I’m workin’ on a '50, 3604 so it's no doubt, somewhat different than yours Don. I had three original chrome steel hub caps on the truck when I got it, dinged and rusted of course. So way back last fall I started back-ordering hub caps for it. One of the vendors finally came through a couple of weeks ago. Just another one of the curses of restoring a 3/4 ton vs 1/2 ton.
The original caps: Two full, double layer disks, that is, the grip ring is a full dish with the outer chrome dish rolled over it. In both dishes the material is .040" thick mild steel. The letters are embossed into the outer dish and the edges of the fonts are crisp and sharp. Up side, old fashioned high quality and sturdy. The downside, if dented can’t be straightened and re-chroming is very expensive and probably would give you trouble with out a lot of upkeep, especially near a salt air environment.
The replacement copies: A single layer, not as deep of a dish as the originals, but made of SS material and are only .028” thick. They have a narrow mild steel grip ring instead of a full disk (about an inch wide) with the outer dish rolled over it. Not a double layer as was the original. The grip rings were made almost 1/4” shorter than the originals making it very difficult to get them to grab the clips, they should have extended deeper into the wheel disk to make full contact with the tabs. The font has a very soft rounded edge not at all as crisp at the edge as the originals, probably to keep the SS from tearing during stamping because of the thinner material .
As usual, I’m some what disappointed with the quality of the copy, I really can’t bring myself to label these as reproductions as they look pretty good from a few yards away, but on closer examination, you can see they are not to up to snuff. I liked the idea of SS but wish they were a better copy of the original ones. Cost $50ea.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
