The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Original AD hub caps on Modern Rims

So Old Blue, my 3600 Stovebolt, came complete with four pretty badly worn tires on the
original split rims and all four original hub caps. Pretty common with most of these original
medium duty Stovebolts
Since I’m a 95% purist, I spent a couple days breaking down those darn split rims
took them to the sand blaster, painted them with some good PPG enamel and bought
four new bias ply’s, tubes and flaps and let the tire dealer mount and balance them for me.
The were used to the split rims because they did a lot of farm and truck business.
Well᠁..after that first year of tooth jarring startups because of the bias ply’s, I started my
search for some new rubber. New rubber meant the split rims had to go, so᠁.I found some
’80 GM 16.5” rims and mounted up some new Cooper radial’s. What a world of difference
in the ride. Problem now was I couldn’t use my original hubcaps with these modern
GM rims.
Easy solution, I got clips from one of the vendors and along with some round stock
standoff’s I turned in the lathe and some 10-32 screws, I mounted the clips. They worked
great for almost 10 years, never lost a hub cap.
But᠁..I still felt the ride could be a little better and tires for the 16.5” rims were by now
getting pretty hard to find and were quite limited, besides, if I had a blowout it would be
a real pain in the ars finding a new 16.5” tire.
A search of the junk yards turned up four nice ‘96 Ford F-250 16” rims, which after blasting
and painting with Valspar (never do that again, took forever to cure), I went all in and put a
good set of Michelin radials on the old gal. Now she finally was riding nearly as nice as my
new Silverado. A new problem though᠁those original hub caps again. This time it twern’t
gonna be as easy. The land between the lug holes was tapered 14° on these Ford rims, so
I couldn’t just use a simple stand off like on the Chevy rims.
A couple of evenings at the drawing board and I came up with a 14° wedged standoff.
Got one mounted up today and I’ll finish them off tomorrow when my special screws get
here.
So here’s the original ¾ ton hub caps mounted on late model tubeless rims.
Scroll thru a few pix of the wedges if you’re interested in using the idea for your
ride:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/167852800/large
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/167852801/large
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/167852802/large
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I like yours much better than mine. Although they have been trouble free for years having a mechanical connection is to my liking. Mine are rare earth magnets epoxied to the wheel covers (hub caps) and iron, not steel discs on the front hub caps and rear axle centers. Thought I might need alignment pins but this turned not needed. Getting the spacing right was a pain and each cap is position specific. One has to pry HARD to get them off. Yours are beautiful.

You're only a 95% purist now, Denny? When did that change? You used to be 100%!
You must be slowing down in your old age!

Thank you Mr Graham.
I am slowing working toward exactly what you did. I was trying to figure out how to get around that taper. Your pictures help greatly.

Nice solution.

Another option is make new spring steel clips with the correct shape for the unique application.
Start with annealed spring sheet stock and have them heat treated if you can't handle that part in house.

If anyone uses aftermarket wheels (Wheelsmith, Wheel Vintiques, etc.), Wheelsmith will modify your caps to fit any style of wheels they sell. I used Wheel Vintiques Artillery wheels, which I knew my repop GMC caps wouldn't fit. Wheelsmith modified my repop GMC caps and they fit very snug, I'm very happy with them.

Just another option. Cool solution, Denny.

Nice job Denny.

John

Real nice, as usual, Denny

Denny, what is that piece I see between the wedge and the wheel? Wood? Rubber? Gasket? Optical conclusion?

What cha don't see ya don't need to know about it Rich. So I can hide 5% of my restored Stovebolt and no one
is the wiser.
Phill, just get some 5/8 square aluminum bar from McMaster and cut your wedges 1 3/4" long and at 14°. That
should put them pretty close, although you may need to shim them or touch them on a belt sander. You can
stuff a camera inside from the back and snap a picture to see if the locking lip is engaging fully in the clip.
If you have chevy rims.....then all you need to do is make a standoff from some alum round stock with a 3/16"
hole drilled thur it.
Tried that 10 years ago Grigg. Got some spring steel from McMaster and made a whole batch of taller clips
for the Chevy rims and tried heat treating them myself. Lacking a good oven some got to hard and I couldn't
draw them back to a temper some just didn't get hard enough. After a lot of frustration I settled on the factory
made clips from the vendors and a few simple standoffs. They've held great all these years and the caps
snapped on and off just like on the original rims.
Leather shims Bart. The original 3600 caps have a little over 9/16 locking lip and the reproduction caps are a
little under 1/2" so you have to shim them different. The leather also conforms to the slight radius on the boss and make the wedge sit good and solid. I use 10-32 x 1 T25 Torx head screws with nylock nuts on the back side
and they sit rock solid.
dg

Denny,
Thanks for the tip on the square stock. I have the same F250 wheels so I will follow your lead on this to make my Chevy caps work.
Thank you for all your great tips and innovation.

HOLD ON!!!! This is like the Never Ending Story......gotta give a warning to any of you guys
driving a big Bolt and trying to fit original hub caps to modern wheels.
I've got wheel spacers on the front of my 3600 and in between the lug studs there is a counter
bore where the spacer bolts to the original lugs. Because of this, there isn't a clearance problem
for the hub cap clip nuts on the back side of the wheel rim. But....the back wheels bolt flat to the
drum and a nut or portion of the thread that sticks thru the nut will keep the wheel from seating.
So......It's necessary to run the screws in from the back side and use the nuts outside.
Ask me how I found this out???? As I wrestle with the bunged up 10-32 threads on the back
side of the RR wheel.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Can you drill and tap the wheel for 10-32 and not use any nuts, and nothing poking out the back?

I removed some clips from original wheels recently to have everything powder coated nicely, plan to reattach with 10-32 stainless button head or round head screws. In my case also need to install helicoils because rivet holes were a little large to just tap.

That was my first thought Grigg. Don't know how thick your rims are but the
Ford 3/4 ton rims are only about .100". Hard to tell exactly because it varies
depending on where you are measuring since they have a lot of contour and
stretched areas. That would only give me a little over 3 threads in the
best case scenario.
I used Torx pan head screws and that leaves plenty of room on the back side of
the rim for a flush mount. Remember now....we're talking about the
Ford 3/4 ton rims from the 90's. I think all the rims I found have a
stamped mfg. date of '96.
Denny G
Sandwich, IL

Got it,
I was working with old GM rims, they're quite thick where the clips were riveted in, plenty of meat for a 10-32 screw.

I bet you could get by with two screws holding on your adapter block if there's room, 0.100" is likely enough meat in that case.

Much easier for me, to just run a machine screw and safety nut it.
But.....there's always a dozen ways to approach a problem, to each his own.
Denny G
Sandwich, IL