob’s your uncle. Designers who create five-spoke wheels often try to make them look as if they have 10 or 15 spokes.
Bonus
The americancarhistorian.com tells us that in the 1955, hubcap theft peaked when insurance companies paid out $17 million to replace stolen hubcaps. Some thieves stole hubcaps to put on their own cars, but most sold them to pawnshops, body shops, and fences. The ACH has many photos about hubcap theft on its website. Here’s one from Lubbock,Texas in 1956.
dmagazine.com has an article from 1977 titled The Hottest Item on Wheels: Hubcap Theft. In it, authorities say the main reason so many hubcaps are stolen is because they’re ridiculously easy to sell to fences, pawn shops, auto body shops, and used hubcap dealers.
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*The Cadillac of (anything) means the best high-end luxury
The term came into use in the 1920s, when General Motors Chairman Alfred P. Sloan decreed GM’s five brands would be steps on the ladder of upward mobility. Chevrolet was the least expensive of GM’s brands, just right for a first new car. Pontiac was a step up when you got that promotion or raise. Oldsmobile was a rung higher on the ladder of success, topped by Buick and Cadillac, the pinnacle of automotive status. The idea behind this product ladder was to offer five GM brands at different price levels so they didn’t compete with each other. That way, a customer could move up to better and more expensive cars while staying in the GM family.
Chili Palmer, an influencer, drove the Cadillac of minivans (actually an Oldsmobile Silhouette). In the final scene of Get Shorty, all his followers had bought their own Cadillac of minivans.
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The author is a researcher, teacher, and writer who looks at old things in new ways, sees the commonplace in greater detail, makes connections where others see none, and explains complex subject matter in simple, conversational language. More than 400 of his weekly articles are posted on this site.
