Hubcap
Encyclopedia
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
wheel
Wheel
A wheel is a device that allows heavy objects to be moved easily through rotating on an axle through its center, facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load, or performing labor in machines. Common examples found in transport applications. A wheel, together with an axle,...
that covers at least a central portion of the wheel. Cars with stamped steel wheels often use a full wheel cover that conceals the entire wheel. Cars with alloy wheels or styled steel wheels generally use smaller hubcaps, sometimes called center cap
Center cap
A center cap, or centercap is a decorative disk on an automobile wheel that covers a central portion of the wheel. Early center caps for automobiles were about three inches in diameter and primarily served the purpose of keeping dirt away from the spindle nut and wheel bearings of vehicles. Center...
s. Alternatively, wheel cover refers to an accessory covering an external rear-mounted spare tire
Spare tire
A spare tire is an additional tire carried in a motor vehicle as a replacement for one that goes flat, a blowout, or other emergency...
(also known as a spare tire cover) found on some off-road or survival-type vehicles.
History
The first hubcaps were more commonly known as dust or grease caps. These caps threaded onto the center hub on the wood, steel, or wire wheel. These were made from the beginning to 1932. Pre-1915 were all mostly made of brass that was nickel plated. The 1920s were all mostly aluminum. Grease caps off of the wire wheel brands such as Houk, Hayes, Frayer, Dayton, Buffalo, House, Phelps, Pasco, Rudge Whitworth, Budd, and Stewart are some of the hardest to find. When a customer went to buy the wire wheels, the make of the vehicle would be stamped in the center. In the 1927 to 1928 time, the first snap-on center caps were being made on the wire wheels. After 1932, most every car had a snap-on style center cap on the middle of their wire, steel or wood wheels. Wire wheel center caps in the 30s had a spring-loaded retention clip system that has been used on many hubcaps and center caps on every style of car and truck to present day. Steel wheels in the 30s had retention clips mounted to the wheel that snapped into a lip in the back of the cap. Wood wheels were a special option. The caps on these had a large chrome base that mushroomed up to another smaller chrome base that would have the emblem on the face. The "stem" up to the second base was usually painted black to make it look as if the top base was floating. These caps were usually made of brass, steel, or aluminum. In 1935 the first full wheel covers were being produced to fit over the entire wheel except for a small bit of the outer lip. Cord and Hudson were the makers. Cord made a plain chrome wheel cover that had a smooth top and holes in the side. The Hudson wheel cover was flat with a lip half way to the middle and the center would say "Hudson", "Hudson Eight", or "Terraplane". This configuration differs from the "knock-off" spinnersSpinner (wheel)
A spinner is a type of hubcap that spins independently inside of a wheel itself when the vehicle is in motion, and continues to spin once the vehicle has come to a stop. Being an attachment to the car's wheel, spinners operate by using one or more roller bearings to isolate the spinner from the...
found on some racing cars and cars equipped with true wire wheels. While the knock-off spinner resembles an early hubcap, its threads also retain the wheel itself, in lieu of lug nuts.
When pressed steel wheels became common by the 1940s, these were often painted the same color as the car body. Hubcaps expanded in size to cover the lug nuts that were used to mount these steel wheels. These hubcaps were typically made from chrome-plated or stainless steel. The next development was, as an option on more expensive cars, a chrome-plated trim ring that clipped onto the outer rim
Rim (wheel)
The rim of a wheel is the outer circular design of the metal on which the inside edge of the tire is mounted on vehicles such as automobiles. For example, on a bicycle wheel the rim is a large hoop attached to the outer ends of the spokes of the wheel that holds the tire and tube.In the 1st...
of the wheel, in addition to the center hubcap. Finally came the full wheel cover, which of course covered the entire wheel.
By this time, specialty wheels of magnesium or aluminum alloy had come onto the market, and wheel covers were a cheap means of imitating the styling of those. Plastic wheel covers (known in the UK as wheel trims) appeared in the 1970s and became mainstream in the 1980s. Plastic has largely replaced steel as the primary material for manufacturing hubcaps and trims, and where steel wheels are still used, the wheels are now generally painted black so the wheel is less visible through cutouts in the wheel trim. On modern automobiles, full-wheel hubcaps are most commonly seen on budget models and base trim levels, while upscale and performance-oriented models use alloy wheels. Modern aluminum alloy wheels generally use small removable center caps, similar in size to the earliest hubcaps.
Characteristics and design
Often a hubcap will bear the trademarkTrademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
or symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
of the maker of the automobile or the maker of the hubcap. Early hubcaps were often chrome plated, and many had decorative, non-functional spoke
Spoke
A spoke is one of some number of rods radiating from the center of a wheel , connecting the hub with the round traction surface....
s. Hubcaps were immortalized in the Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
styling of the spire of the Chrysler Building
Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco style skyscraper in New York City, located on the east side of Manhattan in the Turtle Bay area at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Standing at , it was the world's tallest building for 11 months before it was surpassed by the Empire State...
in midtown Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
.
Part of the lore of hubcaps is that on bad roads they have a tendency of falling off due to hitting a bump. Center cap
Center cap
A center cap, or centercap is a decorative disk on an automobile wheel that covers a central portion of the wheel. Early center caps for automobiles were about three inches in diameter and primarily served the purpose of keeping dirt away from the spindle nut and wheel bearings of vehicles. Center...
s, however, fall off less frequently than older full wheel covers, which were often quite heavy. In the southwest of the U.S., and in Mexico, there were lots of automotive garages whose walls were decorated with all sorts of hubcaps that had fallen off in the vicinity; they were often for sale. This problem persists today in spite of the many different retention systems that have been engineered. Hubcaps generally use either clip-on retention, where some type of spring steel clip (or plastic clip in the case of plastic hubcaps) engages a groove in the wheel; or bolt-on retention, where a threaded fastener retains the hubcap, or a plastic washer attached to the lugnut itself holds the hubcap on. Honda and, to a lesser degree, Hyundai tend to use the latter system. Clip-on hubcaps tend to pop off suddenly when the wheel impacts a pothole or curbstone, while bolt-on hubcaps are more likely to vibrate loose over time, and tend to rattle and squeak. To prevent loss, many owners attach plastic wheel trims to the wheel itself using an electrical zip tie
Cable tie
A cable tie, also known as a zip tie or tie-wrap , is a type of fastener, especially for binding several electronic cables or wires together and to organize cables and wires.-Design and use:...
, which are sold in a silver colour for this very purpose. Enterprising manufacturers also sell a small kit consisting of spare zip ties, a pair of cutting pliers and latex gloves to allow a trim thus secured to be removed easily in the event of a puncture.
In the U.S., during the age of custom car
Custom car
A custom car is a passenger vehicle that has been modified in either of the following two ways. First, a custom car may be altered to improve its performance, often by altering or replacing the engine and transmission. Second, a custom car may be a personal "styling" statement, making the car look...
s (1950s–early 1960s), decorating one car with the wheel covers from another was common. Two very desirable wheel covers were those of the 1950 Cadillac
Cadillac
Cadillac is an American luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors . Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mostly in North America. Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind fellow GM marque Buick and is among the oldest...
(called the "Sombrero
Sombrero
Sombrero in English refers to a type of wide-brimmed hat originating in Mexico. In Spanish, however, it is the generic word for "hat", which originates from "sombra", meaning "shade"....
") and that of the 1953 to 1955 Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile was a brand of American automobile produced for most of its existence by General Motors. It was founded by Ransom E. Olds in 1897. In its 107-year history, it produced 35.2 million cars, including at least 14 million built at its Lansing, Michigan factory...
, which resembled a huge, three-tined spinner. Aftermarket
Aftermarket (automotive)
The automotive aftermarket is the secondary market of the automotive industry, concerned with the manufacturing, remanufacturing, distribution, retailing, and installation of all vehicle parts, chemicals, tools, equipment and accessories for light and heavy vehicles, after the sale of the...
suppliers included the "Mooneyes" brand (named after the firm's founder Dean Moon
Dean Moon
Dean Moon , raised since childhood in the Norwalk area of southern California, he was an avid "car guy" and mechanic heavily involved in dry lakes racing and speed equipment with a keen sense for business...
) hubcaps and wheel covers that were some of the first independently offered for hot rods and custom cars.
Another variant of the wheel cover is that commonly manufactured by the German wheelmaking brand BBS
BBS Kraftfahrzeugtechnik AG
BBS Kraftfahrzeugtechnik AG is a high performance automobile wheel design company headquartered in Schiltach, Germany. BBS serves North America through BBS of America, located in Braselton, Georgia, adjacent to the Road Atlanta Racetrak...
. These are attached on to the wheel first, then bolted on as if the driver/mechanic is bolting the wheel to his car in the manner of changing their wheel. Commonly made from aluminium, they are designed to distribute airflow, therefore generating downforce depending on the shape. Thus, these wheel covers are functional rather than merely decorative. Although they have been used since the 1970s, a carbon fiber
Carbon fiber
Carbon fiber, alternatively graphite fiber, carbon graphite or CF, is a material consisting of fibers about 5–10 μm in diameter and composed mostly of carbon atoms. The carbon atoms are bonded together in crystals that are more or less aligned parallel to the long axis of the fiber...
variant has found its way into Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
when it was used by Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari is the racing team division of the Ferrari automobile marque. The team currently only races in Formula One but has competed in numerous classes of motorsport since its formation in 1929, including sportscar racing....
whom BBS supply its wheels to.
Non-rotating hubcap
A non-rotating hubcap retains the same orientation even when a vehicle is in motion. This allows for messages or advertisingAdvertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
to be placed on the hubcap and be read even while a car is moving. Non-rotating hubcaps with advertisements may be found on race cars, taxi
Taxicab
A taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice...
s, commercial vehicles, industrial machinery, buses, and golf carts.