The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Art Deco Hub Caps ?'s

Well I learned an expensive lesson today. I bought 4 hub caps today that looked like new but were very dirty. 2 were a lot shinier than the other 2 but I thought that they just had more over spray on them than the others since he paints in the shop. I got home and started polishing and the 2 better ones shined like new money and the original blue and red look awesome. The other 2 didn't polish up at all. I don't get it, they all 4 look like stainless but the 2 dull ones almost look like dull wore out chrome. I guess there are 2 different kind of these caps. I can chalk this loss up to inexperience. I'm usually more careful about buying this old stuff but today I got stuck. I guess on the positive side I have 2 that look like new ones but probably paid too much for them. I guess I'll put the other 2 on e-bay and try and re coop some of my money.

Mike

Are all outer shells of the '41-'46 hub caps made out of stainless? I tried polishing these 2 dull ones again on the bench grinder with the buffing wheel. They look to be stainless around the edge where they're crimped but they can't be. I've polished a lot of stainless over the last few years and always end up with mirror finishes even on some bad looking metal. These 2 caps won't even come close to polishing up.

Mike - You may have two stainless ones and two chorme plated steel ones. I belive the orig. caps were plated steel. the new repros are usually stainless.

You could sell the two steel ones or maybe have them chromed. Just a thought.

George