Widened '60's hubcaps for trucks with '70's power disc brakes

[69timemachine]

I just finished making a set of the '60's dog dish caps fit the front of my '74 disc brake swapped truck. After the conversion, the '60's caps would no longer pop on, so I ran a set of '70's FOMOCO caps. While I really like the '70's caps, my '69 had the '60's caps originally, so I wanted to at least have the option of running some. I trimmed the mounting ring off of a pair of the '60's caps and trimmed the mounting ring + 5/8" off of a pair of '70's caps, then had a friend MIG the '70's ring onto the '60's cap. After grinding the welds down, getting the caps sandblasted, minor body filler & sanding, primer, and paint, they were finally ready for me to hand-paint all the black details back on. Just that alone took 1.5 hours per cap, times four! I probably have 25 hours tied up in these caps, but they look great in the end!

[69timemachine]

More pics.

[69timemachine]

More pics.

[69timemachine]

As you can see, it's pretty amazing how different the truck looks with the '60's caps rather than the '70's caps. I'm happy with it!

[cep62]

Those are my favorite style of dog dish (second is the '64 spinner style.)
I'm suprised they don't fit, but then I've only put them on 4WD and cut the centers out.
I'll have to try them on my '93 2WD .

They're also availabe in stainless steel.

Another thought is thin spacers behind the wheel. they make different sizes.
I bought so 1/4 inch ones for tierod clearance on a '78 Bronco with later model 8" wheels.

[HIO Silver]

More pics.

Nice work there 69timemachine! I got lucky and found some caps off a '70 Econoline and two of them were shallow and two were deep. No mods were required.

Btw, here's a tool I came up with to remove the caps without marring the wheel or because of deep rear wheels:



I can TOTALLY relate with the time it takes to renew caps. I started out with this whole lot for $10 at the swap meet.



After hours and hours of prep and painting, adifferent take on F250 caps... got inspiration from the hood emblem of the Slicks. One of 'em is gonna become a shop clock due to rust-through.

[69timemachine]

Thanks cep62! In having this discussion on the Facebook page, some had said that their '60's caps fit with disc, but I don't know how. Maybe they decided to not run a grease cap? Or maybe they used the disc brake conversion available through LMC, etc, which uses the stock drum spindles to convert to disc? I had thought about spacers, but since I was going to be in for the blasting and repainting of the caps anyway, then what's a little more time spent cutting, welding, and grinding? At least I only had to build two, and got to keep the rear caps stock.

[69timemachine]

Thanks HIO Silver! I like the tool you made for hubcap removal! I use an old pry handle that I half-mooned and dulled the point on, then slit some fuel hose and slid over the shank where it contacts the painted wheel. It works ok, but I may build something a little closer to your design. Those caps you restored look really good!

[69timemachine]

Here's my tool I mentioned. It works good on the deep wheels, but there's always room for improvement.

[69timemachine]

HIO Silver - I like your dog dish removal tool, but does it work well on the deeper steel wheels such as 15x8" or 15x10"? I borrowed the basic concepts of yours and slimmed it to reach into the deeper wheels easily. Here's the one I made this week.

[69timemachine]

A few more pics.

[HIO Silver]

It works on my 15x8s with 4-inch BS. It's designed to leverage against the rubber-covered "foot" and the center section to wheel seam instead of using the wheel rim as the pivot.

Consider a longer tongue?

[69timemachine]

I had it longer to begin with, but that moved the pivot point far enough back that the handle would hit the wheel, severely limiting travel. This shortened version seems to work well. It usually pops right off, but if it doesn't quite pop off on one side, then give it another pry on the opposite side, and the cap pops off.

[HIO Silver]

Well, I guess whatever works ya know?

I'm sure both of us will come up with a version 2.0 at some point. Me probably sooner... I want to cut off the working end and put a crook in its neck like you have. The "thing" I made it out was a battery hold-down bracket my brother had fabbed up for a different vehicle. It was scrap til this need for a tool came calling....

[69timemachine]

The original tool I made is ok, but it requires you to give a fairly hard swing to pop the cap off. Last time I pulled my '70's caps, I didn't realize the tool had shifted and I put a pretty ding into my cap. After that, and after seeing yours, is when I finally decided to come up with a better tool, especially after spending so much time on the new '60's caps! I'd sure hate to ding them!